New Chinese Electric Cars: Do They Suck?

American's tactics: "If you can't compete, demonize it!"

Atto 3 owner/driver here. Driven over 6 months now. Still brings a BIG SMILE to me every time I drive it. Own a Mercedes C300( 2018). Atto 3 Quality and Comfort is equivalent to the Mercedes. But at 50%the price . Maintenance cost is almost ... ZERO . First Service was .... FREE. Some of my friends driving the Atto 3 for 1 year told me they Paid US$ 40 to replace the wipers at the first year service.. That is all. :eyes-pink-heart-shape:

My friend got a NIO and I drove it couple times, honestly, simply love it so much, the built quality is excellent.

Tesla Model 3/Y made in china have better built quality than Fremont made. At least in Canada this is the case.

Used to be suck, but not anymore, BYD make 8000 cars a day now. Owned the atto3 for 5 month, done 8000Kms, absolutely love it, quiet, smooth, comfort, safe and smart. Best car ever bought with really good build quality. Ordered a dolphin sport limited edition for my wife, the coolest hatchback ever.

I've bought three traditional petrol burning cars starting from ford, audi a4, mecerdezs e 300, and recenly switched to Nio es6 (which is a luxury ev brand in China.)I can tell you that it is a car that outcompete the majority cars that we know about. and I will NEVER switch back to traditional cars. it's got a long range battery, head display, solid and great chassie, and sheer driving pleasure. the maintenance fees and running cost is astonishingly LOW

I wouldn't say they suck. It's just the overall American perception of anything China. There's a lot of bias, bigotry, and prejudices against them. Nevermind that half the things people have in their homes are made in China. However, there are over 100 different Chinese EV brands, so statistically there will be a lot of crappy ones. The big named ones that you hear more about are definitely the better ones and are more on par with other well known world brands.

Time has changed. China built most of the world EVs and they are excellent quality.

This must be an eye opener for the Americans.

One thing to highlight about NIO is that they could swap batteries in 5 mins!

There's a difference between Chinese designed-branded and made cars vs. Chinese made cars. There are Western makes like Buick, Cadillac, Volvo, Lotus, Toyota, etc. that are sometimes Chinese made but aren't Chinese designed (though some have Chinese supplied platforms). Then there are the home-grown Chinese cars like NIO, BYD, XPeng and others that are Chinese bands. At any rate, yes, Chinese can build cars as good or better than in some Western countries and can build their own branded cars as world-class cars as well. Also, there are Western companies that are aiding the Chinese designs/engineering/chassis tuning. The Ora Cat cars are designed by an ex-Porsche designer. The Geely SEA platform's chief engineer is Swedish and some Geely China brands like Geely Auto and Geometry's engineering is coming out of Volvo and Polestar and CEVT based in Sweden. Porsche engineers helped design and tune the Xpeng 7's suspension. BYD has a joint venture with Toyota and while Toyota gains from BYD's expertise in BEV design, there are a lot of things BYD can learn from the biggest automaker on the planet. So, it's not as cut and dry as Chinese brand equals fully Chinese engineering or Western brand having no Chinese engineering when a lot of Western brands are using Chinese batteries, sometimes motors, semiconductor chips, and some collaborate with Chinese companies. Audi is looking to buy a platform from a Chinese company and Mercedes uses Geely's SEA for the Smart #1.

I deliver and collect cars in the UK and I can say the Funky Cat drives well, its comfortable even on poor roads and quiet on the motorways, very minimal wind and road noise. The handling is not as sharp but as a family car its a good option. The boot is on the small side, the lady in the dash can nag you and the Edition One battery size will be on the small side for some. I'm not an SUV fan but the BYD ATTO3 is a great package, nicely put together and a genuine range of 260 miles. The handling is good and it rides very flat even on tight bends. Again wind noise and road noise are noticeable by their absence even at 70mph. By comparison, noticeably better than a Q7. Oh and a quick correction on Smart: Smart is 50% owned by Geely now.

Omg....they r full of prejudice in their opinions. They seems ready for all the bashing on China products, but the actual quality and design left them speechless. They could even suspect money laundering scheme with Geely, Volvo and polestar. How ignorant and insulting.

Had the chance to drive quite a number of Chinese made electric cars, interior build quality and tech features are far superior than that to American and European vehicles be it electric or combustion engines.

Smart is owned to 50% by Geely which also has 10% in Mercedes-Benz. Geely owns Volvo and it's former performance company Polestar and also Lotus, London Taxi, 50% of Smart and some other brands like Lynk & Co. The Ora Funky Cat is the base of the next Mini EV and that will be build at Great Wall Motors.

Funky Cat is designed by ex Porsche designer and got elements from some Porsche models, like the light,lines on hood and side.

From the NIO ET5 there is also a station wagon coming. Called the ET5 Touring 😊 And you can choose if you want to buy or rent the battery. If you rent it, you can use a batrery change station. It will took 5 minutes and you have a 80% charged battery. Also they have just anounced that they will bring a 150 kw/h battery. And for example if you had the rent model for battery, you can change from 75, or 100 kw/h battery to the 150 kw/h battery. The battery is starting to hit the chinese market soon in their SUV. I believe it is called ES 6/ EL 6 (?) Depends on the market.

I went to China 2 months ago. The taxis there are all electric. Like to take different taxis, all made in China. There are many cars that can be compared to Mercedes-Benz.

Cool to see so many unique cars, the US market needs some more EVs

I am sooooo glad that Tommy and Alex teamed up over in England for these 'TFL/ABG' videos. Two great reviewers see so much and they make great content! - I have seen a few of these vehicles as I do watch some English auto content . . . nice to see them from the perspective of Americans; I have seen a few videos on the MG and the Funky Cat.