Inside China's £6k mini-EVs: Geely Geometry Panda driven

Packaging four seats in a 3m-long car inevitably means you can fit only tiny 12in wheels, which – combined with the slab sides and a cabin tall enough to seat four, very upright adult humans – means they do look more than a little like pieces of giant wheely luggage.

That design flaw is countered by a range of inventive and playful solutions to appeal to their mostly younger customer base. These include vibrant paintwork (as on Liuxan’s car), an intentionally comical roof spoiler on the Panda Kart, a convertible version of the Hongguang Mini and the oddly appealing Baojun Yep mini-SUV. 

One version of the Panda plays on the SUV theme with a Land Rover Defender-style ladder and black ‘handles’ on the bonnet. This is a long way from the po-faced dorkiness of the old Reva G-Wiz.

The low, low cost of these cars is a product of falling battery prices and the segment’s almost universal use of lower-cost lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry, which gives them a range that far exceeds the lead-acid batteries that preceded them.

The added range also means they qualify for new energy vehicle (NEV) credits that their makers can sell to other brands that would like to carry on with combustion engines.

Despite this, the segment isn’t as hot in China as it was two years ago. Hongguang Mini sales almost halved last year to 237,863, according to sales aggregator Bestsellingcarsblog.com. Partly that’s due to newcomers such as the Yep, the Changan Lumin and the Rainbow from newly revived Zhidou. 

Ultimately, though, the segment is shrinking, from almost 30% of new EVs in 2021, with sales of more than one million to below 10% last year, well down from its six-figure record, according to research from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Two factors are at work here. One is that cities such as Shanghai are blocking the smallest EVs from schemes to restrict new licence plate allocation to EVs only. Whether you’re 3m long or 5m long, you’re still traffic. The other is that a new class of 4m-long, four-door electric superminis is expanding with prices almost as good.

The BYD Seagull, costing from the equivalent of £8100, leads the pack with 239,270 sales last year, followed by Wuling’s own Bingo at 167,764 (costing from just £6,000) and the well-regarded Leapmotor T03, which leads owner reviews on the Autohome car sales portal above the Binguo. 

“In China’s heart, we want to purchase big cars,” said one senior executive at the Beijing show. “We only purchase small cars because of price, not a desire to own one.”

Indeed, a premium mini-EV, the Arcfox Lite, was quickly discontinued due to lack of customer interest.

Around 2.2 million Smart customers have shown us that Europeans do have that desire – and Smart under its new 50:50 ownership by Geely and Mercedes-Benz is planning to return to the segment with a reborn Fortwo.