We recently got a chance to test out a few Chinese EVs in the US, despite that none of the models are actually available here. It gave us just a small taste of the variety and quality of vehicles coming out of the world’s largest EV market – and largest car exporter.
The Chinese EV market is flourishing, with a huge amount of models available in all different vehicle segments and price points. And the acceleration in sales has happened only in the last few years. EVs now make up about half of the new car market in China, whereas in 2020 they only accounted for about one in twenty cars sold.
This has come alongside a rapid expansion in available brands and models. There are hundreds of competing EV brands in China, with each offering their own slate of high tech features to try to compete in a cutthroat market. Chinese consumers have benefitted from this competition as prices have dropped due to the large amount of brands competing.
However, none of those Chinese cars are available here. Due to unwise tariffs, Americans have been locked out from buying Chinese EVs, restricting a source of competition that could help reduce ballooning vehicle prices. The net effect of these tariffs will be to increase pollution, increase vehicle prices, and lull American automakers into a sense of complacency that will leave the US further behind the rest of the world’s auto market. Although, our neighbors to the north may consider letting Chinese EVs in, so, stay tuned.
And to get just a small sense what American consumers are missing, we got a test drive in four cars in a variety of styles. (In contrast to US EV offerings, which are… basically all SUVs)
We got this opportunity thanks to DCAR STUDIO, which is part of Dongchedi, a massive Chinese car review channel. You may remember it from the incredibly impressive Chinese self-driving test where it shut down real highways to test driver assist systems with real cars on real roads.
It just so happens that DCAR has a few Chinese EVs in the US, and we got a chance to take each of them out for a quick spin.
We only had a short time in each of these vehicles, more akin to a test drive than a “first drive” review that we would normally do during a manufacturer drive event. But, for me, this was my first time driving any of the Chinese EVs that we don’t already have access to here in the US (i.e. the Chinese-owned Western brands).
There were a few similarities which struck out between the cars: some had off-throttle regen, but it was light, and none had true one-pedal driving (…or, at least, I couldn’t find out how to activate it since the UIs were in Chinese, and my translator couldn’t find it either). None had ADAS that I could test, because they’re built for China, and thus couldn’t activate any sort of driver assistance systems on American roads. All had extensive use of LCD screens (again, mostly in Chinese), and had available AI-powered voice assistants (a very popular feature in China) which we also didn’t get a chance to test.
So, here’s some quick thoughts on the four cars I drove: the BYD Yangwang U8, MG Cyberster, Bestune Pony, and Chery iCar 03.
BYD Yangwang U8
Our first EV is actually an EREV, an electric car with an engine in it which can be used to charge the battery, but using only electric motors for drive power. There’s been a trend towards these in China lately, especially among the gigantic land yachts typical of the luxury segment.
The Yangwang is solidly in the luxury segment, and it’s BYD’s attempt to create a halo car for its whole brand. BYD has actually been around a long time, prior to EVs, and was known in China for making taxis. This perception gave it a solidly boring, low-market feel to the Chinese consumer, and the U8 is an attempt to reverse that.
The car is big, expensive (~$150k), excessively leathered (all that leather, combined with the smell of gasoline which is a foreign scent to me, led to a stinkier car than I’d have liked), and packed with features and screens all over (and this was the only car with mostly English on the screens – the other three were all in Chinese).
Now, when I call the U8 a land yacht, I mean it literally… because the U8 has the unique capability of being driven while floating in water. Unfortunately, we were not able to test this capability (plus, apparently you need to bring the car into a BYD dealership any time you use this mode, to make sure you didn’t break anything).
Another highlight feature we didn’t get to test was the car’s ability to do a 359-degree “tank turn,” where it will spin in place, either kicking up plenty of dirt or leaving rubber everywhere.
When we got to the car it was at low state of charge, which meant the engine stayed on for the entire drive to keep battery charge up. This could have affected power delivery, because it felt a bit less punchy than I’d have expected of an 1,197hp car… not that I was racing it or anything. The battery is a 50kWh LFP pack with 112 miles of EV-only range (CLTC is the Chinese test protocol, and it is quite optimistic), which is quite small for such a giant vehicle, but that’s why the engine is there for backup.
The inside was quite comfortable, with plenty of space. The seats are heavily bolstered – and the bolsters are electric, and will “hug” you when you turn the wheel. I found this feature to be a little silly, because they seemed to move solely based on steering angle, rather than lateral Gs. This meant the bolsters grabbed at me even when turning at low speed, like in a parking lot, when this was entirely unnecessary. It should probably be scaled to vehicle speed, not just steering angle.
But also, you’re unlikely to take many turns at particularly high speed in this vehicle, because it feels incredibly tall. Despite a battery placed low in the vehicle, the engine and all the other creature comforts still make it feel topheavy. Maybe this is because I spend relatively less time in SUVs than I do in cars that don’t perform horribly, but it felt wobbly even compared to other recently available electric SUVs.
