Want a Model S (or the upcoming Model 3) but can’t quite afford the pricey electric supercar? As always, China has the answer with a lower cost clone that looks surprisingly good. But what’s under the hood?
While the similarities are clear, calling the Youxia a Tesla clone is perhaps a little unfair. In fact, in many ways it takes the geeky electric car love to an extreme Tesla never did.
The Youxia X will come in 40kWh, 60kWh or 85kWh versions, with 220, 330, and 460 kilometer ranges respectively.
But most importantly, what is the price? Depending on spec, the cars range from about $45,000 AU to $65,000 AU in China. While there are no Australian prices, the car attracts a $20,000 green car subsidy in China, so prices will be higher.
Around $80,000 to $100,000 could be a likely price down-under — if the car ever makes it here of course.
So what sort of performance do you actually get for your money?
The cars use a single 260 kW (348 HP) electric motor that has 440nm of torque. The car will hit 100 km/h in 5.6 seconds.
To put that is perspective, the single motor Model S we have in Australia has a 285 kW motor, and can also do 0-100 in 5.6 seconds.
Like the Tesla, the Youxia X has a large touchscreen mounted in the place of traditional dash controls.
The Youxia X has plenty of other unique features that you won’t find on a Tesla.
For a start, the Youxia name came from the Chinese name for the Knight Rider TV series. The cars operating system is based on Android 5.0 and is actually called KITT OS.
Round the front, the grill has an embedded display inspired again by Knight Rider. See the Youxia logo? You can customise it to show whatever you want.
Don’t like the spaceship like whine of electric cars? The Youxia X can feed other sounds through the audio system, such as the exhaust note of your favourite Ferrari or Jaguar.
Youxia was started by 28 year old Huang Xiuyuan, who has said that he first saw the X in a dream back in 2014. That’s fair enough too – I have been dreaming about owning a Tesla Model S for even longer. Just I haven’t assembled a crack team of engineers and designers to make it happen.
The Youxia X is slated to go into production in 2016, with the first deliveries in 2017.
So, would you be willing to save a little cash and go for the admittedly awesome Youxia over a Tesla?
[Youxia] [Car News China]