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[Music]
Welcome to the gorgeous Chinese coastal
city of Dalian, where we've come to
drive the allnew A7. No, not the Audi,
the Galaxy A7, a midsize sedan with a
starting price of less than $14,000
and what might very well be the most
efficient plug-in hybrid powertrain on
the planet.
[Music]
Welcome to Wheels, where we cover the
newest, coolest, and wildest vehicles
from the Chinese car market. Be sure to
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The people at Galaxy tell me that this
is going to be a global model, but
they're not specific as to which markets
outside of China it's going to be sold
in. So, we certainly don't know the
price outside of China. Right now, we
know the pre-sale price in the domestic
market, which is about 13,700
to $18,700.
That price and this size puts it in very
direct competition with another vehicle
that debuted last year with some pretty
crazy fuel economy claims, the BYD Chen
L. Now, we took the Chel on a 1,000 plus
kilometer road trip to put those fuel
efficiency claims to the test, and I
recommend you check out that video. The
thing about cars in this mainstream
midsize sedan segment is that they need
to appeal to as many buyers as possible.
And those buyers are looking for things
like practicality, affordability, and
probably not avantguard styling. That's
why you get cars like the Toyota Camry,
the Honda Accord, and the BYD Chenel L,
which are handsome, I suppose, but not
particularly out there when it comes to
their looks. This car is no different,
but I think it's kind of the best you
can hope for. It looks conservative, but
handsome and in the right spec, even a
little bit premium. Speaking of cars
like the Toyota Camry, the man behind
the camera insists that this thing from
this angle looks just like the Toyota.
What do you think? This car's length is
about that much longer than a BYD Chino
and about that much shorter than a
Volkswagen Pat, but its wheelbase at
2.845 meters is longer than both of
them. Wheel options include 17, 18, and
these top-of-the-line 19in units.
It's only appropriate since we're in the
parking lot of a shopping mall to talk
about how many bags you can fit in the
back. Well, the answer is 535 LERs worth
with the seats up. If you fold them
down, they're a 60/40 split. You can get
up to 988 L of your favorite
consumables. The interior styling of the
A7 is just as conservative as the
exterior. The leather is faux but soft
in most of the places where you want it
to be. I will say, however, I wish that
this center armrest was a little bit
more padded, as well as this area here
where I would rest my knee on the
highway, which I did quite a bit today,
and I found it to be not quite as soft
as I would like it to be. The other
materials, well, they're plastic, but
that's kind of what you'd expect at this
price point. The dark material you find
in this interior here on the center
console as well as on the door and the
dashboard is actually quite interesting.
At first, I thought it just looked like
piano black plastic with streaks on it,
like handprints. But then I looked more
closely and it's actually got a very
subtle wood or smoky pattern to it. It's
quite nice when you look more closely at
it. It's not soft or premium, but again,
that's what you can expect at a car this
cheap. Final note, when it comes to
material choices on the dashboard on the
left and right side, you've got these
little hex screw things. These look
exactly like the mounts that Xiaomi puts
in their cars like the Sous7 and the U7.
But in the case of this car, uh it's
merely a decoration. But while this car
might not hold that many surprises when
it comes to material quality, it is very
impressive when it comes to interior
features. For example, the base car has
a 14.6 6 in center screen, but this
topsp spec one has a 15.4 in screen
which runs the Flyme OS. This is the
same operating system we've seen on a
ton of other Jely branded vehicles from
Lincoln Co. as well as Galaxy as well as
J itself. It is smooth. It is quick. It
is good when it comes to the menu logic.
Sorry, there's currently no English
language menu available, so you'll have
to make do with the Chinese one. But I
hope you can understand at least why I
think this thing is pretty attractive
and easy to use. You also have a
instrument cluster screen right here and
an available 16.6 in headsup display
that is available in higher spec cars
like this one. Finally, you have a 16
speakeraker Flyme sound sound system.
That thing costs an extra 8,800 RMBB or
the equivalent of around 1,200 USD if
you want to add it to a higher spec
vehicle, though it is standard on this
highest spec model, I do believe. Now,
that is a lot of money to ask for a
sound system on a car that is this
cheap. It does, however, include a bunch
of speakers. As I said, 16 of them,
including two mounted in the driver's
headrest. The most surprising feature in
my opinion, however, is the seats. They
are heated and cooled. Something I've
seen on other cars at this price point,
but they're also massaging. Something
that's rarer. What I've never seen in a
car at this price point is that both
front row seats have massaging points,
not just on the seat backs, but on the
seat bottoms as well. And they're not
that weak sauce airbag that just goes
like and barely kind of pokes you. These
are real physical kind of motors that
are going up and you can really feel
them. They're quite effective. That was
pretty surprising at this price point.
Interior ergonomics are pretty nice.
You've got a wireless charging pad right
here. You've also got your cup holders
right behind a set of physical buttons
for your air conditioning controls as
well as a physical volume knob. Always
and forever appreciated. Below all of
that, you have more storage. underneath
the center console. Finally, back here,
you've got a pretty deep
storage compartment, mostly because this
doesn't have a refrigerator.
Finally, I want to talk to you about
something that I've never seen before on
any other car. This is a glove box. I've
seen glove boxes before, don't get me
wrong, but what I haven't seen is this
pretty nifty little fold out hook right
here. So that way you can hang a bag or
maybe something else right here whenever
you want to. And when you don't need
that feature, you just fold it back
away.
The back seat of the A7 is pretty
capacious in certain dimensions such as
leg room. As you can see, I also quite
like the height of the seat with respect
to the floor. As someone who reviews a
lot of pure electric vehicles, I'm used
to floors that are super high, which
means your knees are right about up
here. Not a very comfortable posture.
