Author: Guohehe
This year, there is a new member in the New Energy Vehicle market – Ziyoujia.
You may not be familiar with Ziyoujia, but its boss Li Yinan, who was promoted to vice president of Huawei at the age of 27, may ring a bell for you. After starting his own business and founding Niu Chuangxin New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Ziyoujia became the first brand of the company, and Ziyoujia NV is the first product of this brand.
According to the official definition, Ziyoujia NV is designed as an urban exploration SUV. At first glance, I thought it had a strong American style, such as the front face, which is a kind of American retro style, with a feeling of Ford’s new car Bronco in the double-loop daytime running light, but with intermittent LED light bars added to express a sense of technology.
Looking closely at the front face, there is an air intake grille that can be automatically opened and closed according to different situations, providing air intake for the range-extender engine or heat dissipation for the motor, and reducing wind resistance when closed.
The side adopts the hidden door handle commonly used in new energy vehicle models, and the tire size is 255/55 R20, equipped with Michelin Latitude SUV silent tire, which also reflects the comfortable and home-oriented direction of the vehicle.
It’s interesting that besides the SUV’s commonly used floating roof, the rear of the car also has a strong American SUV feel. Instead of using a coupe-like shape, it adopts a tough straight line, and adds an LED light strip on the C-pillar of the car body. This light strip can display the power in real time when it is charging or discharging. This design is practical and seems familiar to me, until I looked down at the power bank in my hand, and it suddenly dawned on me.
The rear of the car adopts the currently popular through-type taillights, and the shape adopts the breakpoint style, which echoes the front of the car from a distance. The rear wiper is hidden in the air deflector on the roof, which is more beautiful.
The overall size of the car is 4915/1950/1750 mm in length, width, and height, and the wheelbase is 2900 mm. It is positioned as a mid-to-large-size SUV. From the perspective of the body data, this data is aimed at the NIO ES6.
Although the interior has been publicly photographed, but because it is a test car, I couldn’t experience it by sitting on it. But when I touched it, I could feel that the interior is wrapped in a lot of soft leather materials, and the seats use a lot of Nappa leather. The tactile and texture still have a sense of luxury.
The steering wheel adopts a dual-spoke design, with two roller buttons on both sides that can be scrolled in 5 directions, which can achieve many functions such as ADAS, volume adjustment, voice assistant, etc. The center console uses a 15.6-inch floating touch screen, which does not completely remove physical buttons like many new brands. Commonly used air conditioning adjustment, seat functions, and other buttons are retained, which is worthy of praise. The official claims that the screen is equipped with 6 linear motors, which means that you will get vibration feedback like a physical button when you press the screen, greatly reducing the difficulty of operating blindly while driving.
The LCD display in front of the driver has a good resolution and displays a lot of information. However, due to the trial production of the car, the UI design needs to be improved. But for an electric vehicle with such a high degree of intelligence, UI design can be updated through post-programming or vehicle OTA upgrades. It is worth mentioning that the Zhiyoujia NV can seamlessly connect with CarPlay, and the center LCD instrument panel can directly import CarPlay navigation information, which is much more convenient than many new brands.
The front passenger seat features a function similar to the NIO queen’s throne. The cover of the armrest box in front of the passenger seat can be removed, and there is a leg support under the passenger seat that can be raised to fully support the legs. Although the seat cannot be completely flat like the XPeng P5 and form a bed with the rear seats, the maximum folding angle can reach 130° and a comfortable sitting posture can be easily found. It is also perfect for taking a nap or sleeping.
The entire rear floor of the SUV is flat, and the rear seats are both wide and long. However, I am not sure if the front seats of the demo car were positioned too far back, as it seems that the legroom in the rear seats is not as spacious as that of the NIO ES6. For an SUV of this size, the space utilization rate does not seem to be optimal. But where has the large wheelbase been utilized? I found the answer when I opened the trunk.
The trunk space has a volume of 788L in the regular state, and can be expanded to 1730L after the rear seats are folded down. The data is very surprising, and the actual car looks even more amazing. The electric tailgate is standard across the entire range, which can be easily opened and closed even by petite girls, making it easy for family members to take turns to drive.
Since this is the first public unveiling, the official has not released any information about the powertrain, chassis, range, motor, and other three-electric details of the ZYJ NV. At present, only the extended-range and pure electric power form have been announced. Judging from the sales of the Ideal ONE, most consumers are more inclined towards the extended-range form as a transitional approach rather than a pure electric one. Although the official has not revealed too much information, relevant sources have revealed that the pure electric version will adopt a front and rear dual-motor configuration with a total output of 280kW, and all models will have four-wheel drive as standard. The acceleration from zero to 100 km/h is 5.9 seconds (most likely for the pure electric version), and the e-Booster may most probably adopt the 1.5T from the Dongfeng family, the same model as the one used in the VoyahFREE. Not only is it a four-cylinder engine, but its thermal efficiency is also the highest among those available in the market.
Looking at the ZYJ NV, it is a good brand concept as a stepping stone. “Zi You” sounds like “自由(freedom)” and has the ability to travel long distances. The entire car is more designed for comfort such as the panoramic sunroof, large seats, and wide headrests. Especially with the huge trunk, it can easily accommodate the luggage of a family.At first, I was a bit skeptical about the features of the Niu EVE from Niu, as I have seen most of them in other brands of electric vehicles. Can this help them stand out? Founder Li Yinan admitted, “We just want to explore and see if this approach works.” This brand and Li Yinan’s statement are like those of a pragmatic engineer who designed a practical product, unlike other new forces that try to create a gimmick. The Niu EVE doesn’t have any fancy or novel features, but rather optimizes all the advantages of electric vehicles on the market and further polishes the details. They don’t want users to learn how to use electric vehicles, but rather provide users with a reliable, practical, and comfortable product that they can use right away after purchase. Through word-of-mouth promotion, this is similar to what Xiaomi did in the past. Xiaomi has proven success. Can Niu EVE do the same?
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.