Wuling Hongguang Mini EV

SAIC-GM-Wuling, the joint venture of SAIC Motor, General Motors and Guangxi Automobile, launched the Hong Guang MINI EV, as it first spelled the name, at the Chengdu Motor Show on 24 July 2020. It was the Wuling brand’s first four-seat new-energy car, and it came in three versions priced from CNY 28,800 to CNY 38,800, about US$4,200 to US$5,600.source 1source 2source 3 It was built at Liuzhou in Guangxi and at Qingdao in Shandong.source 1

It is an electric microcar in size, but not in Chinese law: with a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph) it is a regular passenger car, not one of China’s low-speed electric vehicles.source 1 Four seats, two and two, fit behind three doors in a body 2,917 mm long, 1,493 mm (59 in) wide and 1,621 mm (64 in) high, weighing 665 to 700 kg (1,466 to 1,543 lb).source 1source 2 The motor sits at the back and drives the rear wheels through a single speed; versions ranged from 15 to 30 kW, and the 20 kW (27 PS) motor gives 85 Nm. The batteries were small: 9 or 9.3 kWh for 120 km (75 miles) on the NEDC cycle, or 13.4 to 13.8 kWh for 170 km. It had ABS, a tyre-pressure monitor and rear parking sensors, but the early cars had no airbag at all.source 1

The best-selling electric car in China

It sold at once. GM Authority reported 15,000 sold in the first 20 days and more than 50,000 orders, and in August 2020 the Mini EV outsold the Tesla Model 3 in China.source 3 By English Wikipedia’s figures 127,651 were sold in the second half of 2020, second among the world’s plug-in cars for those months; in January 2021 its 36,762 made it the world’s best-selling plug-in car, and over the whole of 2021 its 395,451 made it China’s best-selling new-energy vehicle.source 1 Cumulative sales passed 400,000 in October 2021 and 1.1 million by February 2023.source 4source 1 It became a cult car in China, widely modified by its owners and compared to Japan’s kei cars.source 1

Macaron, GameBoy, Cabrio

Wuling kept dressing it up. The Macaron edition of April 2021 came in pastel Pantone colours, avocado green, lemon yellow and peach pink, with a reversing camera and sensors and, now as standard, a driver’s airbag; a 2023 update added a passenger’s airbag, 215 km on the CLTC cycle and a fast charge from 30 to 80 per cent in 35 minutes.source 1 The GameBoy of March 2022, marketed as the third generation, was restyled and larger, at 3,061 to 3,089 mm, with 20 or 30 kW and batteries of up to 25.5 kWh. The Cabrio, a soft-top shown as a concept in 2021, went into production in September 2022: 3,059 mm long and 925 kg.source 1

It also went abroad. Nikrob UAB assembled it in Vilnius as the Freze Nikrob from 2021, Turkey had it as the Rainwoll RW10 from 2023, and it was assembled too at Hưng Yên in Vietnam and at Cikarang in Indonesia.source 1 A second generation, coded E110C and marketed as the fourth, was shown in December 2024 and launched on 22 February 2025, with three or five doors, 3,043 to 3,268 mm long, and 9.2 to 26 kWh of lithium-iron-phosphate battery for 120 to 280 km. In 2025, every version together, China bought 424,983, the car’s best year. A facelift followed in February 2026, and in July 2026 the five-door went on sale as the Wuling Aira EV in Indonesia, including a Toy Story edition of 300 cars, and as the Wuling Macaron in Vietnam.source 1

The imitators

SAIC-GM-Wuling’s other brand, Baojun, had been selling small electric city cars since 2017, beginning in Liuzhou: the Baojun E100, the Baojun E200 and the E300, later the Baojun KiWi EV.source 5source 6 English Wikipedia names the Chery QQ Ice Cream, the Dongfeng Fengguang, sold abroad as the Fengon Mini EV, and the Geely Panda Mini EV among its imitators, and Wuling built a sister on the same platform, the Wuling Air ev.source 1source 7 Those cars, and three other small Chinese electrics, the Zhidou D2, the Kandi K12 and the Xiaohu FEV, have their own sections. Several of them, like the Mini EV’s own later versions, are a little longer than the original car.

