The car we're going to test drive today has 510 kilowatts, 1040 Nm of power, and 100 km/h acceleration in just 4.6 seconds. Many people may have the impression that only supercars have such capabilities, but it is a domestic range-extended electric vehicle that only needs more than 300,000 yuan to buy - it is Lantu FREE.
Lantu this brand was born for a long time, it is a high-end new energy brand under Dongfeng Motor, and it was officially unveiled at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show. And FREE is the first product of Lantu, positioned in the medium and large new energy SUV, in fact, there are three different power versions, our test drive of this is a four-wheel drive extended range version, equipped with a 1.5T engine to match the dual motor; the other two versions are single motor two-wheel drive pure electric version and four-wheel drive pure electric version, two-wheel drive pure electric version also has comparable to 3.0T fuel vehicle power, and four-wheel drive pure electric version and this car is equivalent.
The appearance design of Lantu FREE is still a relatively stable state, there is no big opening, big fit, imaginative design, it is even closer to the fuel vehicle, such as the straight waterfall type net will make people think of Volvo or Maserati.
The integrated LED headlights are connected to the middle network, and there is a through-type LED light strip, and the middle is a LOGO inspired by Kunpeng; the front face is more characteristic of the design of the bumper, which is an X shape.
There are three highlights on the side of the body: first, four meters nine long and using a short front and rear overhang design, so that the body looks slender, which is why it looks different from other new energy SUVs; second, the height of the car is only 1645mm, the ground clearance is 163mm, plus 20-inch large wheels, it looks low; third, the design near the D-pillar is like a coupe SUV, and at the same time has a little sense of sight of a station wagon, so it is destined to be a maverick SUV.
The design of the tail is actually very simple, everyone can identify it from the rear, just need to know the English name "VOYAH", which means "Voyage". The visual center is basically concentrated in the through-type arrow feather tail lamp, which is also more recognizable.
I personally find the interior of the car more interesting than the exterior. First of all, the overall use of wrap-around interior design, but also quite a sense of security. Secondly, three 12.3-inch joint screen, which is very new energy vehicle style, the most interesting is that the screen can be lifted and lowered as a whole, and can also switch between day and night two modes, we can understand it as the sun rises and sets, or a sense of ceremony of a novel design.
Of course, it also has a traditional side, the steering wheel is a normal flat bottom, the grip is not bad; the gear handle is also very traditional, in fact, I think it should be equipped with a more aggressive steering wheel and gear shape, in order to fit such a personality of the screen.
There are still points in the interior that I appreciate, one is that the workmanship is very solid, worthy of the price of 300,000; the other is that its front storage space is more sufficient, in addition to the two storage slots on the door panel, there is a large groove design below the central control; originally thought that due to the relatively low height of the body will affect the sitting posture, but in fact, the height of 180cm I sat in after sitting in is still generous enough, this concern can be dispelled.
However, although Landu FREE is positioned as a medium and large SUV, it only offers a five-seat version at present, so it is not dominant compared to the ideal ONE and NIO ES8 with a price close. The comfort of the rear seats is also good, the more comfortable is the backrest and headrest, but the thickness of the cushion is slightly thinner, but it is good to do a good job in the leg support.
The 2960mm wheelbase creates a rear legroom of about two and a half fists, but the head space is only about four fingers. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the panoramic canopy of Lantu FREE is a whole piece of glass, with ten levels of adjustable transmittance, this technology is similar to the suspension window of the Boeing 787 aircraft, or very advanced.
Because the Landu FREE is a large five-seat design, so the space left for the trunk is relatively sufficient, and the volume of 560 liters also indicates that its load space allocation is heavy on the trunk, and if the rear seats are completely flat, it can be increased to 1320 liters.
When you turn the Lantu FREE up, you will find that its power is indeed very abundant, converted down to more than six hundred horses of power, thousands of Nm of torque, at any time can maintain full power full of full output, even in the economic model - because the economic model is only about 30% of the power limit, the hand of food is not afraid of hunger, as long as you dare to step, it dares to come. Even in the economic model, there is a strong sense of pushback.
So you can imagine what it's like to switch to sport mode with unreserved power output? It was so cool! Fuel car supercar may not be able to make people dizzy for a second, it can! It was so cool!
