Good looks, space, solid battery life, and cheap. Test drive the small pure electric SUV Maple Leaf 30X

In the past year, with the sharp decline in subsidies for electric vehicles, the cost-effectiveness of electric vehicles has once again been highlighted. Many car companies with limited technical level or insufficient cost control are facing the trend of low product cost performance and gradually being marginalized by the market. Especially for micro and small electric vehicles, when subsidies are high, the cost-effectiveness issue is not prominent and everyone sells well. However, once subsidies decline, most micro and small electric vehicle products are quickly eliminated. In the popular "national car" market, there are very few models that can still sell well.

On April 10 this year, Maple Leaf Motors, a new electric vehicle brand under Geely Group, launched its first model - Maple Leaf 30X. The car is a pure electric SUV with a size between the A00 class and the A0 class. This makes the Maple Leaf 30X have the quality and space of an A0 class electric SUV at the top, and the price of an A00 class electric car at the bottom, making it a micro and a highly cost-effective representative in the small electric vehicle market.

Appearance - good-looking, youthful

Friends who are familiar with Geely models should be familiar with the Maple Leaf 30X. The car is built from the Geely Vision X3, and its overall shape is basically the same as that of the Geely Vision X3. The Vision X3 is the same, but has been adjusted in some details.

On the front face, the Maple Leaf 30X replaces the air intake grille with a fully enclosed star-shaped polygonal grille, and it is equipped with the Maple Leaf Automobile logo.

Below the logo is the fast and slow charging interface of the Maple Leaf 30X. The Maple Leaf 30X can be charged from 30% to 80% in fast charging mode in 0.5 hours, and it takes 7 hours to charge from 0 to full in slow charging.

The hawk-eye headlights are blackened, paired with lined-up daytime running lights and a through-type lower grille, making the Maple Leaf 30X look very sporty.

The Maple Leaf 30X is between the A00 and A0 levels. Its body length, width and height are 4005/1760/1575mm respectively, and the wheelbase is 2480mm. The swooping waistline on the side of the car body presents a visual effect of low front and high rear. Together with the suspended roof and the raised wheel eyebrow lines at the front and rear, it creates a good sense of hierarchy for the car. Judging from the design of the body, the Maple Leaf 30X mainly targets the younger user group.

The Maple Leaf 30X is equipped with petal-style wheels and a diamond-cut design, making it visually more sharp and dynamic. It is made of new aluminum alloy material, which is light in weight, strong in bearing capacity and better in heat dissipation. Low rolling resistance tires can effectively reduce friction with the ground and reduce energy consumption. These tires can increase the mileage of the Maple Leaf 30X by 2%.

The highlight of the rear part of the car is the bumper. The C-shaped reflective light strip area and the silver anti-scratch guard enhance the quality of the car. Together with the LED taillights, the Maple Leaf 30X looks more fashionable. .

Generally speaking, thanks to the mature design of the Vision X3, the appearance of the Maple Leaf 30X is not as cramped and mediocre as ordinary micro electric cars. Compared with the same level and price models in terms of visual sense, the Maple Leaf 30X 30X is more fashionable, dynamic and full of youthful vitality, especially suitable for young female users.

Interior - simple and practical

As for the interior, the Maple Leaf 30X also follows the design style of the Vision X3. It is relatively simple, but has all the functions and is more practical.

The interior is mainly black and white, with blue line decorations in some detailed areas such as air-conditioning outlets, gear areas, and edges of seats and armrests, highlighting its identity as an electric vehicle.

Compared with many mini cars and small cars that use very bright colors to embellish the interior to enhance the car’s sense of vitality, the cool color scheme of the Maple Leaf 30X highlights the car’s level. and style and texture.

The 7-inch LCD instrument can display basic vehicle information such as speed, battery capacity, remaining cruising range, driving mode, kinetic energy recovery level, etc. It does not have too many fancy functions and only displays the most critical information for driving.

The setting of the multi-function steering wheel is also relatively simple and convenient. The left side is the cruise control setting, and the right side is the Bluetooth phone and Bluetooth playback buttons. At the same time, the time, mileage measurement and other values ??in the instrument can be set.

Different from the general touch-screen central control screen, the Maple Leaf 30X’s central control color 8-inch LCD screen can be operated through the touch screen and is also equipped with physical buttons. It can also directly issue commands through wake-up words. . Whether you are a technology expert or a user who is accustomed to using buttons, you can get started quickly.

Currently, human-computer interaction has become very popular in electric vehicle products. However, due to cost constraints, many electric vehicle products under 80,000 yuan still rely on manual operation, such as the Maple Leaf 30X, a 6- Not many cars worth 70,000 yuan can realize intelligent voice interaction, which also reflects the intelligence level of Maple Leaf 30X.

The central control screen is equipped with functions such as Amap navigation, millions of online music, smart APP car manager, vehicle information query, schedule management, online information query, etc. It is also compatible with car play and car life mobile phone mapping functions.

The entire central control screen is relatively smooth to use, and there is no lag or delay in the operation of the central control screen of some models in the same price range. Voice interaction also recognizes commands more accurately.

Unlike many electric models that use a knob-type shifting structure, the Maple Leaf 30X still uses a lever-type shifting structure, and the gear setting is relatively simple, even for people who have never been exposed to electric cars. operate.

Space - the most spacious in its price range

The most cost-effective aspect of the Maple Leaf 30X is its space advantage. The size of this car is between the A00 and A0 classes, and is officially defined as an A0-class model. This allows the Maple Leaf 30X, which has the same price range as the A00 class, to outperform other products in the same price range in terms of space.

