Shanghai’s Annual Typhoon and Our Test Drive of the GAC Toyota iA5

The annual typhoon in Shanghai arrived on schedule this year, seemingly earlier than in the past. During the first strong typhoon this year in Shanghai, we test drove the GAC Toyota iA5.

Built on GAC’s second-generation pure electric platform (GEP), the iA5 is an electric sedan under the GAC Toyota brand. Due to its shared platform with the GAC Aion S, it is sold by GAC Toyota rather than GAC Aion S, leaving people with high expectations for this car. Now, let’s take a closer look at the iA5 with Toyota’s trusted protection.

The Pure Electric Platform That Cannot Be Ignored

In the early stages of the electric vehicle market, the “gas-to-electricity” conversion was a common engineering method.

As the domestic new energy vehicle market gradually opened up, more manufacturers gained the incentive and strength to develop pure electric platforms through the support of sales and accumulated technical experience. On pure electric platforms, manufacturers can optimize the structure of pure electric cars to achieve better overall performance objectives.

In simple terms, because the electric motor system of pure electric vehicles is much lighter than the engine of traditional fuel vehicles, but the battery packs of pure electric vehicles are much heavier than the fuel tanks of traditional fuel vehicles.

The pure electric platform can design the body according to the characteristics of pure electric vehicles in order to control the weight distribution, thereby achieving a balance of front-to-rear weight ratio and ultimately improving the handling performance indicators.

In terms of NVH engineering, collision safety design, and cabin space layout, manufacturers can also optimize performance indicators according to the characteristics of pure electric vehicles.

The development mode of many domestic pure electric vehicle manufacturers has also shifted from the previous “gas-to-electricity” to using pure electric platforms to develop new models. GAC GEP2.0 is an example of such a pure electric platform.

The first model under the second-generation GEP platform is the Aion S, and the second model under this platform is the Aion LX. Compared with the first-generation platform, the main optimizations of the second-generation GEP platform include higher space utilization, lower energy consumption, and stronger performance.

Scalability is one of the features of the second-generation GEP platform. GEP2.0 platform-derived models can cover A0-C level cars, which means that from small cars to medium and large cars, as well as from small SUVs to medium and large SUVs, can all be covered, with a range of 300-700 km.

The iA5 model we test drove this time is based on this platform.

The appearance of GAC iA5 is impressive

Built on a pure electric platform, this means that the design of the iA5 will have a lot of tolerance, which will be reflected in the attitude of the car body, the height of the chassis, and the utilization of space.

The iA5 is personally designed by Zhang Fan, Vice President of GAC Research Institute and Director of Concept and Styling Center, so you may find a triple-face design.

Let’s take a look at the exterior first

It looks, really similar. Indeed, it is too similar to Aion S. If you have impression of Aion S, you may know that GAC Aion S uses two different front face designs for its low and high trim levels. However, on the basis of maintaining the overall contour, the iA5 uses a third design style.

The front of the car cancels the through-type chrome strip and adopts a more integral grille-less design. Moreover, many hexagonal concave surface details are added on both sides of the emblem. The advantage of this design is that it will make the front face look more angular, and the visual perception will be more sporty.

The front headlights adopt the brand new “seabird-style” LED headlights, which match the sharp lines of the front face.

The length, width and height of iA5 are 4792mm, 1880mm and 1530mm respectively, and the wheelbase is 2750mm. Compared with GAC Aion S, the length of the car body has increased by 24mm.

Although the iA5 belongs to the compact car segment, the problem of looking stubby, which is a common trait of compact cars, has been solved in some good ways on the iA5. The posture of a car body almost determines the high or low beauty of a car. The design team of GAC must know this well, so how did they solve it?

To achieve a low and smooth design with limited dimensions, we consulted with employees from GAC Toyota who explained that, “when designing the iA5, we considered both aesthetics and space while reducing wind resistance. Therefore, compared to regular models, the designers moved the A-pillar forward and the C-pillar back, allowing for a fusion of ultra-low wind resistance and a spacious interior without changing the height of the vehicle, all while maintaining aesthetic integrity.”

In fact, the design of compact cars is quite difficult, as there are many elements to consider, such as the proportions of the body, the movement of the A and C pillars, and the use of waistlines and side lines.

The iA5 has three important lines: one that starts from the front headlights and runs through the engine compartment, connecting to the side door frames; the second line runs through the front and rear door handles and is the key element of the waistline; and the third line is the edge of the door panel above the side skirt, which is concave inward.

The combination of the second and third lines creates a surface that visually centers the car and creates a flat and low proportion, providing a low and streamlined visual effect.

At the rear of the iA5, a chrome-plated strip replaces the traditional style of tail lights, while the ducktail angle of the trunk has been optimized, resulting in a wind resistance coefficient as low as 0.25 Cd.

Moving on to the interior, the most significant progress made by domestic brands, in addition to the advancement of traditional three-electrical technology, is understanding customer needs.

The first time I saw the iA5’s interior, I felt like it had potential because my initial impression was that it was “sophisticated,” but note that sophistication and luxury are not necessarily the same thing.

Let’s take a look at the materials used.

The iA5’s interior does not feature an abundance of materials, so you won’t get a particularly luxurious feeling at first glance. However, the iA5’s sophistication is evident in the use of a large amount of leather, soft materials, and gold-plated chrome, which deviates from the budget feel commonly associated with domestic brands.The gold-plated chromium trim on the center console dashboard, gear shift panel and air conditioning vent outlet adds a touch of liveliness to the black interior, but reduces its purity.

The carbon fiber look-alike decoration panel on the interior door panel has a dark color tone, with a piano lacquer finish that brings out a refined look.

The large storage space can accommodate anything.

The suspended gear shift design creates a large storage space underneath, which can hold various small items and is very practical.

