The Volkswagen Up!
has been cloned in China. This is the Weikerui V7, a new LSEV seen on
the 2017 Jinan EV Show. It has the
same shape, the same size, the same proportions, the same lights, bumpers, and
even the logo is very close.
The
Weikerui V7 is made by a company called Dezhou Weikerui Electric Vehicle
Industries,
based in the great city of Dezhou in Shandong Province. The business was founded in
2011 and the factory has an annual capacity of 60.000 cars. They make five kinds of LSEV
including the V7.
The V7 however,
is almost exactly the same size as the five-door Up. The
other clones, and indeed 99% of all the cars on the show, are low-speed
electric vehicles (LSEV). The V7 however will be available in LSEV form and in
EV form.
Buyers
of the latter will be eligible for China’s green-car subsidies and all other
perks like free license plates and parking lots. The EV version will be allowed
on the highway and have a top speed of 120 kilometers and hour.
The
two cars on the booth were LSEVs fitted with fake EV license plates. The LSEV
version will be launched sometime in Q2 and the EV version later this year.
The
LSEV version is available with various combinations of batteries and motors.
The base model has a 12V/100Ah lead-acid battery mated to a 9.6hp motor. Top
speed is 40 km/h and 0-30 km/h is gone in 10 seconds. Range is 100 kilometer and
charging the batteries takes 10 hours on 220V.
The
top LSEV version has 12V/120Ah lead acid battery mated to a 11.6 hp electric
motor, good for a 50 km/h top speed, but 0-30 is still ten seconds. Range is 120
kilometers and charging takes 10 hours again.
There
are no official specs available on the EV version yet except the above
mentioned top speed, but staff told me it will have a range of about 200
kilometers.
Dimension size
V7: 3540/1645/1506 mm, and wheelbase is 2420 mm. Curb weight is 950 kilo. Price
for the LSEV will start around 20.000 yuan and end around 25.000 yuan
(US$ 2800-3610). Price of the EV version will be about 35.000 yuan (US$ 5060) after
subsidies.
Interior-wise
Weikeru got a little bit more creative. It has an 8-inch screen for the
infotainment, wood-colored panels on the dashboard, red-black seats, very large
air vents, and a sporty steering wheel. The drive selector is located on the
center tunnel. Quality wise it was on par with other cars of its kind:
acceptable for the money don’t try to push or pull anything because it will break.
The
infotainment system comes with a CD player and a USB
socket. It plays the radio, MP3, and MP4-video files. There is a beautiful
slider for the vents and a rear window heater.
Weikeru even copied the small spoiler
above the window. But there is a difference there. The light is that spoiler is
a brake light on the V7 and a reverse light on the Up!. An other difference is
the antenna, the V7 has a trendy shark fin whereas the Up! has to do with an
old fashioned rubbery thing.