We compared the Maple Leaf 30X with the two products that are currently the largest in minicars and also have the leading sales. It can be seen from the data of the body parameters that compared with the Euler R1 and Chery Ant in the same price range, the Maple Leaf 30X exceeds the other two models in terms of body length, width, height, and wheelbase.

The person experiencing the test in the picture is 167cm tall, which is considered to be above the average height among Chinese women. After adjusting the driving position, there is about two punches of space for the head according to the roof of the car.

When sitting in the back row, not only does the headroom have a punch, but the legroom is also very obvious. It can be said that for users of average stature, the space comfort provided by Maple Leaf 30X is absolutely unique in the same price range.

It is particularly worth mentioning that although it is a small car with limited loading space for power batteries, through reasonable space layout, the rear floor mats of Maple Leaf 30X do not increase significantly, which greatly Improves the comfort of rear seats in small electric vehicles.

In addition to the driving space, the loading capacity of the Maple Leaf 30X is also the best among models in the same price range. Since its body length, width and height are longer than other products in the same price range, its trunk space is also far better than competing products. With the rear seats folded down in equal proportions, the Maple Leaf 30X can obtain a loading capacity that even A-class cars cannot have.

Driving experience - agile and comfortable

The Maple Leaf 30X is equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous motor with a maximum power of 70kW and a maximum torque of 180N·m, with a maximum speed of 120km/h. At the same time, the closed front grille of the Maple Leaf 30X and the optimization of the flatness of the vehicle's bottom surface and the body lines bring it a low wind resistance of 0.35Cd. The 0-50km/h acceleration time of the Maple Leaf 30X is 4.5 seconds.

We still use the Euler R1 and Chery Ant in the same price range as the Maple Leaf 30X for comparison. We can see that the power performance of the Maple Leaf 30X far exceeds that of the R1 and the Ant, which can be said to be within 80,000 yuan. Among pure electric products, the power performance of Maple Leaf 30X is unparalleled.

In terms of power batteries, the Maple Leaf 30X uses ternary lithium batteries produced by Guoxuan Hi-Tech, with a NEDC comprehensive operating range of 306km. One thing worth mentioning in particular is that the power battery system of the Maple Leaf 30X has an energy density of up to 160Wh/kg. This energy density is not popular among higher-level pure electric models. Currently, most electric models of independent brands have The energy density is concentrated between 140Wh/kg-160Wh/kg. It can be seen that Maple Leaf Motors is relatively cheap in the most critical components of electric vehicles. Maple Leaf Motors provides an 8-year or 150,000-kilometer battery warranty for the battery.

Like most pure electric vehicles, the Maple Leaf 30X also has two driving modes: ECO and Sport. When the vehicle is in ECO mode, its starting acceleration will be limited, but it is still better than most fuel vehicles. At the same time, in ECO mode, after the vehicle accelerates to 100km/h, the electric pedal will become relatively heavy. If you want to continue to speed up, you need to apply more force to the pedal.

When switched to Sport mode, the acceleration performance of the Maple Leaf 30X will be quite obvious, and it can basically beat most ordinary-priced fuel models in seconds at the starting stage. And when the vehicle speed increases to 100km/h, it can still accelerate smoothly and continuously, which is something that cannot be experienced in models of the same price range. Although the maximum speed of the car announced by the manufacturer is 120km/h, after actual testing we found that the performance of the Maple Leaf 30X can be even better.

What is particularly important to mention here is that Maple Leaf 30X has excellent NVH performance. Through the application of acoustic packaging technology, the noise source can be blocked on the propagation path. When driving the Maple Leaf 30X, when the speed is below 80km/h, the quietness in the car is completely unmatched by models in the same price range.

In addition to the two driving modes, the Maple Leaf 30X also has 3 power recovery modes to choose from during driving. L1 level is the lightest mode, and the driving experience is the same as that of a fuel vehicle; L2 level will have a dragging feeling when the electric pedal is put away; L3 level has a stronger power recovery, and the feeling will be more obvious after the electric pedal is put away The deceleration has the same effect as pressing the brake pedal slightly harder on a fuel vehicle.

In terms of battery life, the performance of Maple Leaf 30X is also remarkable. On the day of the test drive, we set off from the Atlantis Hotel in Sanya Haitang Bay and headed to Boundary Island. There were 4 people sitting in the car at a time. Since the weather in Hainan is relatively hot and humid, we chose to turn on the air conditioner the whole time, and the air volume was not small. Most of the road from the hotel to Fenjiezhou Island is a highway. Since there are not many cars, we basically keep driving at high speed, with an average speed of more than 100km/h.

When we set off, the Maple Leaf 30X we drove had a remaining cruising range of 269km. When we arrived at the destination, the subtotal showed that it had traveled 61.6km and had a remaining cruising range of 192km. The meter showed a power failure of 77km and a power outage. The ratio is 1:1.25. For carrying four adults with full air conditioning and high-speed driving, the Maple Leaf 30X’s battery life performance is relatively solid.

Editor’s comment: The pre-sale price of Maple Leaf 30X after subsidies is 68,800-79,800 yuan. This price range is basically the same as the Euler R1 and Chery Ant on the market. From the perspective of model size, power performance and workmanship quality, the Maple Leaf 30X is stronger than these two competing products. The R1 and Little Ant both had good sales performance in the first quarter of this year, and are also the two core models supporting Euler and Chery New Energy. From this, it can be expected that the market prospects of the Maple Leaf 30X will be very promising after its launch.

If the arrival of domestic Tesla has redefined the market trend of mid-to-high-end pure electric vehicles in my country, then the Maple Leaf 30X will redefine the cost-effective choice of micro and small pure electric vehicles.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.