Arcfox is an EV brand of BAIC, the state-owned Chinese automaker. The company is the 6th largest car manufacturer in the country, it was founded in 1958 and apart from its own brand vehicles such as Beijing, BAW, Changhe, Foton, Ruili Doda and Arcfox it makes cars under joint ventures - Beijing Benz and Beijing-Hyundai. Arcfox Alpha-S is the very first vehicle from the dedicated EV brand, it was only announced in April last year. The car is manufactured in Zhenjiang with help from parts giant Magna. The car is touted as the first EV in the world with a smart cabin based on HarmonyOS from Huawei and it has the full set of smart and autonomous features developed by the phone giant.
The autonomous driving system in the
Arcfox Alpha-S has 400TOPs of computing power, the car has 3 LiDAR sensors, it
has six mmW and radars and 12 ultrasonic ones. The camera department comes with
9 ADS units and 4 surround view cameras. The autonomous driving system from
Huawei appears to be highly advanced, the engineers claim it surpass Autopilot
from Tesla. The system seems to be very comprehensive and highly capable,
unprotected left turns were dealt with without much hesitation but its
reactions to pedestrians and the scooter emerging from the right and going
against the flow very impressive.
Arcfox Alpha-S has been on sale since
January but only a small number of cars were manufactured and delivered to just
a handful of customers, almost as if it was just a soak test. Now with the cars
being produced at full scale deliveries to many patiently waiting customers can
begin. The car starts at RMB 397,900 (US$ 59,000 or US$ 58,000) and for that price
customers get only highway autonomous driving. The fully capable version starts
at RMB 429,900 (US$ 63,800/€ 62,500).
The Arcfox Alpha-S is not a slouch - peak
power stands at 643 ps and the car accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in
3.5 seconds thanks to its 655 Nm of torque. The 800V battery charging can reach
187kW allowing the car to charge from 30 to 80% in just 15 minutes. Claimed
range is up to 708 km but without knowing the battery capacity it’s difficult
to estimate if the numbers are real. Another interesting bit of info is that
the car comes with lifetime and unlimited mileage warranty.
State owned manufacturer takes on the
competition from Nio and Xpeng, buys the best technology from Huawei and
contracts Magna to manufacture its first EV. Then it gives the car unlimited
warranty and an attractive price.