Speaking of your posture, the angle of
the seatback's pretty acceptable, I
would say. However, I'm not super
impressed with head room. It's not tight
on me. I'm 1.75 m or 5' 9 in tall, but
it could get a little tight for people
who are much taller than me. I think
this was an active compromise that they
made. Making the seat height a little
bit higher means that you have a better
posture because your knees aren't that
far from the seat, but it does mean you
might have a little bit less headroom.
Between the seats is a fold down center
armrest with cup holders. Not a
guarantee in cars at this price point.
And on the back of that center console
are dual USB charging ports, a type- C
and a type A.
[Music]
The greatest mission, the number one
priority for vehicles in this class is
of course efficiency in all aspects. And
that's especially true when it comes to
fuel efficiency. This vehicle also makes
some pretty bold claims, as we've
already established, when it comes to
efficiency. Specifically, they say that
its CLTC fuel economy when you've
depleted the battery and it's acting as
a normal hybrid is 2.67 L per 100 km.
That beats the 2.9 L per 100 km that
earned the BYYD Chel such attention
globally. It also beats the combined
range of the BYD Chinel. They say this
car, when you combine gas and electric
range, can go over 2100 km on China's
CLTC cycle. Achieving that level of
efficiency starts with the 1.5 L
naturally aspirated engine, which
they've connected to a one-speed
dedicated hybrid transmission. They say
that engine has what is currently the
world's highest thermal efficiency for a
production engine at 47.26%.
that beats the BYD Chinel L and it beats
the pants off of the latest Toyota
Prius. Most of the motivation from the
car, however, comes from the single
front- mounted electric motor, which
makes 175 kW and 262 new m of torque.
The official 0 to100 km perh time is 7.1
seconds. Yes, it beats the 7.5 seconds
of the BYD Chel. However, it doesn't
match the 6.3 seconds of a Prius. It
gets back to beating the Prius when it
comes to drag coefficient, which is 0.2.
229 versus the 0.27 of the latest Toyota
Prius. That's very important when it
comes to pure electric range. Obviously,
this thing has two available battery
packs, both LFP. The smaller one is 8.5
kwatt hours and has a claimed CLTC range
of 70 km. There is a larger pack that is
18.4 kwatt hours and it has a claimed
range of 150 km.
You can choose to put the car in hybrid
mode or pure electric depending on
whether or not you have enough battery
for that particular task. Alternatively,
you could simply leave the decision up
to the car by putting it into its
intelligent hybrid mode. That would
actually be leaving it up to their Thor
AI, which is going to decide which mode,
pure electric or hybrid, to give you
based on demands like the terrain, your
driving style, and other factors. To put
it in simple terms, Galaxy claims that
this car, if driven properly, would be
cheaper to commute to work in than
simply taking the subway. I want to say,
however, I have not achieved that level
efficiency today. I'm currently sitting
at 6.1 L per 100 km. I think there's a
couple reasons for that. First of all, I
haven't been trying to drive
particularly efficiently. I've got a big
lead foot actually. Um, second of all,
our route was a lot more highway than it
was uh city and those standards like
2.67 67 L per 100 km achieved on the
CLPC standard which in here in China
includes a lot more city stopand go
traffic like I'm in right now. I do
however know media that I know and trust
who have been able to achieve some
pretty impressive fuel efficiency
numbers behind the wheel of this car.
Putting aside fuel efficiency for a
moment, I do think this car is outright
better to drive than the BYD Chinel.
That one's great for eating up highway
miles. It has a very decent soft ride,
but this feels more athletic,
particularly on the front end. It feels
lighter, more tossable, and the steering
feels like it has better feedback and
more direct connection to what's
happening to the wheels. So, of the two
cars, and granted, this is a pretty low
bar, I think this is the um one with
more driving pleasure involved. Even the
very cheapest version of this car, the
one that starts at less than $14,000,
comes with adaptive cruise control as
standard. But more expensive versions
like this one, the very top spec, they
come with a much more comprehensive
sensor suite which includes more cameras
as well as ultrasonic and millimeter
wave radar and an upgraded chipset,
specifically a Horizon Journey J6M with
128 tops. That means that they're
capable of highway NOA.
As for the performance of that highway
NOA, I would say it's pretty much in
line with every other GE product that
I've ever used in that uh it's not
particularly great. I would put it
firmly in midpack along with brands like
BYD. There are better performing systems
in this at this price point,
particularly the Xpong Mona M03. In
terms of what it does wrong, well, what
it does right is a lot of stuff. It's
perfectly fine for when you're trying to
go on an empty highway with not a lot of
other cars, but as soon as you get into
very heavy traffic situations, it's
hesitant to pass trucks. It's phantom
braking. It also allows for too great of
a distance between you and the car in
front of it. It's just not particularly
conducive to use.
[Music]
These days, it seems like Jile's
strategy is to take whatever BYD is
doing in any given segment and do the
same thing, only slightly better. That's
certainly the case with this car in the
BYD Chin L. It's slightly more
efficient, slightly higher performance.
Heck, it's even got a 10 km per hour
faster top speed than the BYD. This is
of course what every automaker should
do. try to outperform their rivals and
frankly it seems to be working for J and
their brands. They've got a string of
highly successful models over the last
couple of years. If history is anything
to go by, I think this might be their
very next successful model and one that
is going to give a lot of trouble to
that BYDL. All right, thank you so much
for watching today's video. Be sure to
like, subscribe, and hit the bell. And
as always, check us out on our social
media platforms. link in the description
below. See you next time.
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