In addition, the center armrest compartment is deep and uses a dual-door opening design to maximize space utilization.

The center console design is mediocre, but functional.

The entire center console adopts two 12.3-inch high-definition LCD screens, and the overall design is very good.

Especially, there is also a row of touch buttons below the screen, which iA5 does not integrate into the car’s multimedia system, but sets them up separately.

The so-called mediocrity actually refers to the car’s multimedia system, which has an overall UI design that feels like an old disco.

The practicality, however, corresponds to the fact that the iA5’s multimedia system menu design is very concise, without complicated details or subsets. For example, there are three main menu buttons in the upper left corner of the screen, which lead to corresponding pages when clicked, and scrolling left and right is all that is needed to find vehicle settings, etc. The learning curve for first-time users is small and can be easily operated upon getting in the car.

The response speed of the central control screen is relatively smooth, supporting voice wake-up and controlling many functions inside the car. Adjusting the air conditioning, sunroof, and music functions can all be accomplished, but the voice function does not have voice wake-up. It can only be awakened through the voice activation button on the steering wheel.

The comfort of the seats exceeded my expectations.

The integrated sports-style seats provide good wrap-around support, and the support is also good. In addition, both the front and rear seats are made of leather and suede. The rear floor is also relatively flat, and the ride experience is quite comfortable.

If I had to describe it in one sentence, the appearance and interior of iA5 demonstrate both the quality of a joint venture car and the generosity of an independent brand.

The driving experience is outstanding overall, but the steering feel needs improvement

Basic Information

iA5 uses an electric three-in-one permanent magnet synchronous motor with a maximum power of 135 kW and a maximum torque of 300 N·m. It has three driving modes: ECO (economy), Normal (standard), and Sport (sport), as well as an I-Pedal (single pedal) mode.

By adjusting the three modes, different driving experiences can be obtained during acceleration, but it should be noted that these three modes only affect acceleration, and the steering wheel’s responsiveness remains constant, even in Sport mode.

After experiencing it, it was found that the driving experiences of the ECO mode and the Normal mode are actually quite similar, and acceleration is very gentle. However, the ECO mode will save more power.

If you feel that the power response of these two modes is a bit weak, you can switch to Sport mode. In Sport mode, the first-stage power response is more sensitive, and the second-stage power reserves are sufficient. However, this mode consumes electricity quickly. In urban road conditions, the energy consumption is 20.1 kWh per hundred kilometers.# iA5 Driving Experience

Therefore, for daily driving, choosing the standard mode is sufficient, balancing energy efficiency and comfort, but it may sacrifice some power.

Brakes and Regenerative Braking

iA5’s braking feel is very good, with a moderate soft and hard feel, and both the brake feel and braking force are relatively linear.

Like other pure electric vehicles, iA5 is equipped with a regenerative braking system, which has 0-4 adjustable gears. Gear 0 is a completely non-regenerative state, and the higher the number, the greater the regenerative braking force.

However, it should be noted that only by setting the regenerative braking to gear 3 or higher can a certain one-pedal driving be achieved, as discovered after experiencing different settings.

Moreover, iA5 does not have too much association between regenerative braking force and driving mode, which means that even in sports mode, the regenerative braking force can be adjusted according to personal preference.

Overall, iA5’s braking is very linear, the feel is relatively moderate, and the key is that the regenerative braking can be adjusted in multiple gears, so it can accommodate more driving habits.

Steering Performance is Not Friendly

iA5’s steering performance is not very good throughout the entire driving experience. First of all, the follow-up of the steering force is not very good. For example, when we are driving at high speed and changing lanes, the turning action has reached 45 degrees, but the car body has not completely entered the lane when changing lanes.

And the steering force will change at different speeds. That is to say, the vehicle will have fluctuations in weight, especially at low speeds.

Chassis Performance is Very Japanese

Although iA5 is a pure electric platform product developed by GAC, the chassis performance is very good and comfortable, like the Japanese style chassis feeling, which may be due to the collaboration with Toyota.

In terms of hardware, iA5 uses a front MacPherson independent suspension and a rear torsion beam non-independent suspension.However, the design of the front suspension of iA5 is quite unique. Compared with the traditional MacPherson suspension, the lower control arm of the front suspension of iA5 is inverted. The bushing of the lower control arm near the front of the car and the connection with the body is a hydraulic bushing. This design can optimize the comfort of the vehicle when passing through potholes or speed bumps.

Therefore, it filters out small vibrations very thoroughly and handles large potholes and rough roads very firmly. There is almost no vibration transmitted to the interior of the car. Although iA5 is very Japanese style, it does not blindly pursue softness. It can well support the body while being soft, which performs clean and sharp when turning.

Overall, “comfort” is the prominent feature of iA5 in terms of driving. If you want to use iA5 comfortably in the city, it will definitely meet your needs. If you want better performance, you need to switch to Sport mode, but it will also affect the endurance corresponding to it.

Final Thoughts

The overall performance of iA5 gives a very comfortable feeling. The overall performance of the chassis and the suspension’s inclination towards comfort make this car have a good riding experience, which is very practical for city commuting. However, if you want a car for “drivers”, iA5 may not meet your needs.

If there is any shortcoming of this car, it is the steering. The steering can be more solid, which will improve the driving experience.

In terms of exterior design, iA5 belongs to the type that is more durable for viewing. Because it uses a pure electric platform, the posture of the car body and the smoothness of the lines are quite good. In terms of interior, the use of suede seats material is commendable, which not only has a visual sense of luxury, but also has comfort.

Although this car is developed by GAC, the overall performance of iA5 is at the level of a joint venture car. Moreover, it is a product output by GAC to joint venture brand GAC Toyota, which to a certain extent reflects GAC’s accumulation of vehicle technology.

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.