The Zhidou D2 went on sale in June 2015 at ¥49,800 after every subsidy. Its maker, Zhi Dou Electric Vehicle Corporation, was majority-owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding. It was a two-seat hatchback 2,765 mm (109 in) long, weighing 690 kg, with a motor of 24 hp and 85 Nm and a claimed range of 180 km; and China classed it as a car, not a low-speed vehicle, so it wore ordinary plates and could use the motorways.source 8 Its maker gave its top speed as 88 km/h; the salesman whom CarNewsChina’s Tycho de Feijter met in March 2016 said 100. He was selling two of them from a table in a Beijing street, with no shop and no dealer behind him.source 8 A version for Zotye, the Zotye E20, had been shown at the Beijing show in April 2014.source 8source 9

In Italy yellow Zhidous were the fleet of Sharengo, the car-sharing service of Milan, Rome and Florence. In February 2020 Sharengo suspended its Milan service: on average one car was being wrecked by vandals every three days.source 10source 9 No production figure has been found.

Little is recorded. The only account found, a short English Wikipedia article, says the K12 was the smallest model of Kandi Technologies of Jinhua, Zhejiang, a three-door electric car 2,770 mm long, sold only in China from 2016 or 2017 and dropped without a successor in 2018.source 11 None of this has been confirmed.

SAIC-GM-Wuling’s first electric car was a two-seater from its Baojun brand. When 200 E100s were offered for pre-sale in Liuzhou on 10 July 2017, more than 5,000 people registered for them, and the car was launched on 21 July at RMB 35,800 after subsidies.source 5source 12 GM called it a second car for urban families, meant to solve the problems of parking and running costs.source 13 It was 2,488 mm (98 in) long and 1,506 mm wide, with 29 kW (39 PS) and 110 Nm, 100 km/h, and 155 km on the NEDC cycle, raised to 200 km in June 2018.source 5source 14source 13

At first it was sold only in Liuzhou, and in its first five months 11,446 were sold there, by when they made up 2.5 per cent of the passenger cars on the city’s roads.source 15 It reached the rest of Guangxi in February 2018 and Qingdao that June, and sales ended in December 2021.source 15source 13source 12 CarSalesBase counts 11,420 in 2017, 25,888 in 2018, 11,772 in 2019, 15,793 in 2020 and 4,520 in 2021, which add up to about 69,400.source 16 English Wikipedia dates its start to 2016; GM’s releases say July 2017.source 14source 5

Baojun’s second electric car, announced on 4 September 2018, was another two-seater, 2,497 mm long, with more than 200 upgrades over the E100, by GM’s count, and, unlike it, on sale throughout China from the start.source 6source 17 GM made much of its quiet: for the first time the motor and reducer were one unit, and it put the noise from the gearbox at 40 to 45 dB between 2,600 and 3,800 rpm, which it likened to the sound in a library. It had 11 storage spaces, one of them hidden in the passenger seat, and 210 km of range.source 6 English Wikipedia says it had no airbags.source 18 Its best year was 2019, with 48,278 sold in China, then 21,004 in 2020 and 10,210 in 2021.source 19 It ended in 2022 by German Wikipedia’s account, in 2025 by English Wikipedia’s.source 17source 18

Its restyled offspring was the Wuling Nano EV, launched on 29 September 2021 at the Tianjin show in a Disney Zootopia edition of 5,000 at RMB 59,800, in “Judy Powder” and “Nick Green”.source 20

Baojun’s third electric car began as the E300 and E300 Plus, launched on 24 June 2020 at RMB 64,800 to 84,800, and was relaunched on 31 August 2021 as the KiWi EV, at RMB 69,800 and 78,800, in six colours and up to three body tones.source 21source 22 The E300 was 2,625 mm long, with two or three seats; the Plus and the KiWi were 2,894 mm and had four.source 21source 22 It was a good deal more car than the E100: 40 kW and 150 Nm, a range of 305 km on the NEDC cycle, a full charge in an hour from a fast charger, stability control and two front airbags.source 21 The two names together sold 9,557 in 2020 and 11,056 in 2021, and only 191 in 2025, when production ended.source 23source 24