I make no secret of being an anti-SUV guy, so this car would not be my choice, as I think it screams “doing too much.” But, then again, it doesn’t really have to be anyone’s choice, as it exists more to be a halo car to enhance BYD’s luxury cred than anything else.
MG Cyberster
This thing ripped.
The MG Cyberster is a resurrection of the classic MG brand, which was acquired by SAIC, one of the Chinese “big four” state-owned auto manufacturers, in 2007. It’s a two-seat, two-door roadster… but don’t think of it as a lightweight, as it still tips the scales at about 4,100lbs (quite a lot heavier than the 2,800lb two-door, two-seat electric roadster I showed up in).
The Cyberster has 544hp and does 0-62mph in 3.1 seconds and 323 miles of range (CLTC). While we were only on surface streets and thus couldn’t really unleash the beast, this car was insanely punchy and felt like it wouldn’t have stopped pulling until quite high into the rpm range.
The car has a “super sport” button on the steering wheel, a quick way to switch the car into its highest performance mode (which swaps the car to AWD, even if you have RWD set in the settings… as I normally would, because, hot take: if it’s not RWD it’s not really a sportscar). When you press this button, the driver display changes modes to show more track-focused information like G-forces, timer, energy consumption, average speed, tire pressures, and temperatures.
For normal driving, I would probably keep the car in comfort mode at most times (despite too-aggressive traction control), as the pedal was a little too twitchy for me in the sportier modes. But since the super sport mode button is right there on the steering wheel, it’s easy enough to swap the car into higher performance mode at a moment’s notice and send your passenger for a loop.
That said, the car is not really a perfect monster. While powerful, it feels sort of like it can’t decide whether to be a sporty roadster or a grand tourer.
It’s a low slung two-seater drop top, and looking at it you’d expect light, RWD sportscar performance. But it’s quite heavy (heavier, for example, than a 5-seat Model 3 Performance… and even the iCar 03 SUV below), the interior is nice but perhaps overbuilt for my tastes, and the suspension is oddly undampened – when we hit a light bump, the car kept bouncing for entirely too long.
I think the car could be better if it committed to being more purely sportscar or GT – and, given the MG marque and the Cyberster’s intentional references to the classic MGB Roadster, I’d vote for sportscar. But if you want something that looks good, performs well (maybe after a suspension upgrade…), and has a few tricks up its sleeve, you could do worse for the ~$44k base price the Cyberster is on offer for.
Oh, and the doors go like this:
Bestune Pony
The Bestune Pony is the most adorable thing I’ve seen in my life.
This unbearably saccharine two-door city car comes in a variety two-tone mostly pastel paintjobs, sits on 12-inch wheels, and measures 118 inches in length – even shorter than a Japanese kei car (<133in). Because of that short length, it turns on a dime, and you can park it anywhere.
But behind those two doors, somehow, sit four seats, and all four of them are almost big enough to fit an adult human. As a 6 foot tall American male, the front seat was comfortable enough but had an incredibly high and upright seating position, leaving my eyes so high that I couldn’t really see out the rear window in the rearview mirror (which vibrated significantly while the car was moving).
The driver’s seat can be moved front/back but not up/down, so anyone my height or taller will have limited rear visibility. But, given the car’s looks and the market it exists in, something tells me they aren’t aiming for the 6-foot-tall-male category of buyer. Another hint at the market it’s seeking: the Pony’s trim options are named “playful,” “colorful,” “shiny,” ‘”smart,” and “petite” (I don’t care, I love it anyway).
Inside, the two-tone paintjob is carried through interior decor, with a cute but simple dash with lots of fun physical switches and dials on it. The audio controls look like a Nintendo controller. The drive mode selector is a dial. The pedals have “play” and “pause” symbols on them (and are positioned such that the passenger could easily reach them, so you might want to leave unruly kids in the back). Everything is in big, tactile plastic. It’s all very cute.
This small package comes with a comparatively small price, too. The Bestune Pony starts at just $4,800, but can bring that price up to $6,300 if you trick it out with upgraded tech options.
Upgraded trims get a large iPad-like screen in the middle. The screen (which doesn’t work when wearing polarized sunglasses…) has access to over-the-air updates and DeepSeek AI assistant, China’s answer to ChatGPT. Higher trims also allow a bluetooth phone-as-key system, something which many EVs in the US don’t allow at any price.
The 18kWh battery (with 138mi CLTC range) powers a disappointing 41HP motor, which can get you up to a top speed of around 60mph, just don’t ask how long it will take (some say he’s still waiting to reach 60mph, to this day…). Both battery and motor were upgraded for this model year. A slow charge takes around 6 hours, but “shiny” and “petite” trim options get access to a fast charge port that takes 1 hour.
