The SOL E20X will hit the Chinese car market in
June. The E20X is a an electric crossover marketed by SOL, a brand of the
JAC-Volkswagen joint venture. The SOL E20X however is not really new, but
basically just a slightly reworked and rebadged JAC iEV7S.
The SOL E20X uses the exact same power train as
iEV7S, and SOL has updated the specifications: 114 hp, 270 Nm, mated to a 39
kWh battery. Range is 280 kilometers, but that goes up to 350 if the car is
driven at a constant speed of 60 km/h. This constant-60 km/h thing is a
unofficial Chinese standard used by many Chinese automakers, but it seems
rather meaningless. SOL also says the E20X will race from 0-50 km/h in 4.5 seconds.
Top speed is 130 km/h.
JAC-Volkswagen also released a rendering of the
dashboard. Sure it is nice and also very similar to the JAC’s. They
didn’t even bother to fit a different steering wheel. What is
different? The shape of the air vents, the center tunnel, and the seats.
This is where the Volkswagen design team was allowed
to unleash its brilliance. They came up with a totally new center unit for the
drive selector lever and surrounding buttons.
There are some Seat design elements visible here and
there, and that is because Volkswagen originally planned to call the brand
Seat, but the Chinese government didn’t allow that, and after some
deliberations they decided to go for SOL, which means sun in Spanish.
Seat is Spanish too, so that is the connection. But
the car has otherwise nothing to do with Seat.
