Car Owner Background

This is Xiaoxigua, the first-generation blue license new energy vehicle owner in Shanghai. At that time (2015), when there were only a few options, such as Jianghuai, Beiqi, BYD, and Chery, I chose the Beiqi EV160 with a range of 150 km under the national standard working condition. I also trained my “cotton feet” since I directly drove an electric car after obtaining my driver’s license.

“Xiao Wei, open the 101.7.”

This was the first sentence I said to the NIO ES5. Although it doesn’t have the adorable Nomi, the human-machine interaction of NIO still impressed me a lot. They can turn on the air conditioning, navigation, make phone calls, play multimedia, open windows, and even make restaurant reservations! (Search for nearby restaurants through the in-vehicle navigation system, and make reservations using Bluetooth for phone calls.) During the 5 minutes when I had the first encounter with Xiao Wei, I felt a little overly excited, just like a fool who had never seen a NIO before.

The built-in navigation system of NIO is Baidu Map, and its accuracy is quite high. Just that I’m not used to the sound of the navigation system, so I turned off the voice. When I need to turn at the intersection, the system will make a “ding” sound, which I feel a little bit uncomfortable with. After all, in the early days of the vehicles from Beiqi, there was no such thing as “intelligence”.

The NIO ES5 I test drove should be the Extra Innovation version, which also has lane departure warning and automatic parking. I didn’t dare to try the automatic parking since the parking space in my underground garage is not enough for this “compact SUV,” but the lane departure warning reminded me to follow the traffic rules when driving through the Central Ring during rush hours.

On the open North-South elevated roads and the outer ring, I tested the cruise control at a safe speed of 80 km/h, and the effect was perfect. I accidentally stepped on the accelerator to the bottom and reached 100 km/h. The accelerator is relatively soft. From this, we can see that the computer’s driving ability is safer than human driving. Assistance driving software is indeed a necessity.

The 360-degree rearview camera of NIO was something I needed to get used to in just 48 hours. The backup radar is sensitive without any problem, but the 360-degree camera is too realistic that it made me feel like I had lost the ability to park in reverse, and I became quite panic.

The rear trailing arm torsion beam suspension system made me feel as if the rear of the car was rising when I backed up. The leader told me that this was an illusion. After all, it is not the air suspension, and the shock absorber is not good enough. The noise of the motor is lighter compared to that of Beiqi, but the SUV’s wind noise correspondingly increased. However, the sound insulation effect is still satisfactory. As for the sound system, it is just average.

For me, who has been using the ECO mode to drive my XiaoBei for years, I did not feel obvious energy regeneration when driving with the ECO mode of the WM Motor’s car. It was almost the same as my XiaoBei. However, when I switched to the Sport mode, I finally felt the acceleration and excitement, and the jerkiness of the energy regeneration was also much stronger. First-time EV drivers may find it hard to accept.

Fortunately, I am an experienced EV driver, but I still gave up on the energy regeneration because ride comfort is more important. Compared to the BAIC EVs, the endurance of this EV is not that great, and it cannot withstand temperatures that well. After driving for 32km, the displayed driving distance dropped by 52km.

BAIC uses lithium iron phosphate batteries while WM uses ternary lithium batteries. They both have permanent magnet synchronous motors. In Shanghai, where the temperature has been below zero for the past few days, BAIC can consume 18kWh per 100km with the air conditioner on, and the WM can also consume 18kWh per 100km if driven aggressively. This is acceptable to me.

With the national standard charging interface, I used BAIC’s 220V charging pile to charge the WM. It worked without any issue, but the display showed a voltage of 346V, which was not that accurate. The current displayed was only a little over 6A, but after charging overnight, the estimated driving distance on the dashboard showed 378km. The charging interface has a lock that can prevent the WM from being unplugged while it is locked, which is safe and reliable, just like Tesla.

Lastly, let’s talk about the difference between this SUV, which has a post-subsidy price of less than 200,000 yuan, and the two-box hatchback with a post-subsidy price of less than 100,000 yuan (which has been discontinued).

• Beauty. Although compared to the “apple on wheels” Tesla, the WM car does not have the sleek streamlined body, it still has advantages in things like ambient light and welcome projection light- these superficial things. When I drive my WM car and invite my colleagues who are waiting in the cold wind to get in, and they see the WM logo projected on the ground with surprise, asking me “did you change your car today?”, my feeling of joy also increases. Not to mention the ambient light that follows the rhythm of the music inside the car, making the overall atmosphere very cool.- Higher degree of interactivity in car networking. Of course, five years ago, BAIC just began to enter the field of electric vehicles. At that time, the central control screen was not too small. It’s just that I didn’t expect that with the changes of the times, now car-mounted central control screens less than 10 inches cannot even claim to be intelligent cars. The in-depth cooperation between WM Motor and Baidu also makes this central control screen relatively advanced among the new domestic car-making forces. At least for the two days I drove WM Motor, I no longer needed my phone. (The wireless charging position also made it difficult for me to reach my phone…)

• More user-friendly driving experience. The large central screen of WM Motor not only monitors tire pressure but also provides prompts for maintenance records. (Later, I remembered that NIO also has this function.) This is conducive to careless owners making better plans for vehicle maintenance. This made me sigh again. As a member on the BAIC recall list, I still haven’t replaced my parts…the reason being insufficient inventory…I am so sad…I don’t know if the maintenance pace of WM Motor can keep up.

Lastly, I must exclaim in the conventional way that the times are constantly changing, and wheels are constantly rolling. In four or five years, our new energy industry has developed rapidly. In the beginning, as consumers, our choices were very limited. Now, we have many choices. On the basic premise of “smart cars that can get a license plate”, we have begun to pay attention to appearance, safety, and many other additional requirements, thus posing more challenges to car dealers.

As the first echelon of new carmakers, WM Motor’s competitive advantage is relatively large at a price of around 150,000 yuan. It is an economical and affordable choice as the first car for young people who have just entered society and as the second car for households with two children.

Hmmm, I always forget to turn off the engine these days, hahahaha.

“Little WM, little WM, can you turn off the engine by yourself?”

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.