It even has sport mode! In sport mode, you get slightly quicker acceleration (as if you could even tell), but also slightly weaker off-throttle regen. Off-throttle, we’d regen up to about 5kW in sport mode, and up to around 14kW in eco mode. I wish companies would stop making me choose between max acceleration and max regen – just give me both.
While you give up a lot with this car, it’s unbearable cuteness, fitness-for-purpose, and attractive price all add up to a package that I really wish I could have access to. Unlike the Cyberster, the Pony knows exactly what it is and does nothing more or less than is expected of it.
Something like this could be great in a city, a beach or retirement community, as a first car to get kids to school and back, etc. Heck, I’d almost even pay the 100% tariff (or whatever stupid number they’ve decided on this day of the week) anyway – even doubling the base ~$4,800 price, ~$10k is still cheaper than you can get almost anything, even used cars these days.
Chery iCar 03
This is your standard family mid-size SUV. Like in the US, China has been buying more and more larger vehicles, forsaking any reasonably sized vehicle for big, inefficient, poor handling, square SUVs, thinking that having a worse car gives you higher status or something. Sigh.
The iCar 03 starts at around $20,000, a perfectly acceptable starting price for a full-featured vehicle like it is. It may not have access to boat mode or tank turns like the Yangwang U8, but it’s marketed as a “hardcore” off-road SUV, and has drive modes for all sorts of varied terrain (which make goofy sounds when you switch between them).
It even has one available option that you don’t see too often: solar panels on the roof. On a chunky vehicle like this they’re not going to do a whole lot to give you range, but if you’re using the car for overlanding, it can help reduce energy losses while you’re out camping.
We kept the car in “sport” mode for the drive, as I usually do, because I prefer to have access to all the power the car has to offer. In this mode, the pedal was a little twitchier than I’d like, even with a middling 0-60 time of “just” 6 seconds from the 279hp powertrain. For practical driving purposes, it felt like it had as much power as I’d need.
I probably would tone down the drive mode for normal driving, as a twitchy throttle and a tall SUV don’t mix very well. The iCar felt a bit topheavy on turns, but the steering did feel quite nice in my hands and it handled well enough considering its tallness.
The iCar had ample space in the back, and an additional cargo box outside the vehicle to keep smaller objects that you might not want to bring in the car (dirty/wet things) or items you might want access to without having to open the rear hatch.
It also has access to an AI assistant, though we didn’t get to test that.
The iCar didn’t really stand out to me in any particular way, but I suppose it doesn’t have to. We didn’t get to test its supposed off-road cred, so perhaps that’s why it didn’t hook me in any particular way. But it did seem like a mostly competent vehicle with good features at a good price in the same numb segment that every freaking car on the road is these days, so I can respect what Chery has done here even if it didn’t stand out to me in any particular way.
The auto industry is moving forward, whether the US joins it or not
While this is a somewhat random assortment of vehicles, it gives us a small sense of what’s going on in China.
In the last few years, China’s EV market has flourished both domestically and for export.
Despite a classic American stereotype of Chinese goods being substandard, much of the world’s manufacturing, even of the most advanced products, happens there – particularly in the realm of electronics. Americans need look no further than what they carry in their own pockets to see the kind of advanced manufacturing the country of China is capable of.
But Americans have not had the opportunity to see whether these stereotypes are true in the realm of automotive, another of the most complex manufacturing sectors out there.
While we only got a short drive in these cars and thus couldn’t assess a lot of the little things that can make or break a vehicle ownership experience, there was nothing extraordinarily “cheap-feeling” (well, except on the Pony, but that’s the point) nor any hugely terrible points that stood out about these cars.
The Cyberster may have too-softly damped suspension, the U8 has a stinky engine (ew yuck), the iCar has a twitchy pedal in the mode we drove it in. Fine. These are quibbles we have with plenty of cars, made in China or otherwise. (and finally, *the Pony is perfect in every way, shut up, don’t you dare say anything bad about it, la la la I’m not listening*)
The overall feeling is that, at several price points and in several segments, China has a competent entry available. These entries are being kept out of the US, but not from other countries in the world, where buyers are being offered good, high-tech cars at low prices in the face of Western intransigence on EVs.
This growth in Chinese EV exports is fueling a transportation renaissance in some countries, including developing countries like Nepal and Ethiopia, who are getting access to more affordable forms of mobility that don’t rely on wasteful imports of oil. Imagine what a boost to a national economy it must be to suddenly reduce the amount of energy you’re wasting on transportation by a factor of five or so.
The rest of the world’s auto industries can react by refusing to acknowledge these trends and allow China to dominate the future of autos, or they can pick up the pace and compete. They – and I don’t just mean the US here, but Europe and Japan too – seem to be choosing the former.
We hope our short chance to test out these vehicles can help to convince anyone to take EVs more seriously, as seems to often happen to Americans who get a chance to see what China has to offer.
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