MINI EV is no longer the exclusive name for Wuling Hong Guang MINI EV.

On October 12th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the 349th batch of “Announcement on Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Products”. Among them, Dongfeng’s Wind Glory MINI EV was listed as one of the models declared. Like the previous several batches, A00-class micro electric vehicles still took center stage in this batch, with a total of 17 A00-class models declared.

In the 349-batch announcement, a total of 313 new energy vehicles were declared, a 5% increase compared to the previous period. Among them, there were 50 new energy passenger cars declared, a 9% decrease compared to the previous period.

Among the pure electric new cars declared in this batch of announcements, there were only a few, such as Honda e:N S1, Sihao E60X, etc. Instead, the modified Hong Guang MINI EV GameBoy Sport Edition and Aiways AION LX Plus are more noteworthy.

Although no brand-new battery-swapping cars were declared, the total number of battery-swapping cars exceeded that of plug-in cars, which is worth noting. Among them, Geely’s subsidiary declared a relatively large number of battery-swapping cars, reaching 5 models.

As for plug-in cars, the Guiding PHEV model declared by GAC Fiat is the only brand-new plug-in car.

From the perspective of classification by level, the number of pure electric micro-cars reached the highest, with 17 models declared. Among the pure electric SUVs, compact SUV models had the largest number of declared models, reaching 12.

In terms of power batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries had an absolute advantage, with a total of 27 models using lithium iron phosphate batteries. Among the new cars declared by BYD, it is the first time that both Bengbu Freud Battery Co., Ltd., and Guiyang Freud Battery Co., Ltd., the two new subsidiaries, have been identified as energy storage device monomer manufacturers, indicating that these two new subsidiaries have also entered a pre-production state.

In terms of intelligence, there were 19 new cars equipped with L2-level intelligent driving assistance configurations, which can achieve full-range adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane-keeping assist (LKA). This accounts for 38% of the total of 50 new cars.

Honda is coming late

In this batch of new car announcements, multiple Hong Guang MINI EV models were declared, including Dongfeng’s A00-class model, named Wind Glory MINI EV, which can be equipped with a Jin Guo MINI EV badge.

Not only in name, but also in appearance, Dongfeng Fengguang MINI EV has some similarities with Wuling Hongguang MINI EV.

Both are two-door four-seater designs, targeting the micro-electric vehicle market. MINI EV type vehicles have one more competitor. Judging from the parameters, the expected range of Dongfeng MINI EV is the same as that of Hongguang MINI EV, both being within 200 kilometers.

In the 349 batches of announcements, besides Dongfeng Fengguang MINI EV, Chery New Energy, Sihao, Zeros, Lingbao and others also applied for micro-electric vehicles.

Wuling Motors has obviously realized the problem of decreased identification of MINI EV, so it has applied for a facelift version of Hongguang MINI EV in this batch of announcements.

The Hongguang MINI EV GameBoy special edition is a model that has been further modified in terms of appearance based on the previous batch of announcement models. The vehicle length has been increased to more than 3 meters, and the expected range is over 300 kilometers.

In addition to the micro-cars, Dongfeng Honda applied for a new car e:N S1, which is the first model of Honda’s new electrification strategy.

Honda e:N is a new pure electric vehicle brand of Honda. In the future, this platform will be mass-produced separately by Dongfeng Honda and Guangzhou Honda. After Dongfeng Honda applied for the e:N S1 model, Guangzhou Honda will also apply for the e:N P1 model.

From the exterior design point of view, the car still has a considerable gap with the best-selling electric cars in the Chinese market. The main problems are the unreasonable charging port design, the relatively high visual center of gravity of the entire vehicle, and the fact that the exterior design still retains a lot of design styles of fuel vehicles, which is suspected to be a model of fuel-to-electric conversion.

In terms of configuration, the length of the Honda e:N S1 is 4390mm, with a wheelbase of 2610mm and front and rear track distances of 1535/1540mm respectively. Based on these parameters, the Honda e:N S1 is very likely an electric version of the Honda Vezel.

In terms of the core parameters of the car chassis design, the wheelbase and front and rear track distances of the Honda e:N S1 are the same as those of the gasoline-powered Honda Vezel.

The Honda e:N S1 is equipped with a 68.8kWh ternary lithium battery, with the power battery manufacturer being CATL. It is expected that the vehicle’s range will easily exceed 500 kilometers, and the range may approach 600 kilometers if tested using the CLTC cycle.

JAC Volkswagen declared the pure electric SUV, the JAC IEV E50X, in this announcement.

The JAC IEV E50X is a pure electric SUV model that replaces the internal combustion engine version of the QX model with an electric plus three electric systems. The vehicle length is 4610mm, with a wheelbase of 2720mm. The interior space is expected to be relatively spacious.

It is worth noting that the JAC IEV E50X will have a version equipped with a Huawei electric motor.

GAC Aion applied for the Aion LX Plus model in the 349th announcement. After the entire Aion lineup was upgraded to the Plus series, the application of the AION LX Plus is not surprising.

The AION LX Plus will be upgraded in terms of exterior design, interior design, powertrain, and intelligent configuration. The model applied for in this application can be configured with a maximum power of 200kW permanent magnet synchronous motor.Due to the current AION LX’s power battery capacity reaching 93kWh, it is expected that the AION LX Plus will have even larger capacity, with an estimated driving range of more than 700 kilometers not being a problem.

In terms of plug-in hybrid vehicles, GAC Fiat has applied for the production of the Compass PHEV model.

The Compass PHEV has a length of 4421mm and a wheelbase of 2627mm, and belongs to the compact SUV category with a relatively small body size. The vehicle will be equipped with a 1332ml turbocharged engine, with an estimated pure electric driving range of more than 50 kilometers. The vehicle’s power battery will be provided by CATL, using ternary lithium batteries.

Lithium iron phosphate still occupies the dominant position

In terms of power batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries still occupy the dominant position in this batch of announcements.

Of the total of 50 new energy passenger cars, 27 models use lithium iron phosphate batteries, 22 use ternary lithium batteries, and 1 model is labeled as using lithium-ion batteries.

It is worth noting that among the total of 17 A00 micro electric vehicles, only the Zero Run T03 declares a battery type of lithium-ion, and the other 16 A00 micro electric vehicles all use lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Among the new cars submitted by BYD, Bi Guiyang Fudi Battery Co., Ltd. and Bengbu Fudi Battery Co., Ltd. appeared as cell manufacturers for the first time, indicating that these two factories have reached mass production status.

Among the total of 50 new energy passenger cars, a total of 15 models use power batteries provided by CATL, 5 BYD Fudi Power models, and 5 Guoxuan supported models.

Decline in the number of intelligent vehicle applications

Among the 50 new energy passenger cars submitted in this batch announcement, only 19 models have both full-speed adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane keeping assist (LKA) functions, accounting for 38% of the total, which is a significant decrease compared to the 35 models in the previous batch announcement.

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In addition, according to the announcement of batch 349, the overall intelligent driving assistance of new energy passenger cars is relatively low. Among all 50 models, only 2 models of GAC AION LX Plus are equipped with hardware that supports navigation assistance driving function, while the remaining 48 models do not support navigation assistance driving function on the hardware level.

The reason for this may be related to the fact that there are more micro cars and functional cars in the models of this batch.

With the development of intelligent internet-connected cars, it is expected that this situation may be improved in the new batch of car announcements in the future.

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.