The “new way” of playing with low-speed electric vehicles

Wang Chao slowly backed out a camouflage pickup truck from the garage and put it back on track. He was going to take me to experience this low-speed electric pickup truck. I said it was low-speed because its maximum speed was only 45 kilometers per hour. I sat in the co-pilot seat with some doubts. To be honest, I didn't have much expectation for its performance at first.

Although it is just a low-speed car, it has a fashionable name - PICKMAN. When I sat on it, I found that this car had almost no interior, only a few switches for control and adjustment.

Wang Chao's logic for building this car is very different from that of a normal car. He and his team did a lot of subtraction on the product, so the design of this pickup truck is as simple as it can be: there is no air conditioning, audio, windows, and even doors are omitted - strictly speaking, it can only be regarded as a guardrail.

In his eyes, it is just a tool vehicle. Wang Chao explained: "In fact, there are too many needs to meet farmers. There may be 100 types of vehicles that can meet his requirements: with air conditioning, speakers, doors... But look at the price, and then see how much the failure rate and cost will increase?" This is his idea for making products.

Yes, in a sense, he designed and produced a tool vehicle for production and transportation for farmers from their perspective.

Wang Chao is the founder of Kering Automotive. Earlier, he was an automotive designer at BAIC. "I went there for the purpose of building cars, hoping to participate in the development of cars on the car platform and then produce them. This is what I look forward to." However, his five years of work experience at BAIC did not give him greater satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.

Ten years ago, the policy environment did not allow individuals to manufacture cars, so providing car design services was his wisest choice at the time, and the requirements for funds and personnel were not high. In 2005, he started a business and established a car design company: CSG Design.

In 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission decentralized the production qualifications of electric vehicles, and this policy ignited the dream of many individuals and companies to build cars. In Wang Chao's view, after years of entrepreneurship, he also has some conditions: funding, market expectations, and electric vehicles have broken the barriers of fuel vehicles.

Finally, in 2013, Wang Chao was ready to give it a try. "If we had started to make fuel vehicles in 2005, the barriers would have been very high. You couldn't get around the advantages of traditional vehicles. But in 2013, we already had enough resources for electric vehicles. So in this case, we were already on the same starting line as all other manufacturers," he said. Kering Automotive was born in this situation.

The electric pickup truck began preparations in 2013, the prototype was completed in 2015, and was released in May this year at a price of 23,800 yuan.

"There was no mental journey during this process. This was a wish I had when I entered the industry more than ten years ago. I wanted to own a car brand and make the most popular and universal means of transportation," he told Leiphone.com.

The PICKMAN is actually very mini in shape and size. It is 3.24 meters long and weighs only 680kg. According to official data, it can travel 120km when fully charged and empty, can carry 300kg, and can travel more than 100km when fully loaded.

I sat in the passenger seat, and Wang Chao turned the steering wheel with familiarity, and the front of the car turned to a small hillside and drove into a small forest. The forest was surrounded by a bumpy and rugged grassland. Wang Chao took me around here, and when he encountered some particularly bumpy roads, he showed no sign of slowing down, but instead stepped on the accelerator to the bottom. At that time, I felt like I was about to fly out of the car, as if I had experienced the excitement of a roller coaster.

When I personally drove this car in the woods, I felt that it had plenty of horsepower and seemed to have its own temper. Although it was like an unruly horse, the driver was able to control it very well...

I have to admit that after the test drive it has broken my previous expectations.

Back in his office, Wang Chao pointed to a remote-controlled mountain bike in front of him and said, "This small model costs 8,000 yuan. I used to play with it. But now I just drive my own car out for fun." Obviously, PICKMAN can bring him a more intuitive and exciting driving experience. He thinks it is a "big toy" for adults.

From this perspective, Wang Chao hopes that this car can also meet the needs of other classes, such as young people in the city, who use it for commuting, taking friends to barbecue on weekends, or climbing and rolling in some mountains... Anyway, it represents a lifestyle, a driving experience that can make people happy.

In fact, this is not the first time Wang Chao has done this.

At the PICKMAN launch event on May 20, at the factory in Henan, he specially asked people to prepare a bumpy road section in advance. The media who came to the launch event at that time were also unimpressed by this low-speed electric car at first, but after the test drive, they were impressed.

Wang Chao said that the power of this car is only 4 kilowatts, and if compared with an internal combustion engine, it actually has less than 10 horsepower. But why does it feel this way? He answered casually: the result of continuous adjustment.

This process took the team two years. "Its driving performance is so good because its platform is brand new." Wang Chao said that this chassis design is completely independently developed and there is no product of this specification in China.

According to official data, the approach angle of this pickup truck chassis is 55 degrees, the departure angle is 33 degrees, and the maximum climbing angle is greater than 20%.

Some industry insiders believe that these data are better than many SUV models known for their off-road performance. The advantage of this design is that it can ensure good all-terrain capabilities and durability, such as long-term driving on fields and rugged roads. The 180mm ground clearance also does not need to worry about the impact of road conditions on the chassis, and the four-wheel independent suspension design can ensure good shock absorption performance during driving.

In addition, Wang Chao called this car an upgraded version of the "three-wheeled vehicle". He hopes that it can replace the "three-wheeled vehicle" used to deliver express in the logistics industry in the future. In his opinion, his product has an overwhelming advantage over the electric three-wheeled vehicle. He said that he is currently negotiating with some logistics companies to customize a vehicle specifically for delivering express.

Kering currently has a new two-square-kilometer factory in Henan. Wang Chao said that the annual output of the first phase of the two production lines can reach one million vehicles, and orders have been received from European countries. In Europe, this type of vehicle has legal road rights, and according to local laws and regulations, it is an electric four-wheeled motorcycle license plate. Wang Chao is confident about sales. He even joked: "If Wuling's annual sales are 1.5 million vehicles, then we will be able to sell 5.1 million vehicles a year in the future."

In general, the design of this car is not about being cool or stunning, but more about being durable. Wang Chao said, "It doesn't matter if the product is high-end or low-end. In a certain field, I just want to be the best."

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