A Night of EDG Fans

Every year, there is a night when the cries from every corner of the country’s universities pierce the sky, emanating from the dormitories of each school. In recent years, in addition to shouting, the students even rushed to the main roads of the campus to “parade.” Whenever this happens, the security guards of the school will be on high alert, thinking that the students are chanting some kind of spell to realize their aspirations, when in fact, the “EDG” they are shouting is simply to celebrate the victory of the EDG team.

Young people nowadays like e-sports and love to cheer with the trend. Hechuang has firmly grasped the current trend and carried out strategic cooperation with the EDG e-sports club. Hechuang’s second product, Z03, is highly integrated with EDG, and you can see the figure of Hechuang Z03 in both the game scene and various activities. Does Hechuang Z03 meet the needs of young people?

This is an Era of Looks

Young people nowadays no longer deliberately pursue luxury brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi like their parents. Instead, “fresh goods” from various new forces are more likely to capture the hearts of young people. Especially for car models with advanced appearances, the youthfulness of users is constantly increasing. Throughout the market, car designs for youth can be mainly divided into two categories: one is cute and lively, and the other is sci-fi and cool.

Driven by these two types of design styles, there are either exquisite and flexible small cars or cool and performance-oriented sedans. Hechuang Z03 takes a cross-border approach to target the young market. What’s interesting is that while other car makers usually integrate SUV and coupe, while Hechuang Z03 integrates SUV and MPV.

With a length of 4,602 mm, width of 1,900 mm, and height of 1,645 mm, the posture created by the large-area car window glass, relatively straight roof line, and not high ground clearance is the same as that of the compact MPV Volkswagen Touran.

Looking at the details of Hechuang Z03, the design of the through-type light strip and the enclosed front face shows the expected sense of technology, which is the same as the current mainstream pure electric vehicles. The fang-shaped LED lights on both sides also add a touch of ferocity to Hechuang Z03.

The taillights of the car adopt a design that echoes the headlights, with a suspension-type roof and a small spoiler plus two enclosed diffusers underneath, which prevent the Haoju Z03 from being boring due to its body size.

Haoju Z03 has made many sport-oriented embellishments in the details, which is indeed able to be seen as catering to the taste of young people. However, the appearance of a vehicle is a matter of personal preferences, and this size may actually provide young people with more possibilities.

What does the 2,750mm wheelbase represent?

2.75 meters may not give you a concept of a car. Let’s take a look at a picture.

Conventional evaluation of the rear seat of a car is usually based on the legroom and headroom. However, have you ever seen someone standing on the rear seat cleaner? And our 172cm tall Ma is almost standing straight in the car, plus the flat rear floor further enhances the comfort of the rear seats of the Haoju Z03. It is worth mentioning that the opening angle of the Haoju Z03’s rear door is close to 90 degrees, which makes it much more convenient for the elderly to get on and off the car or to install a child safety seat.

A convenient tool for daily commuting.

Driving experience

Don’t be fooled by the bulky size of the Haoju Z03. In fact, it is quite light to handle. Especially in the urban road conditions, it can provide the driver with a very comfortable driving experience. The 135 kW, 225 N·m power is very gentle, even though the motor’s characteristics can bring out the power instantly, pressing down the accelerator of the Haoju Z03 will not make people feel anxious. It can take a family on a smooth journey.

The shock absorption of the vehicle is also in line with its positioning. Compared with the early test cars’ soft driving sensation, this near-production version of the Z03 finds a balance point between comfort and road feedback in chassis tuning. In daily driving, the fine road feedback can still be perceived by the driver, after all, the Z03’s rear suspension is in the form of a torsion beam. At this point, you may doubt the performance of this car when encountering large bumps until I crossed two brand new speed bumps and two pits, and this car’s performance still exceeded my expectations.

In addition, the Joint Venture Z03 also has four driving modes, among which the I-PEDAL is similar to the single pedal mode that everyone understands in daily life. In I-PEDAL mode, the Z03 will have a larger deceleration rate and there will be no coasting. After releasing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle will directly decelerate to 0 km/h. If used properly, the driver does not need to switch between the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal, especially in congested road conditions, which can greatly reduce right leg fatigue. However, the I-PEDAL mode does not automatically activate AUTOHOLD after the speed drops to 0, which will cause the vehicle to slide, and another step on the brake pedal is needed. If AUTOHOLD can be activated automatically, the user experience will be much better.

Advanced Driving Assistance System (ADAS)

Except for the base model priced at 132,800 yuan, all other configurations of the Joint Venture Z03 support ADAS.

The full-speed adaptive cruise control also provides a relatively comfortable driving environment in terms of following and accelerating/decelerating. However, currently the Joint Venture Z03 only supports LKA for lane keeping. After turning on the lane keeping function, a relatively large force needs to be applied to the steering wheel, otherwise, the lane keeping system will make constant corrections to press the vehicle to the center of the lane. Let’s look forward to the lane keeping function of the Joint Venture Z03 becoming more mature, reaching the level of LCC.

It’s worth mentioning that the 360-degree panoramic imaging of the Hechuang Z03 gave me an excellent user experience. When I was moving at low speeds and turned on the turn signal, a 3D dynamic real scene appeared on the center console, which also had a transparent chassis function and responded extremely quickly. The images at night were still clear, and there was no situation of a too dark or noisy picture.

Endurance

The model we test drove was the CLTC 510 km version, with a battery capacity of 64.6 kWh. The outdoor temperature on the day of the test drive was 4°C, with two people in the car, and the air conditioner in the car maintained at 25°C, blowing with two gears. We actually traveled 62km, and the battery showed a drop of 112km, with an average power consumption of 19.9 kWh / 100km. For the Hechuang Z03, this kind of winter endurance is a relatively good result among products in the same price range. Even in winter close to 0°C, the actual endurance can still reach about 324km. It is not a problem to meet the travel and commute needs of young people.

Conclusion

Hechuang Z03 has made a new choice in the price range of 130,000-170,000 yuan. The Hechuang Z03 has the support of the old car company GAC and is trustworthy in terms of hardware. It also performs very stably in terms of mechanical quality. At the same time, you can see the shadow of new power on this car, such as a unique and personalized appearance design, and the brand concept of pursuing youthfulness.

Although Hechuang Z03 is still not perfect from a professional perspective, there are many small details that can be optimized. However, the configuration, appearance, practicality, and brand influence behind Hechuang Z03 are the real factors that can attract and influence young people. The final effect and sales will tell us the answer.

Source: Hechuang 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.