Chery’s answer to the Mini EV revived its old QQ name and came in flavours: taro purple, mint green, lemon yellow, sea-salt blue and three more, aimed, CarNewsChina reported, at young women in big cities. It was expected to cost about ¥30,000, against the Wuling’s ¥28,800.source 25 Official pictures came out on 25 August 2021, and it was shown at the Chengdu show, which opened two days later, as the first car of Chery’s iCar Ecology division.source 26 It had a 20 kW (27 hp) motor, a lithium-iron-phosphate battery, 100 km/h and a range of about 175 km, or about 200 by the earlier report, and four seats in a body 2,980 mm long, 10 mm longer than the site’s size line.source 26source 25 Both reports are by one writer for one publication. English Wikipedia lists rebadged versions sold from the Philippines to Italy, where it is the DR Birba, but these have not been confirmed.source 27

The only account found is English Wikipedia’s, and none of it has been confirmed. It says the Xiaohu, or “Little Tiger”, FEV of Beijing Henrey Automobile Technology went on sale in November 2021 from ¥29,900, as a three-door FOR-Two 2,920 mm long and a five-door FOR-Four of 3,380 mm, with a 34 kW motor and a 16.5 kWh battery for about 200 km. Its sales in China were small, in the hundreds or low thousands a year, and the American firm Mullen showed the five-door in October 2022 as the I-Go, a delivery car for Europe.source 28

Dongfeng’s copy, built by DFSK in Chongqing and called the Dongfeng Fengguang MINI EV at home, was first shown in September 2021 as the DFSK Sokon Candy, with a Seres badge.source 29source 30 Official pictures followed on 2 January 2022, ahead of a launch in the first quarter. Car News China set it beside the Wuling: longer, about as wide, with a 20 mm longer wheelbase.source 31 Its length was 2,995 mm (118 in), 25 mm over the site’s size line, with four seats, a motor at the back of 25 kW (34 PS), or 30 kW with the largest battery, and 100 km/h; English Wikipedia gives batteries of 9.18 kWh (9.6 in its summary table), 13.8 or 16.8 kWh for 120 to 220 km.source 29source 30source 31 Car News China found it plain to look at, with big headlamps and black plastic trim.source 30

It started well and faded: 12,763 sold in China in 2022, then 1,083 in 2023 and 701 in 2024. It went abroad as the Seres E1, launched in Indonesia on 10 August 2023, and as the DFSK Candy in the Philippines in September 2024.source 29

Wuling’s sister car was the third on its Global Small Electric Vehicle platform, after the Hongguang Mini EV and the Nano EV. It was shown first in Indonesia, on 1 June 2022, and in China two days later, and went on sale in Indonesia on 11 August, assembled at Cikarang from Chinese kits.source 7source 32 There were two lengths: a two-seater of 2,599 mm (102 in), and a four-seater of 2,974 mm (117 in), which is 4 mm over the site’s size line; the motor gave 30 or 50 kW.source 7source 32 In Indonesia it was the best-selling electric car of 2022, with 8,053 sold wholesale in less than five months against 1,829 for the next, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, at prices of Rp 238 to 311 million.source 33 It was an official car at the G20 summit in Bali that November, and 150, with Chevrolet badges, went to Egypt as ride-hailing cars for the COP27 climate conference at Sharm El Sheikh.source 7

In India it became the MG Comet EV, launched on 26 April 2023 at an introductory Rs 7.98 lakh, with a 17.3 kWh battery for 230 km and two front airbags; Autocar India called it the smallest four-wheeler on sale in the country.source 34source 35 In 2025 India bought 10,442 Comets, more than China had bought of the Air ev in any year.source 7

Geely’s rival was styled as a panda, its two round headlamps the eyes and no grille at all. Pre-sales opened on 1 February 2023 and it was launched on 6 February, priced from about ¥40,000 to ¥60,000 by trim.source 36 CarNewsChina noted equipment unusual for the class, a 9.2-inch digital instrument panel, an 8-inch central screen with voice control, a driver’s airbag and a reversing camera, and gave the long-range car a 30 kW motor, 200 km on the CLTC cycle and fast charging from 30 to 80 per cent in 30 minutes; the short-range car went 120 km.source 36 At 3,065 mm (121 in) long it is 95 mm over the site’s size line.source 36source 37 English Wikipedia, from Chinese retail data, has it selling 109,640 in 2023, 131,599 in 2024 and 156,078 in 2025, which would make it one of the most successful of the imitators; those figures have not been confirmed.source 37

The Mini EV is a current car built in the hundreds of thousands, and nothing suggests a collectors’ market yet: no club has been found, nor any auction sale. It turns up at work far from Liuzhou, as photographs show, among them a car of the municipal parking service in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2025.