Chery’s iCar V23 made its debut in China. This car is the first model jointly developed by Chery and Zhimi Technology, and is iCar’s second mass-produced model after the iCar 03. Positioned as a pure electric small SUV for young consumers, it is expected to officially unveil on April 12 and launched in the second half of 2024.
Zhimi Technology was established in June
2014 as a hardware company that designs and develops smart appliances and is
one of Xiaomi’s ecological chain companies. The Xiaomi ecological chain is the
collection of enterprises owned by the parent company Xiaomi. Zhimi
Technology’s product offering covers air conditioners, air purifier systems,
humidifiers, electric heaters, fans, air detectors, and anti-smog masks. The
news of Zhimi Technology entering car manufacturing was exposed as early as the
end of 2021. At that time, 36Kr reported that the former head of GM Pan-Asia’s
electric vehicle project joined Zhimi to take charge of the vehicle business
along with many personnel from BAIC also joined Zhimi. And at that time,
Xiaomi’s official response was: “Zhimi just formed a small research team out of
interest in electric vehicles, and there is currently no detailed plan.”
Today, the small research team that Xiaomi
refers to has now penetrated into many core positions of Chery New Energy as
the Zhimi car manufacturing team. The Zhimi team is responsible for product
definition, planning, and engineering, while Chery is responsible for
manufacturing, supply chain, sales, delivery, and after-sales. Both parties
will continue to create more products using this collaboration model, and plan
to launch six to eight vehicles in the next three years. The iCar v23 is
designed with off-roading in mind, offering single-motor rear-wheel drive and
dual-motor four-wheel drive options. The battery packs are supplied by CATL,
offering a cruising range of 400 km to 500 km. The detailed powertrain and
battery parameters have not yet been revealed at this time. Additionally, its
dimensions are 4220/1915/1845 mm, and the wheelbase is 2730 mm with an approach
angle of 43 degrees and a departure angle of 41 degrees. The four-wheel drive
version has a minimum ground clearance of 212 mm.
Similar to the iCar 03, the iCar V23
adopts a more hard-core square box shape along with round headlights, raised
front hood, thicker bumpers, bulging fenders, and an external rear box serving
as a storage unit. The car is also equipped with hidden door handles that can
be lit up, roof luggage racks, side steps, and pedal-shape rims, with sizes
available in 19-inch and 21-inch options.
The interior uses many geometric elements
such as the rectangular air-conditioning outlets and rotary knobs under the
central control screen, coupled with a dual-color background. It is worth
mentioning that a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip and an L2+ advanced driving
assistance system will be present. The detailed interior configurations have
also not been revealed at this time. We’ll watch closely for more information.
