Since the birth of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, entry-level pure electric cars have become a must for major brands. Subsequently, hot-selling models such as the Dolphin, Seagull, Binguo, and Lumin were born. Seeing other car companies drinking soup and eating meat, Dongfeng, a veteran central enterprise, will naturally not sit still. In August this year, Dongfeng released its new electric vehicle brand, Nano, and brought its first model, the Nano 01.
As a small electric vehicle, the Nano 01 is larger in size than Seagull and Binguo, and is close to that of a dolphin. At the same time, it also provides two versions of CLTC with a range of 330 and 430km, and the pre-sale price is only 79,800-109,800 yuan. Not only is the top configuration nearly 7000 yuan cheaper than the Dolphin entry version, but also the low configuration is comparable to the price of the middle configuration of the Seagull, and the pricing is very sincere. Just recently, we took the lead in test driving the nano 01 in Guangzhou, let's take a look at the performance of this small electric car produced by central enterprises and affordable people?
As we all know, batteries account for a high proportion of the cost of electric vehicles, especially for this entry-level model with a price of 80,000 yuan, the battery cost may account for more than half. Therefore, for many car companies, in order to make cheap small electric vehicles profitable, they have to reduce costs on the chassis that users do not care much about. Structurally speaking, Nano 01 has no surprises, and still adopts the mainstream front MacPherson and rear torsion beam structures of the same level.
Considering its price, as well as the cost constraints, I didn't expect anything from the Nano 01 to drive at first. However, when I actually drove Nano 01, I realized that my opinion was too absolute. In fact, this car is not cheap to drive, and when dealing with small shocks such as common small bumps on the road surface and manhole covers, the overall performance of the Nano 01's chassis is relatively tight and solid, and there is no loose feeling. In addition to this, the suspension will also feed small compression and rebound action directly into the body, giving it a certain sporty feel.
In addition, the stretch damping of the shock absorber of the nano 01 is relatively large, and when encountering ups and downs on the urban expressway, the shock absorber can quickly suppress the body throwing and jumping, and it is quite stable to drive. And thanks to its compact size and excellent suspension support, the Nano 01 also looks confident when changing lanes quickly, and it feels like a European car.
In terms of chassis sound processing, the Nano 01 also gives a good impression. For example, when its front and rear wheels run over the seams of the road surface, the chassis is not a fine, thin sound, but two thick "dong dong" sounds, which sound very European.
When it comes to driving experience, the most satisfying thing about this car is the steering feel. In terms of steering tuning, the nano 01 is comfortable overall, the steering wheel damping is lighter, and the steering wheel is only about 1.6 laps from the middle to the side, so it's usually quite easy to drive.
With the change of steering wheel angle and vehicle speed, the change of steering wheel strength of Nano 01 also makes people feel more comfortable and natural, and it also retains a certain amount of road sense feedback, so that the steering is so light that people feel bored to drive. Especially when turning around on the spot and letting go of the steering wheel to automatically return to normal, the speed and strength of the steering wheel of this car are linear and soft enough, without any sense of abruptness. To be honest, an electric car with a starting price of 80,000 yuan can do a better steering feel than some joint venture oil cars of 100,000 yuan, which is really a bit surprising.
In terms of braking, the Nano 01 uses floating calipers both front and rear, and the brake pedal of this car is relatively light, and the braking force is linear enough. Therefore, in congested urban areas, Nano 01 is better to control the distance with the car. As for the motor kinetic energy recovery, this car has three modes: weak, medium and strong, in addition to the weak, the motor intervention of the other two modes is more obvious, and in the mode with the strongest kinetic energy recovery, the drag feeling when the car is coasting is relatively large.
As an electric vehicle with a limited cost, the chassis of the Nano 01 cannot be exhaustive. In terms of ride comfort, the Nano 01 doesn't perform as well as its driving feel. For example, when driving on slightly uneven roads, it may be because the shock absorber's low-speed compression damping is large and the suspension feedback is more sensitive, so the slight ups and downs of the road surface will make the body sway quickly from side to side.
On the continuous undulating road, the soft spring setting in the front and the hard in the rear, coupled with the large shock absorber damping, will cause the body to shake quickly before and after. For passengers sitting in the back, these body movements are not comfortable enough. Overall, the Nano 01's chassis tuning is more European style, with a strong focus on the driving experience, but also a slight sacrifice for rear comfort.
As the core component of the electric vehicle, the Nano 01 is equipped with a 10-in-1 electric drive system codenamed ID3-70. Different from the current mainstream 8-in-1 electric drive system, the 10-in-1 electric drive system integrates PTC controller and thermal management controller (TMCU) into a controller assembly on the basis of 8-in-1, which further reduces the volume and weight of the electric drive system and makes it more convenient to arrange. In terms of integration, this is probably the most advanced electric drive system among small electric vehicles at present.
