On October 15th, BEIJING brand was officially released, and at the same time, BEIJING’s first pure electric car EU7 was also launched. For BAIC Group, BEIJING brand is an important step in its upward breakthrough, and EU7 is its first product since the launch of BEIJING. So, how does EU7 perform in terms of product strength?
On the second day after the press conference, we had the opportunity to test drive the EU7. To be honest, although BAIC New Energy’s first pure electric car, EV150, was put into mass production as early as 2013, this was my first time driving the pure electric car from BAIC New Energy. Considering that the EC/EU series models of BAIC New Energy have consistently occupied the first place in the sales ranking of pure electric cars in the past few years, I had a kind of inexplicable expectation for EU7.
EU7 has three configuration versions in total, with prices ranging from RMB 159,900 to RMB 175,900 after subsidies, and the NEDC range is 451 kilometers. The model we tested was the mid-range version priced at RMB 165,900.
Luxurious atmosphere, details need to be improved
Let’s start with the appearance. The EU7 is one level larger in size than its predecessor, the EU5, with dimensions of 4805*1835*1528 mm and a wheelbase of 2785 mm. Compared with the pure electric cars of the same price range, the EU7 has a very significant advantage in size.
In terms of exterior design, the EU7 retains the design language of the EU5, but the overall style is more atmospheric, in line with BEIJING brand’s strategy of upward breakthrough.
The large and distinctive C-shaped LED daytime running lights have high visibility, and the front and rear of the car have new brand logos.
The size of the wheels is 225/45 R18, and the style of the wheel hub is very unique. The opening of the wheel cavity is very small, which can to some extent reduce wind resistance during driving.However, there are also two shortcomings. First, the fast charging port of the EU7 is still located at the front like the EU5. When encountering crowded and narrow charging spots, the front of the car needs to be inserted into the spot for charging. It would be more convenient to place the charging port at the rear of the vehicle, which is increasingly more common in other models. It is hoped that BEIJING can also catch up with this trend.
The other shortcoming is that the overall height of the car is too high. Although the wheel size has reached 18 inches, there is still a relatively large gap between the front and rear wheels and the wheel arches, giving a slightly uncoordinated feeling to the overall body posture.
As for the interior, the EU7 gives a very good first impression. With two 12.3-inch touchscreens, large areas of leather interior, and wood-grain ornaments, the luxurious atmosphere is created very well.
However, there is still room for improvement in the interior materials and workmanship. The areas indicated by the arrow marks on the door panels are all made of hard plastic, which should not give people the impression of cheapness in these details as a model that breaks through to the top.
Both the front and rear seats of the EU7 use brown perforated leather seats with diamond-stitching style, which have a very good texture. However, the padding inside the seats is slightly hard, and it would be more comfortable if it were softer.
The configuration of the front seats is very high. They not only support seat heating, but also seat ventilation, which is relatively rare in this level of car. In addition, the driver’s seat is equipped with a 4-way electrically adjustable lumbar support, which can effectively relieve fatigue during long-distance driving.
The length of the cushion of the rear seat is long enough, but due to the high rear floor and the extremely limited space under the front seat, rear passengers cannot lower the knee point by stretching their feet forward under the front seat, resulting in insufficient leg support. Fortunately, the entire rear floor is flat, and the 2785mm wheelbase brings good longitudinal space.
In addition, there is another detail issue. The limit point of the EU7 rear seat belt is low (close to the waist position). Rear passengers cannot easily reach the seat belt buckle, and many passengers are not conscious enough of wearing the rear seat belt. If it is not convenient enough to use, they are more likely to give up. Therefore, it is recommended that BAIC raise the limit point of the rear seat belt, which can facilitate the use of passengers.
“Darwin” OS, the start of BEIJING Intelligent vehicle
As for the intelligence, the EU7 top model is equipped with ADAS assisted driving system. Unfortunately, the model we test drive is a mid-range model without the ADAS system. Therefore, we will focus on another aspect of the intelligence, the car machine.
The EU7 car machine system consists of two 12.3-inch large screens. Let’s start with the instrument.
The display style of EU7 instrument is not much different from that of traditional pointer instrument. Car owners transitioning from fuel vehicles can read it easily without any learning costs. In addition, the delicacy and richness of information displayed by the EU7 instrument are very good. The most important information during driving, such as vehicle speed and remaining cruising range, are clear at a glance.
The central area of the instrument can switch to display various information, including power output information, average energy consumption, tire pressure, and multimedia, etc. In addition to displaying the above information, the background of the middle area also has a light and shadow shape similar to the Palace Museum, which is very Chinese.
To add to that, there is also a display screen in the car that mainly shows navigation information. This 12.3-inch screen displays navigation information primarily and minimizes information related to driving. In practice, it is quite useful as it allows drivers to use navigation without depending on their smartphones while not occupying the car’s display screen entirely.
