Chery QQ Ice Cream Released in Wuhu
Chery held a QQ ice cream launch event in Wuhu on Dec. 28. The new car is positioned as an electric microcar and is aimed at city commuting.
Judging from the lineup at the launch event, the mayor of Wuhu and the secretary of the municipal party committee attended one after another. It can be seen that the Wuhu government is relatively supportive of Chery’s new energy strategy. Chery Chairman Yin Tongyue introduced that Chery’s large luxury-level electric platform will debut in 2023.
Chery QQ was launched in July 2003. Although this car was extremely similar to Chevrolet’s Leci in appearance, General Motors had sued Chery, which didn’t affect the hot sales of QQ that year.
In the era when cars were luxury goods, Chery QQ, with a selling price of less than RMB 50,000, achieved a monthly sales breakthrough of over 10,000 in 2005, and was undoubtedly the “king of microcars” of that year.
The electric microcar “Little Ant” from Chery, priced at RMB 60-80,000, with original exterior design, 40.6 kWh battery pack, and all-aluminum body, achieved a sales volume of 9,291 in November. Chery claimed that The total sales of Little Ant had already exceeded 250,000.
The newly launched Chery QQ Ice Cream is positioned lower than Little Ant, with a price range of RMB 29,900 to 43,900 and three versions available.
As for the configuration, the new car is only equipped with ABS, and there is no ESP in the whole series. The middle and high-end models have a driver’s side airbag, while the minimum one doesn’t. Both the middle and high-end models have rear reversing radar and reversing image.
In terms of range, the highest-priced version, priced at RMB 43,900, is equipped with a 13.9 kWh battery pack, with a charging time of eight hours and an NEDC range of 170 kilometers. The middle and low-end, priced from RMB 29,900 to 37,900, are equipped with a 9.6 kWh battery pack, with a charging time of six hours and an NEDC range of 120 kilometers. All three versions only support slow charging, and all use lithium iron phosphate batteries, with an 8-year/150,000 km battery pack warranty.
In June of this year, Chery and Aliyun cooperated to release their own automotive eco-brand “iCar,” which allows remote control of features such as air conditioning, unlocking vehicles, and electronic fencing through a mobile APP.
Interestingly, the price of Chery QQ Ice Cream overlaps significantly with that of Hongguang MINI EV in the price range of 2.88 to 4.86 million yuan, and the range is also calibrated to be between 120 km and 170 km, just like the Hongguang MINI EV. With its huge potential in the low-priced electric microcar market, the Hongguang MINI EV, which has been the champion of China’s new energy sales for several months, Chery hopes to directly compete with and seize a portion of the market from it.
Compared to the original design of the Little Ant, Chery QQ Ice Cream did not surprise me in terms of its appearance and interior, and even looks similar to the Hongguang MINI EV, which is somewhat contrary to what Chery said at the beginning of the press conference that “Innovation is Chery’s soul”.
At the press conference, the energy absorption box in the Chery QQ Ice Cream was also touted as a selling point, obviously hinting at the reality that the Hongguang MINI EV does not have an energy absorption box. The fact that the Chery QQ Ice Cream and the Hongguang MINI EV lack safety airbags in the base model, and have no ESP across the entire range, also reflects that electric microcars for low-priced transport are limited by cost and have significant safety issues. There is an urgent need to improve the mandatory safety standards and speed limits for electric microcars.
🔗Source: [Chery Official]
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.