As for the power, the Nano 01 adopts a single-motor front-wheel drive layout, with a maximum motor power of 70kW, a peak torque of 160N·m, and a top speed of 140km/h. Compared with the slightly lower price of the BYD Seagull, the Nano 01 is higher in terms of motor power, torque, and top speed.
In fact, in the 0-60km/h speed range commonly used in urban areas, it is not difficult for this motor to drive the 1312kg Nano 01. Even when you switch to sport mode, this car is quite "rushing" at the start, which can basically meet the needs of urban transportation. However, once the speed exceeds 60 km/h, the acceleration of the car is noticeably weaker, and if there are still a few people in the car, the speed on the dashboard will only slowly increase even if you press the electric door all the way down. In fact, this is also the norm of low-cost electric vehicles at present, which is more suitable for urban transportation and not suitable for high-speed running.
Different from other small electric vehicles, the Nano 01 adopts the only frameless door in its class, although it looks elegant and stylish, but the frameless door also puts forward higher requirements for body sealing performance. In terms of actual experience, the static sound insulation performance of Nano 01 is average. For example, when waiting for a traffic light, if a diesel truck is parked next to it, the roar of the diesel engine can be heard more clearly in the car.
In terms of dynamic sound insulation, the Nano 01 is equipped with a thicker single layer of glass in the front row, and the rear window glass is of a more conventional thickness. At speeds below 80km/h, the Nano 01's wind noise performance is still good.
In terms of tire noise, the original model we tested was equipped with 215/55 R17 Wanli SP022 tires, which are mainly comfortable and silent. From the perspective of actual experience, when driving on a relatively delicate asphalt road, the "rumble" sound produced by the rolling of nano 01 tires is relatively light, and the passengers in the car can communicate with normal speech.
On the old, rough asphalt pavement, the "rumble" of the Nano 01's tires is also within an acceptable range, and it will not make people feel particularly irritated. Limited by the test conditions, I did not experience the high-speed sound insulation performance of the vehicle above 100km/h this time, but in terms of daily urban transportation, the sound insulation of the Nano 01 is satisfactory.
In terms of range, Nano 01 is equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries with two capacities of 31.45 and 42.30kWh, and the corresponding CLTC range is 330 and 430km respectively. However, in terms of battery arrangement, the Nano 01 is a bit like the early BYD electric car, its battery pack is more convex than the lifting point under the side beam, which is the lowest point of the vehicle chassis. Therefore, when driving the Nano 01, I must always be careful of the bumps on the road to avoid injuring the battery.
In terms of charging performance, Nano 01 supports home AC slow charging, DC fast charging, and 3.3kW external discharge functions. In fast charging mode, the charging time of 30-80% power is 30 minutes, which is considered the current mainstream level.
In terms of specific range, we tested the 430km long-range version, the outside temperature was 14°C, there were 4 adults in the car, I adjusted the driving mode to comfortable, and the kinetic energy recovery was adjusted to medium, and a total of 62.3km was driven. Due to the congestion on the way, urban expressways, and long periods of parking, the average speed is only 26 km/h, and the final power consumption is 11.9 kWh/100 km/h. With its 42.30kWh battery capacity and actual power consumption, the car's full battery range is 355km, which is not a big problem for a week's commute.
In terms of exterior design, the Nano 01 adopts the traditional hatchback shape, the angle between the hood and the A-pillar is relatively small, and it does not have an exaggerated fastback shape designed to reduce wind resistance. In terms of details, in order to enhance the fashion sense and personality of the appearance, the front face of Nano 01 adopts the popular through-type light strip design, with frameless doors and hidden door handles, and the overall look is more recognizable.
In terms of size, the length, width and height of the Nano 01 are 4030/1810/1570mm, thanks to the more compact 10-in-1 electric drive system, the Nano 01 can further reduce the length of the front and move the front wheels to the front side, so its wheelbase reaches 2660mm. If we divide the wheelbase by the length, the car has an axle-to-length ratio of 0.66, which is slightly larger than the Dolphin's 0.65. But because the Nano 01 is a bit shorter, its actual wheelbase is slightly smaller than that of the Dolphin.
Compared with the traditional exterior styling, the interior of the nano 01 has a more new energy feeling. In terms of interior design, the Nano 01 adopts a wrap-around cockpit and a two-tone design, with black matching in the upper part of the central console, seats and other areas, while the lower half of the central console, door trim and armrests are matched in gray. In addition, Nano 01 also adopts quilting technology on the central control and door trims, which looks somewhat similar to French bags, and the overall appearance of the interior is more modern and fashionable.
