Sorry, Tesla. This is the world’s best-selling EV… it’s $6000

March 3, 2021March 12, 2021 Iain Curry 2972 Views Chinese ev, city ev, Hongguang, mini ev

What will six grand buy you these days? A cheapie motorcycle? A mid-range electric bike? A 1997 Toyota Corolla with one careful owner?

One thing it won’t buy is a new fully electric car. Cheapest on sale right now is the MG ZS EV at $43,990 drive-away, making entry into the Zero-Tailpipe Emissions Club of Australia far from democratised. Affordable? Not for the majority of car buyers.

How about one for $6000 instead?

Chinese state-owned SAIC Motor’s catchily-named Wuling Hongguang Mini EV – built as part of a joint venture with General Motors – is China’s cheapest EV, and was January 2021’s best-selling electric vehicle globally according to data collated by electric car sales blog, EV Sales Blogspot.

The world’s best-selling EV: 2020 Hongguang MINI EV

The city EV sold 36,762 units in the first month of 2021, trouncing the Tesla Model 3‘s global sales (21,589) and third-place Tesla Model Y (9,597 sales). Chinese market offerings dominated the global top ten sales race, with the BYD Han EV and GW ORA Black Cat next most popular.

China is the world’s largest market for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles – where some 1.3million sold in 2020 according to EV sales database EV-volumes.com.

Will it come to Australia? Not a chance. We just don’t do these lightweight city cars – electric or otherwise – which the Europeans classify as quadricycles. We do diesel pick-ups, don’t we? Including if we’re city dwellers.

China has embraced them. The Hongguang MINI EV was launched there in July last year, marketed as “the people’s commuting tool”. Cue triumphant, communist cheer at that one.

2020 Wuling Hongguang Mini EV — Cosy but funky inside the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV

And this two-door’s not as impractical as you’d think. It has a top speed of 100km/h (God help you if you get up to that though) thanks to its 13kW/85Nm motor, and 120km range thanks to a 9.2kWh battery. A 170km range upgrade is available.

Despite its 2917mm length (one metre shorter than a Mazda2) there are four seats, although don’t go expecting Benz S-Class LWB levels of legroom and comfort.

With rear seats folded there’s a claimed and very useful 741-litres of luggage space – same as a giant Audi Q7 with its third row of seats folded.

Of course this Mini EV isn’t going to secure global domination like the Tesla Model 3, but in China at least, the Wuling’s sales triumph highlights the demand and acceptance for cheap electric city transport. Just don’t expect Sydney to be chockers with similar anytime soon.

Iain Curry

A motoring writer and photographer for two decades, Iain started in print magazines in London as editor of Performance BMW and features writer for BMW Car, GT Porsche and 4Drive magazines. His love of motor sport and high performance petrol cars was rudely interrupted in 2011 when he was one of the first journalists to drive BMW's 1 Series ActiveE EV, and has been testing hybrids, PHEVs and EVs for Australian newspapers ever since. Based near Noosa in Queensland, his weekly newspaper articles cover new vehicle reviews and consumer advice, while his photography is regularly seen on the pages of glossy magazines.