Driving the Onvo L60, China’s Best Model Y Killer to Date

MotorTrend

It’s roomier

Transcript

00:00I'm Frank Marcus with Motor Trend and I'm here outside Shanghai, China sampling the

00:11products of the company NIO. Now we've discussed how NIO is kind of the Tesla of China. A lot of

00:17similarities. Tesla does superchargers, NIO does battery swapping. Very tech heavy, very software

00:24intensive, very over the air, updatable. This is the closest thing to a Model Y available in China

00:33and it is not from NIO even though that looks like an N on the hood. This is from their sub-brand

00:38Anvo. This is the Anvo L60 and by all objective measures this is kind of a Tesla Model Y L.

00:46In China they always like a little more back seat room. So the wheelbase is two inches longer,

00:51the overall length is about three inches longer, the height's a little bit lower and all the specs

00:56are very close. Power and torque right on top of each other just about. Acceleration very, very similar.

01:04Aerodynamics are very close. This one's got a slight edge 0.229 versus 0.236 on the drag coefficient

01:12and a little bit less frontal area thanks to narrower tires and smaller frameless very aerodynamic

01:17mirrors. This one has got the full self-driving situation on vision only. That's why there's no

01:24lidar hump in the middle here. Design wise it's very similar to the Model Y also although it was

01:30designed by a designer from Bentley. But very much the same form language, very clean, very nice.

01:38We're here to find out is it a better Model Y or not. One of the big differences between the Model Y

01:44and this Envo L60 is the interior. Much dressier, still minimalist, very much in the oeuvre of the

01:52Model Y, but much dressier. Nicer materials, more comfort, a larger 17-inch screen as opposed to about

02:0015 on the Tesla. The nice bright contrast, white versus dark. Envo allows four different interior

02:07designs, different colors, including purple, which believe it or not is 40% of the Chinese market

02:13is opting for purple. Another thing that's important to know is that it is a single spec.

02:18They are all this nice. They all have these super cushy seats with ventilation, heating, and massage.

02:27Heating only in the rear. That's standard on all of them. Everything you see is standard. You only

02:33choose 60 or 85 kilowatt hour battery and whether you want rear wheel drive or all wheel drive and

02:40then you have the colors. And there are a lot of cool colors. Apparently 20% of people go for purple

02:45on the outside. And it's also important to know that this car is about $7,000 cheaper if you buy the

02:52battery with this car and you buy the battery obviously on all Tesla Model Ys. The difference

02:57here is that Envo offers an option of renting or leasing the battery. So battery as a service. Now all owners

03:05of all Envos can take advantage of the battery swapping stations of which there should be about

03:112000 available by this June. Not every Neo standard battery swapping station can handle every car.

03:20So this one will need a third generation with upgrades or fourth generation. But anyway, that lowers the

03:27price even further. So you can get one of these with this interior for a lot less than a Tesla in China.

03:35Look mom, no hands. So I'm flying out camp mode in the Envo L60. This would be a handy way if you

03:43wanted to sleep. They make little mattress overlays that can go on here. But also, even if you're not

03:51camping, a lot of Chinese people might take their children to swim lessons or something and wait for

03:57them for two hours. And this is a wonderful comfortable place to watch a movie or play a game on either of the

04:04two screens here. There's a further mode where you can just put the back seats down and they make some

04:09beds that will also go across that. This is quite comfortable. And you also need to notice that the

04:15front passenger seat comes standard with a footrest and the footrest is also heated.

04:21So I've only been at the helm a few minutes here. First impressions, this is a vastly nicer interior than

04:30the Tesla Model Y. Much higher grade materials. The 16 million color ambient lighting we were

04:41enjoying in the garage down there dresses up the interior quite a bit. And this seat is really nice.

04:48Another interesting thing about the Envo L60 is it's one spec. You change the color and the wheels,

04:55but everything in here, including the heated seats, the air-conditioned seats and the massaging seat,

05:02come standard. You only pick rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. And you pick the battery size and the

05:09color. So it's a much higher standard spec than a Tesla. This is a 17-inch screen. How big is the Tesla?

05:17Tesla is maybe 15.6. Okay. Ours is bigger. Unfortunately, I can't fully assess the UX because

05:26it's all in Chinese here, but I can again tell that, you know, we've got a main menu bar across

05:33the bottom with the most frequently selected things. And I've got this one, a single finger swipe down

05:42brings you your controls for the steering wheel and the mirrors and so forth like that. And then there

05:48are areas, right? This can be, right now we have a navigation on just the one side, but we can have

05:56that in a smaller part. We can have it full screen. So we are navigate on autopilot right now. And there,

06:03it is still hands-on, but it's a kind of capacitive touch system, which is infinitely superior to the

06:09torque detection ones, because those are constantly asking you to wiggle the steering wheel if you

06:14haven't had to steer for the last little while. So the software defined nature of this car is one of

06:20the big comparisons with Tesla. And it's a little ahead in the zonal architecture and the domain

06:27controller situation where they have more centralization and less cabling and copper. So

06:35less mass and greater range with that and probably better over the air firmware and software update.

06:43Navigate on autopilot just decided to go around on the right here. That's an unusual situation to an

06:49American. I'm liking the orange seat belts and there's orange stitching on the, uh, more spotty.

06:56Yes, on the seats and on the dorm armrests and the center console, all very upscale looking. Dolby Atmos with the,

07:04uh, up high speakers. Of course, if we were dark enough right now, we can set the ambient lighting to

07:11be pulsing with the music. And of course, all week we've been talking about how NEO is kind of like

07:18the Tesla of China in that Tesla solved the charging anxiety problem by building superchargers all over

07:27whatever country they operate in. And NEO has been building, uh, swap stations. So you would,

07:34it's better than supercharging if you don't have to sit there for 20 or 30 minutes. And of course,

07:38they're, they're also very much like Tesla in so far as very tech forward, very software focused.

07:44Their electric motors are, are built in house and designed in house. And so it's very interesting to

07:48be driving, you know, the most direct competitor for the most popular electric car in the world,

07:54versus the Tesla. And of course, you know, you drive this car and you think, well, you know,

07:59why doesn't this sell Tesla? It's a much nicer car. Uh, you know, the performance is on par. It's

08:07better tailored to the Chinese market, but there's, uh, a lot of sales inertia for the, uh, prime mover in

08:16the space. So I've just spent the day in the new Envo L60, the NEO corporation's answer to the Model Y.

08:25Uh, is it a Model Y competitor? Absolutely. It's a more Chinese one, more space in the back,

08:31more comfortable riding. Is it not quite as sharp edged? It won't handle and go around turns quite

08:37as quickly and briskly as the Model Y would. I also miss the fact that it doesn't have one pedal driving.

08:43We get that in the U S but then again, the Chinese market doesn't value that as much.

08:47So I see why they left it out. All we're looking for here too in China is what are the elements of

08:52this car that we'd love to see come to America, even if they don't come in this car. The domain

08:58controller zonal architecture that has reduced so much copper wiring in this car allows this larger

09:05car to weigh the same as the Model Y. That's something we need. We also need the blazing hot speed

09:11that this operating system, SkyOS, allows of this car. Everything, the button touches on the screen

09:16are instant. Would I like to see this car in the U S? Absolutely. I'd love to have heated massage

09:23and ventilated seats in a $29,000 car. It's not going to happen. For more on this car and all the other

09:30Chinese cars we're driving this week, stop by MotorTrend.com.

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