In terms of interior layout, in front of the driver is a 5-inch LCD instrument cluster fixed to the steering column, below is a double-spoke upper and lower flat-bottom multi-function steering wheel with a contrasting design, and on the right is a 12.8-inch central touchscreen. On the entire center console, the Nano 01 does not have any physical buttons arranged.
In the car machine part, the system has built-in online music, video, navigation, mobile phone screen projection functions, and the car machine also supports voice recognition. However, the navigation and voice recognition that come with the system are quite different from the experience of today's smartphones, so during the test drive, we directly projected the mobile phone navigation screen to the central control screen. In terms of assisted driving and functional configuration, Nano 01 meets the requirements of L2 level assisted driving, and this car also supports automatic parking, panoramic image + transparent chassis function.
In terms of storage space design, Nano 01 changed the passenger glove box into a drawer, which is very suitable for girls to store all kinds of cosmetics, and even because the drawer size is about the same size as a 15-inch notebook, you can also use it as a temporary office desk when the vehicle is not moving. And in terms of appearance, the diamond-shaped stitching position above the passenger instrument panel is also designed with two structures similar to handbag straps, which looks very innovative.
Like some new energy vehicles now, the central island of the Nano 01 also adopts a floating design. At the very front of the bottom is a 12V cigarette lighter and USB port, in the middle are two cup holders, and in the back is a flat storage platform. In front of the upper armrest is a 50W wireless charging panel, and behind is the central armrest box.
In terms of seats, the driver of the high-spec model we photographed supports electric adjustment, memory, heating, and ventilation functions. However, it may be due to cost constraints, the backrest adjustment speed of the main driver's electrically adjustable seat is relatively slow, and even a little anxious. In contrast, I prefer the passenger seat's manual seat, which is easy to operate and faster to adjust.
It is worth mentioning that the front seats of the Nano 01 are quite well wrapped and supported, which is very similar to the 2019 Peugeot 4008 I experienced before. Specifically, their seat padding has a certain Q-elastic feel, and the seat cushions are slightly stiffer than the backrest, and even the front and side sides of their seat cushions are concave design, even if the thighs are thicker, the seat cushions will not top the legs. The slight difference is that the seat cushion of the Nano 01 is not padded with soft hips and hard legs like the 4008, and it maintains the same hardness at the front and rear, and the seat cushion flanks are smaller than those of the 4008.
In addition to the good ride experience, the front seats of the Nano 01 can be flattened 180 degrees as long as the headrests are removed, and the rear passengers can lie down with their legs stretched out, which is very thoughtful.
In terms of space, with my 180cm and 75kg figure, after adjusting the front driver's sitting position and putting the seat in the lowest position, the front head has 1 fist and 3 fingers of space from the roof, which is very good. At this time, when I came to the back row, the legroom was just 1 fist, and the head was only 3 fingers from the roof.
However, because the rear seat cushion of the Nano 01 is relatively low, when a passenger with long legs like me sits in the back, the thighs are basically suspended. Fortunately, there is a certain amount of space under the front seats of the Nano 01, and rear passengers can put their feet into it to stretch their thighs more relaxed.
In terms of storage space, the trunk volume of the Nano 01 is 325.5L by default, and the maximum volume is 945L when the rear seats are folded down as a whole. Since the width of the nano 01 tires has reached 215mm, compared with the 205mm dolphin, the width of the trunk is more encroached upon, and the size of the nano 01 is also nearly 10cm shorter than the dolphin, so the trunk volume is still at a disadvantage compared with the default 345L and the 1310L dolphin after being put down.
After trying the nano 01, I have been thinking about one thing, that is, on the basis of low-cost car + torsion beam suspension, it seems that not many manufacturers can make a good driving experience and good driving quality. However, when you think of the relationship between Dongfeng Motor Group, the parent company of Nano Auto, and Peugeot Citroen, it seems that it can explain the previous doubts.
You must know that Dongfeng Motor Group has become the largest shareholder of Peugeot Citroen along, along with the French government and the Peugeot family, and has also jointly funded the development of CMP platform and e-CMP pure electric platform with Peugeot Citroen, and the Peugeot 208 and Citroen Versailles that we are familiar with are based on the development of the above platforms. Due to the extraordinary relationship between the two parties, and Dongfeng has developed Fengshen Yixuan and Yixuan EV on the CMP and e-CMP platforms respectively, so Dongfeng should be relatively familiar with the torsion beam design and tuning of Peugeot Citroen, so it seems reasonable for the newly developed Nano 01 to drive very European......
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