Marque spies an opportunity

NEW CAR

Having established here just four months ago with the country’s cheapest electric vehicle, the Box, Dongfeng is now out to make more waves with additional battery-pure choices.

Vigo, a compact family SUV, and 007, a fast executive sedan, have just landed.

As a new and unknown quantity in a scene where there are established alternatives, Dongfeng is taking a familiar route to achieve interest in a new market: loading up on comforts and technology, then presenting it at scarcely believable pricing with a strong warranty. It’s China Inc 101.

Vigo enters the busy compact SUV sector as one of few fully electric choices. Listing at $37,990 at launch, it features a 52kWh battery powering the front wheels via a 120kW/230Nm electric motor. Its WLTP range of 340km is fair, and the battery’s peak recharging rate is an unusually impressive 167kW, with a claimed 30% to 80% time of just 18 minutes.

The overall length, width and height are class competitive, but it’s the 2715mm wheelbase that is more noteworthy. At just over 66% of the overall length, it’s why this car feels so capacious within the "people-prioritised" part of its cabin.

The boot, meanwhile, is claimed to have a capacity of 500 litres. Can’t see it? Well, exactly right. When you open the tailgate — which is split, with a lower drop-down portion that can support 150kg — you see a compartment of just 313 litres. But wait ... there’s a second compartment underneath at 115 litres and, hang on, yet another under that, with 72.

Some of the interior materials aren’t that classy, with the door inner plastics in particular betraying where costs have been kept to a minimum. Then, again, the Vigo has a big central touchscreen and a digital instrument display.

Standard fare runs to six-way power-adjustable seats for the driver and front passenger (plus memory, ventilation, heating and welcome function for the driver), climate control with rear-seat outlets, ambient interior lighting, 12.8-inch infotainment screen, adaptive cruise control, 360-degree camera and LED lights.

The Vigo also has Camp Mode, which envisages someone camping out in the car overnight, or maybe taking up the $250 option of a tent that mounts off the back door. Also on the camping-friendly options list are a $440 mattress, a $250 edging awning and something called a "trunk partition table" ($320).

While the Vigo can provide a continuous power supply, vehicle to load (V2L) capability requires an adaptor, which is a $440 item. Given CarPlay is integrated, it is a bit rich that Android Auto is not — without a $390 "projection" package.

On heading off you might hear faint music. That’s not the audio being left on one-notch-up-from mute but the Vigo’s slow-speed safety system designed to alert pedestrians to the car’s presence.

A run up a country road left the sense that the Vigo isn’t really built to drive too enthusiastically. The body leaned in corners, the front wheels scrabbled for grip, the steering felt light and vague and the brakes weren’t wholly assertive.

More time was spent getting to know the 007, which prices at $54,990 in Long Range rear-drive guise and $59,990 for the Performance all-wheel-drive variant.

Both variants take a 72kWh battery pack, with the single-motor mustering 200kW and 320Nm, and the dual-motor flagship doubling those outputs to deliver 400kW and 640Nm. A WLTP range of 520km applies to the single motor, and 389km for the performance variant.

The full dual-motor Performance sampled by Drivesouth claims a 0-100kmh time of 3.9 seconds. That puts it just 0.4 seconds off a Tesla Model Y Performance and close to far pricier German performance electrics.

Maximum thrust expresses in "Combat" mode, which also brings up a special centre screen display (including a G-meter, steering sensor and 0-100kmh timer) with a graphic urging the driver to "fight".

Six wins from six starts in its debut in the electric category of China’s domestic touring car championship lends the 007 motorsport credential, and the New Zealand launch included time at the Hampton Downs racing circuit.

It’s curious, then, that the wheels, tyres and brakes coming on the road model are not performance-themed. Nineteen-inch rims with Continental EcoContacts and single pot factory stoppers are an interesting concept for an arena in which wide, sticky rubber, big hoops and multi-piston devices from specialist suppliers are more accepted.

A hot lap finale riding with Liam Sceats, a very accomplished single seater racer (third in the most recent NZGP), therefore seemed every bit as much a testimony to driver skill as the delivered technology.

It’s brave to punish a tyre designed for range efficiency in a high-performance setting, and while the brake fluid was changed, the standard pads were retained. Sceats was certainly earning his keep taming momentum and mass, and the 007 squirmed significantly under hard stopping. Dongfeng does have a brake upgrade sorted.

So committed are manufacturers to SUVs these days it’s almost a surprise when a brand debuts what appears to be a conventional sedan (which, in the case of the 007, turns out to actually be an artfully-disguised hatchback).

The 007’s smooth shape is designed not just to look good (job done), but also to be very slippery.

Its cabin ambience reminds how quickly Chinese cars have developed. Widespread use of tactile materials, soft-touch surfaces and a notable focus on infotainment are highlights.

Unlike some rivals, Dongfeng at least retains manual wiper controls, these integrated into the orthodox indicator stalk.

The 2915mm wheelbase provides a roomy interior. Sitting in the back for the fast lap, I found plenty of foot and legroom for my lanky frame. But the sleek profile does impinge on head room.

The 007’s design features frameless doors with hidden handles and a huge panoramic glass roof. A 15.6-inch digital interface powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 computer chip supports the vehicle’s built-in recording function using onboard cameras. It’s not clear if that footage stays in the car or is shared back to Dongfeng headquarters.

Sound is produced through a 19-speaker WANOS theatre-grade sound system with integrated headrest speakers.

Standard safety equipment runs to just six airbags, which seems light by modern standards. Dongfeng’s representatives were unable to elaborate on where these are located: we’d assume two frontal and perhaps dual side protection devices. The absence of a centre airbag between the front seat occupants puts it behind modern thinking.

Driver assistance systems include autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitoring. It also has a lane keeping assist that seemed very overzealous in its activity on narrow roads. It’s one of those systems that pulls on the steering and curiously, and frustratingly, the degree to which it sought to do this intensified once the car went into its Sport setting.

In respect to crash test credibility, because Dongfeng is among the very few Chinese makes yet to enter Australia, its cars currently lack a rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP). Instead, they must make do with a Vehicle Safety Risk rating, defined by assessment of probability of outcome, rather than actual performance in a testing scenario. Both achieve five stars.

As with the Dongfeng Box, warranty cover for the Vigo and 007 extends to six years and 200,000km for the car overall, extending to eight years and the same distance coverage for the battery.

AT A GLANCE

VIGO

SPECIFICATIONS

Price: $37,990 introductory ($39,990 from May 1).

Powertrain: Single electric motor, front drive, maximum power 120kW, maximum torque 230Nm.

Transmission: Single-speed automatic.

Safety rating: Five-star VSRR.

Wheels and tyres: Alloy wheels, 215/55 R18.

Battery: Lithium ion phosphate, 52kWh.

Dimensions: Length, 4306mm; width, 1868mm; height, 1654mm.

Kerb weight: 1570kg.

007

SPECIFICATIONS

Price: $54,990 Long Range rear drive; $59,990 Performance, all wheel drive.

Powertrains: Long Range rear drive single electric motor, rear drive, maximum power 200kW, maximum torque 320Nm; Performance all wheel drive, maximum power 400kW, maximum torque 640Nm.

Transmission: Single-speed automatic.

Safety rating: Five-star VSRR.

Wheels and tyres: Alloy wheels, 235/45 R19.

Battery: Lithium ion phosphate, 70.26kWh.

Dimensions: Length, 4880mm; width, 1895mm; height, 1460mm.

Kerb weight: 1852kg (rear drive), 1979kg (all-wheel drive).

By Richard Bosselman