When it comes to Lantu, a high-end new energy brand that was only established in 2018, I believe many people will feel strange, but when it comes to its parent company Dongfeng Motor, it is almost a household name.
In fact, since the listing of its brand's first model, Lantu FREE, both the market volume and sales volume are very prosperous, and it seems to have the trend of becoming the first high-end new energy brand of independent large factories.
As for the key to Lantu FREE's ability to successfully stand in the 300,000-level medium and large SUV market, it must be its unique air suspension configuration at the same price. In order to show the super strength of this set of empty suspension, Lantu put up the "ring" of the air suspension challenge in Guangzhou on March 18th, inviting the cars of all riders to challenge, so the next Xiaobian will take everyone to find out together.
The appearance is outstanding, and the interior texture is bursting
In fact, the appearance of Lantu FREE is still relatively outstanding in the 300,000-level SUV market, after all, the medium and large SUV at this price point is more of a stable and atmospheric appearance, so Landu FREE has made a breakthrough in design after learning from the experience of its predecessors.
First of all, the appearance of Lantu FREE also gives people a sense of calm atmosphere, the intake grille extends from both sides to the headlights, with a narrow and sharp headlight group, so that the front part of the car looks very sharp, and with the next part of the X shape of the front bar design, but also in the calm reveals a little sense of movement, the front of the front of the car is very strong.
The side part, the hidden door handle, makes the whole side look very rounded, from the front cover to the body waist line at the rear trunk, which makes the whole car look more slender, quite a coupe feeling. The 20-inch blade wheels of each style have brought improvement to the athletic temperament of Landu FREE.
The rear part echoes the side of the body, appearing wide and rounded, and the slender taillight group runs through the entire tail. With the treatment of the upper rear windshield and the blackening of the bottom bumper, they echo each other, and the tail is particularly layered.
Turning your gaze to the interior of the car, you can see that the interior of the Lando FREE double color is very luxurious, and the steering wheel also adopts a double color design, which is currently more common in luxury cars. Coupled with a large amount of metal chrome decoration, the whole interior of the car looks very delicate. In addition, the triple screen runs through the entire center console, and also supports screen lifting and lowering (switching to "high-energy mode", that is, sports mode, the central control screen will be lowered, and the information will become more mobile and concise), full of technology.
What surprised me was that even fuel vehicles are now making the interior electronic like new energy vehicles, the interior of Landu FREE still retains some more practical buttons, which is very useful for me personally. Retaining these basic button designs makes me feel comfortable working. Therefore, for a person who is accustomed to driving a traditional fuel vehicle, it will be very fast for Landu FREE to get started, because its operation mode is exactly the same as that of a fuel vehicle.
Lantu FREE's performance in terms of space, as well as seat comfort is also very good, the front row is adjusted to my suitable sitting position (Xiaobian height 181CM), the seat is adjusted to the lowest, and the head space remains about one punch and two fingers. The seats have reached the level of luxury car workmanship in terms of materials and design, and even surpass the performance of models at the same price. And the front main and auxiliary seats all support seat heating ventilation and massage functions, which is also rare for more than 300,000 cars.
At the same time, the rear seats are as comfortable as the front seats, and it's worth mentioning that their headrests are soft, which is a plus if passengers want to sleep in the car during a long drive.
The front row is adjusted to my suitable sitting position, and there is still two punches in the back legroom.
The back head space also gave me a little surprise, there is also a punch head space (to the ceiling), and because of the adjustable canopy, Landu FREE canceled the ceiling sun curtain, so the actual head space should have a punch more than three fingers of head space, and considering its back shape, this rear space can be said to be excellent.
Against the Soaring Cayenne, Lando FREE is even better
After the end of the Lantu FREE static experience session, it was finally the turn of the editor to really open the Lantu FREE that he had in mind. The rules of this site test drive are: the test driver drives the Lantu FREE and compares more than 400,000 SUVs with air suspension as a comparison. A glass of water will be placed in the car, and the car with more water left after reaching the end wins. Compared with Lantu FREE, there are: Nio ES8, Porsche Cayenne, Ideal ONE (competitors at the same price, not more than 400,000 price points, only equipped with suspension soft and hard adjustment).