Of course, there is one minor downside to note. The EU7 steering wheel has too many physical buttons, which make it challenging to use for first-timers. However, once one gets used to it, it becomes easier to operate. I hope that BEIJING can simplify the button count, streamline the logic of use, and lower the difficulty for novice users.
Another essential aspect of the 12.3-inch car display screen is its functionality and user experience. The car comes with Baidu map navigation, which fulfills daily navigation needs. Additionally, users can split the navigation display between this screen and the dashboard swiftly by using two fingers to swipe left (refer to the previous section for navigation display on the dashboard). It is worth noting that users can also view information about nearby charging stations, and the information provided in the navigation software on charging stations is detailed.
Unfortunately, when setting destinations that are far away, the vehicle does not recommend charging stations along the way based on remaining charge. BEIJING can consider integrating the remaining charge information, nearby charging stations, and navigation into one and add a journey planning feature. This would be quite practical for electric car users.
On the multimedia side, the EU7 car system uses the music application from Kuwo Music, which is relatively less popular than QQ Music or NetEase Cloud Music.Furthermore, EU7 is equipped with a voice recognition system from Baidu, which can meet basic navigation settings and can also control vehicle hardware such as opening and closing the windows.
In terms of UI design, the main interface of the EU7 car machine consists of five sections, including the most commonly used navigation, radio, music, and air conditioning settings. Under the main interface, the content on these five sections will also be dynamically displayed according to the actual situation, such as air conditioning settings, navigation information, or the current music being played.
Some less commonly used functions during driving are all placed in the menu bar below.
If you are not accustomed to using the car machine system for navigation or music, EU7’s car machine also supports Baidu’s CarPlay function to meet the needs of different users.
Of course, this car machine still has a few small problems.
First, in the settings column, each item occupies a large space, so it is difficult to quickly find the content that needs to be set in menus with more content, and I need to scroll the screen multiple times to find it, which is slightly inconvenient.
Second, EU7 is equipped with a 360-degree panoramic image, which is great, but unfortunately, the clarity of these four cameras is generally low, and the picture is blurry.
Excellent energy efficiency control, driving experience can be better
Finally, let’s talk about the core range and driving experience.As the test drive only lasted for one day, we could not conduct a full range test on EU7. However, our route for the day was relatively long, and I made brief records for your reference.
Starting from our hotel in Yizhuang, we went to the nearby Badaling Great Wall for lunch and took some static photos before returning. The total distance covered for the day was 226 km, and the displayed range dropped by 269 km, indicating a power loss ratio of 1:1.19. This includes rush hour traffic and high-speed driving, as well as violent acceleration and prolonged static shooting. Considering such a harsh operating environment, EU7’s power loss is still well-controlled at 1:1.19, which is quite commendable.
In terms of hardware, EU7’s battery is provided by CATL with a capacity of 60.2 kWh, a motor power of 160 kW, and a maximum torque of 300 N·m. Compared with other models in its class, EU7 has a bigger battery capacity, and its NEDC range is reported to be 451 km. Therefore, EU7’s electric components are cost-effective.
EU7 has two driving modes, normal and sport. In both modes, the accelerator’s output is very linear, and the whole output process is uniformly distributed throughout the entire pedal stroke. As a result, with an increase in pedal pressure, dynamic power is continuously released.
In normal mode, the accelerator may appear slightly softer in the early stage, which is very friendly in terms of energy consumption when driving in congested traffic.
In sport mode, the accelerator’s response is more sensitive, and the maximum output power of 160 kW makes EU7 very confident in both city roads and high-speed driving.
Regarding braking, EU7’s brake pedal is relatively linear, but disappointingly, the kinetic energy recovery system is not linked to the brake pedal. Therefore, whenever you step on the brake pedal, it must be mechanical braking. This calibration may be easier for engineers; however, for car owners who are not used to kinetic energy recovery, overall energy consumption during driving may be higher.
EU7’s kinetic energy recovery has three adjustable levels, suitable for users with different driving habits. However, in actual experience, I found that there is not much difference in the feeling between setting 2 and setting 3, with a difference of only about 10A in current. Therefore, I recommend that EU7’s engineers make the distinction between these two settings more noticeable for a better user experience.
It’s worth mentioning that in order to meet the driving habits of electric vehicle owners, EU7 has introduced a one-pedal driving mode. In one-pedal mode, the driver can control the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle by controlling the step on the pedal.
In terms of suspension, EU7 uses front MacPherson independent suspension and rear multi-link independent suspension, with hardware configuration exceeding that of the same level models. The overall tuning is slightly hard, and you can feel rich road information on larger and rougher roads. When encountering larger potholes, speed bumps, or bumps, the vehicle will also have more obvious shaking.
In conclusion, EU7 has a very atmospheric appearance and interior, which raises the overall level of the car. The solid three-electric technology ensures the basic endurance ability of EU7, and the intelligence has also taken a big step forward. However, if the brand wants to raise the level further, it needs to make more efforts on more details.
* EU5 to be launched in October: BAIC’s defense of its new energy vehicles supremacy
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.