Meet the Chinese EVs set for UK roads

Do you know your Xpeng from your Nio?

Well, you should - because they’re among a new breed of Chinese manufacturers set to begin selling electrified vehicles here in the UK.

And with a big emphasis placed on ‘affordable’, they could be a God-send for motorists on a budget looking to join the electric revolution.

The last few years has seen Chinese manufacturers getting more and more of a foothold on Britain’s forecourts. And while Chinese vehicles might have been the butt of jokes a decade ago, they’re now a force to be reckoned with.

Historic British firm MG is now controlled by the Shanghai-based SAIC Motor Corporation Limited - one of the biggest state-owned car manufacturers in China.

In recent years MG has won a glut of industry awards, particularly for its electric vehicles - or ‘EVs’ - with the MG ZS EV last week being named 2022 Auto Express Affordable Electric Car of the Year.

Then take a look at Hangzhou-headquartered Geely - the Chinese parent company of Volvo, Polestar and Lotus cars.

Polestar is another brand that’s fast-winning admirers, with the Polestar 2 scooping the ‘New Car of the Year 2022’ gong at the Auto Trader New Car of the Year Awards. Volvo is another firm that is as forward-thinking as it gets in terms of tech and innovation.

Meanwhile there’s another new Chinese kid on the block - the ORA Funky Cat. ORA is a firm owned by the Great Wall Motors’ group, China's biggest producer of SUVs and pick-up trucks. And the Funky Cat is set to go on sale in the Autumn of this year, taking the fight to close rival the MINI Electric.

So, with all this mind, you underestimate Chinese cars at your peril - because they could well become even more of a fixture on UK roads.

And here we take a look at some of the key new Chinese brands that could soon by tearing up the mean streets of Blighty.

XPeng

Electric vehicle manufacturer XPeng is headquartered in Guangzhou, China, but also has offices near San Francisco, California, USA.

And XPeng has another Californian firm in its sights - Tesla. The XPeng P5 EV is a sleek saloon that’s billed as a rival to the Tesla Model 3.

The P5 has a range of up to 372 miles between charges, and it’s already available to order in European countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

There’s also some seriously impressive tech on offer.

The P5’s interior can be converted to a ‘mobile luxury suite’ - which basically transforms it into a campervan. Except you’re sleeping in a family coupe. It can also be had with a cinema screen and built-in fridge.

It’s priced from around £40,000 in Europe, £8,500 cheaper than the entry-level Model 3.

There’s rumours the P5 might not make it to Britain - in which case XPeng will concentrate on selling its larger P7 sedan instead.

Meanwhile there’s an even cheaper XPeng, in the form of the G3i crossover, which is already on sale in Norway. The G3i gets a range of up to 320 miles between charges and costs from around £30,000.

Lynk & Co

You might consider Lynk & Co a sister brand to Polestar - in that it’s owned by China’s Geely but headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden.

A new office was also recently opened in Berlin, Germany, as the manufacturer continues to cast its net across Europe.

Lynk & Co CEO Alain Visser recently told Auto Express how it is aiming to officially launch in the UK in 2023.

And while the firm’s ‘O1’ vehicle isn’t fully-electric, it’s a great-looking plug-in hybrid with a battery range of up to 42 miles - which is an impressive distance indeed.

In fact, the Lynk & Co 01 also shares its underpinnings with the highly-popular Volvo XC40, so you can be sure of its build quality.

The 01 was also recently awarded the full five stars from safety assessors Euro NCAP.

There’s an interior made from sustainable materials and all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from a modern PHEV, including a self-parking system.

The 01 starts at around £37,000.

NIO

Shanghai’s NIO specialises in electric vehicles, and also operates at the more ‘luxury’ end of the market.

The firm’s electric flagship is the NIO ES8 large SUV. It was launched in Norway in September last year, with a hefty price tag starting at around £50,000, and it’s now widely tipped to be the first NIO EV to arrive in the UK, too.

So, what’s the ES8 got going for it?

There’s a couple of different batteries up for grabs, a 75kWh and a larger 100kWh unit, the latter of which translates to a range of up to 310 miles between charges.

It’s a six or seven seater with bags of room for the family and 871 litres of luggage space if you fold the third row of seats flat.

Four-wheel-drive, power of 534 bhp and a 0-62mph time of just 4.9 seconds means it’s easy to see why the NIO ES8 is being compared with the Tesla Model Y.

There’s another NIO to watch out for - the ET7 saloon, a 644 bhp super saloon that’s just about quick enough to rival the Tesla Model S.

BYD

Never heard of China’s BYD? Hang your head in shame - as it’s officially the largest EV manufacturer in the world.

BYD predominantly sells vehicles in China but also exports cars to markets like Bahrain and Ukraine.

And in the first half of 2022 it sold 641,000 vehicles globally - almost 100,000 more than nearest rival Tesla. There’s some serious clout behind BYD, too, as it’s a manufacturer backed by American business magnate Warren Buffett.

You might also be surprised to learn that we’ve already got BYD vehicles on the road in the UK - in the form of the all-electric London buses, supplied in conjunction with Lancashire’s Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) coach builders.

So, what’s next for BYD?

The most likely BYD car to hit the UK is the HAN EV, a luxury saloon first earmarked for the European market back in 2020.

The HAN EV has a range of up to 376 miles and bags of power - so much so that it can hit 62mph from a standing start in 3.9 seconds.

There’s also autonomous driving tech on offer, as well as a relatively low asking price of around £38,000.

WM Motor

Of all the manufacturers on this list, WM Motor - or ‘Weltmeister’ as it’s also known - perhaps has longer odds on actually making it to the UK market.

But the start-up is promising big things, and delivered more than 3,000 vehicles in May alone in China.

One of the most recent cars revealed by WM Motor is the quirky-looking M7, an all-electric luxury coupe that’s bristling with tech.

The M7 promises a range of up to 434 miles between charges - which is almost on a par with the class-leading Mercedes-Benz EQS - while a bank of 32 sensors, including three lidars, means autonomous driving is very much a reality.

You can see the mounts for the lidar sensors on the top of the M7’s roof - one large one in the middle at the front, two smaller units left and right.

Italy appears to be the first European market that WM Motor is targeting - and you’d imagine the rest of the continent will follow if the so-called ‘e-limousine’ is successful there.

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