Xiaobian compares the models and chooses the most expensive Porsche Cayenne. The first turn of test drive is Lantu FREE, Xiaobian adjusted it to a custom mode (set the comfort, the chassis height is adjusted to moderate). The first thing that gave me when I opened it was that the small bumps were very well filtered. When there are too many speed belts, the air suspension constantly adjusts the softness and support. When it comes to the larger bumpy pits, the support is also sufficient, and the car does not bounce too much.
When the cross shaft is too small, the noise of the Landu FREE chassis is well controlled, and the body is crisp and clean, very smooth. When going up the stairs, the front suspension and rear suspension work well together, because when I just climb up, the front of the car does not lift very abruptly, and I can also feel the front suspension of the front of the car adjusting autonomously, so that the up and downhill posture of the entire body is kept very stable.
After the test drive of the Lando FREE, I changed to the Porsche Cayenne, I set the comfort mode and adjusted the suspension to the softest. When Cayenne started multiple speed bumps, the difference with Lantu FREE was immediately felt. Porsche itself is the main sport of the brand, even if it is its SUV model, tuning is also more sporty, so when too many speed bumps, the bumps will be larger than Lantu (the car is also the place where Cayenne water spills the most), but fortunately the support is still very strong, after all, it is a sports-oriented model.
Coming to the small cross-axle part, this Cayenne's suspension is still very well handled, whether it is in terms of noise or in the body posture are well controlled, including the up and down steps, the downhill posture of the body has been handled very well, which is also the texture of a million-level SUV.
In the end, the amount of water left in LandoFRE was 390.4 grams, and the amount of water left in Porsche Cayenne was 364.4 grams. The biggest difference between the two cars is that on the bumps when passing the speed bump, the air suspension of Lantu will be more gentle. But this is not to say that cayenne is not handled well, after all, it is a sporty SUV model, it pays more attention to support and handling. But overall, the LandoFRE, which sold less than half the price of Cayenne, won the final victory, doesn't this prove its hard power?
The site test drive part is over, and finally to the most anticipated highway test drive link of the editor, after all, the various road conditions encountered in the highway test drive can most intuitively reflect the driving texture of the whole car. First of all, let's talk about the power data of the Lantu FREE extender version driven by Xiaobian, which is equipped with a 1.5T range extender + front and rear dual motor configuration, the maximum power of the system is 510kW, the peak torque is 1040N·m, and the acceleration of 100 kilometers takes only 4.5 seconds, which can be described as very grumpy.
But the actual drive, because it is the reason of the city road, I did not carry out some acceleration and deceleration operation, after all, considering the very deep power reserve of Lantu FREE, I was afraid that I would speed up with one foot on the accelerator, but when I overtook the action, the acceleration brought by the motor was very smooth, and there was almost no delay, and the lights, lane changes, and overtaking actions were all in one go.
At the same time, the feeling brought to me by the chassis of the Lando FREE vehicle is still very quiet, and the small bumps are handled very comfortably, almost impossible to feel. When encountering big ups and downs, the car is very supportive, and there is no excessive bounce when crossing the hurdles, which is a big plus for the driving sense.
Landu FREE also does a good job in terms of comfort and sound insulation, when many new energy vehicles are pursuing bezel-less shapes, Landu FREE still adopts a door frame design, coupled with the treatment of double-layer laminated glass, the sound insulation effect is naturally nothing to say. Anyway, I personally pursue the quietness of driving, and I am not too interested in the flashy configuration of frameless doors. In addition, during the test drive of the day, although I sat in the car most of the time, fortunately, the main and auxiliary seats supported massage/ventilation/heating functions, so it greatly alleviated my driving fatigue.
Write at the end
In general, as the only model equipped with air suspension in the field of 300,000 SUV, Landu FREE's performance in driving comfort is unquestionable, and its design of the sporty style in the appearance is also very pleasing, plus the cockpit with both texture and sense of technology, it can be said that in the 300,000-400,000 price SUV, Landu FREE gives a lot of sincerity, cost-effective, so it is not hot who is hot to sell?