At the same time, it is necessary to introduce the operation logic of its extender power. In addition to the two motors as the power source, there is also a rated power of 60kW 1.5T engine, which can reach more than 80kW in some working conditions, the range extender will be opened in two cases - one is a sharp acceleration, for the battery continuous charging to ensure stable voltage and current, the other is when the power is less than 21% will automatically start the range extender.
I tried to start it manually when the battery was plentiful, but I couldn't find a way, and the intention of the Lantu engineer was obvious - as little as possible to start the range extender to consume fuel. Because the battery on this version is only 33kWh, the official pure electric mileage is 150 kilometers, but like the ideal ONE, there is no mileage anxiety with the range extender, which is the biggest difference from the pure electric version.
Of course, Lantu FREE is not stupid fast, the chassis is also quite solid, the front double wishbone after the multi-link, in addition to the tough adjustment, the driving stability is of great help, and the control is not bad, the steering directivity is excellent, the body response is also relatively fast, although the self-weight is large but not clumsy. Overall, its road performance is better than the ideal ONE.
Don't look at this Lantu FREE body posture is a bit low feeling, in fact, its ground clearance is not low, this four-wheel drive extended range version of the luxury set has 163mm ground clearance, and we are familiar with the Audi Q5L is almost the same. So what about its ability to get more? Today we deliberately pulled it to the professional off-road venue - Tianfu International Off-Road Circuit to try it out.
At the beginning we were worried that the performance of the land free in the professional off-road field would be more general, but in fact this worry is a bit redundant, the land map free is equipped with a set of air suspension system, when we choose the outing mode, the chassis will automatically rise by 50mm, at this time the ground clearance to 213mm, the passability is greatly increased.
In the real experience, the air suspension chassis of Lantu FREE has obvious effects in dealing with the three projects of sand, mud and three consecutive humps, if it is not to improve the ground clearance, it is inevitable to bump the chassis.
Coupled with the fact that Landu FREE has very good power support and an electric four-wheel drive system, it becomes much easier to pass, even if it adopts a set of off-road performance tires, there will be no obvious slippage after being covered with mud, and the efficient four-wheel drive system is indispensable.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the triad hump itself is a project with high requirements for various conditions of the vehicle - ground clearance, approach angle, departure angle, power, etc. The short front and rear suspension design of Lantu FREE also enhances the ability to pass to a certain extent, so it does not encounter too many problems when passing the triple hump.
With the confidence built up in the three-degree hump project, we also challenged the most difficult "good Han slope" in the whole field, and this three-in-a-row "good Han slope" is steeper than one, although the first slope of about 15 degrees is very easy to pass, but the second slope of about 25 degrees is a little worrying, because at the same time as trying the Lantu FREE, we also let Highlander try to climb, and the result was no accident, and the Highlander, who did not have enough torque power, lost the battle.
Compared with Highlander, Landu FREE as long as to overcome the problem of proximity angle, successfully up the slope, more than a thousand meters of torque to play a considerable advantage, driving it will feel the start of the moment of full power, riveting a momentum upwards, let people have the confidence to step on the electric gate control direction and climb with it, the result is not much slippage on it - in fact, at the beginning we all thought it could not go up.
The last slope is about 5 degrees more, to a level of about 32 degrees. At this point, we already knew that there was no problem in going up with its power, but there were still many large pits cut out by professional off-road vehicles on this slope, and I was really a little worried about the ground clearance of Lantu FREE, and then gave up sprinting to the third slope.
Here everyone should see very clearly, the so-called force big flying brick, as long as other hardware conditions keep up with a little, you can do a lot of unexpected things, Lantu FREE in the off-road field performance is unexpected and there are small surprises.
summary:
This is currently a 300,000-level high-end new energy vehicle created by domestic traditional car companies, perhaps its design concept is not as radical as Wei Xiaoli, but in general, it can still show a relatively high product level.
Impressive is the liftable triple screen and the maximum torque of the kiloton, which accelerates rapidly; but it uses a large five-seat design, which has a lower manpower capacity than the six/seven-seater model.
So what do you think of this unique 300,000-level new energy medium and large SUV, we see in the message area.
Off-road venue acknowledgements: Chengdu Tianfu International Circuit
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