Changan bakkie ticks boxes. Fails to reinvent wheel
If the Chinese are brilliant at one thing, that’s copying. Take Rolex watches. That guy wearing one… its’ 30 to one a Chinese fake. And you’ll never tell them apart, on the face of it. Same goes for Gucci, Lous Vuitton and the rest. Counterfeits are not difficult to come by, especially touring the East.
A real Rolex Daytona can cost you 1.5 million rand. A copy on say, Nathan Road Hong Kong? Hundred dollar. Haggle. And it’s yours for 75. Some are horrible. Other ‘replicas’ are just as good, if not better than the real thing. I never told you that…
Getting back to the point, while the Chinese will knock pretty well anything off so well that you’ll probably never know it’s fake or not, when it comes to engineering, developing and inventing, the Chinese are not quite as good at that. Which leads us to the gist of the story.
Hunter REEV is absolutely brilliant on paper
On paper, this Changan Hunter K50 REEV 4x4 double cab range extender bakkie is absolutely brilliant. Just look at it. One of the best looking bakkies out there, that’s for sure. Step aboard and its outer worldly. For a bakkie. Truly next level in just about every way besides one or two perhaps expected Chinese nuances.
Its perpetrators reckons K50 REEV combines the rugged strength of a bakkie with the intelligence of next-generation electrification. ‘Driven to Evolve’, they promise it offers South Africans a groundbreaking choice in a utility vehicle that delivers muscle, endurance and innovation in a futuristic package.
Indeed, those crisp lines, bold grille, integrated LED headlamps and 18-inch alloys are sleek, sharp, futuristic and aggressive. It doesn’t change when you step aboard, either. More premium SUV than workhorse, wraparound digital HD infotainment displays, advanced instrumentation and wireless charging are just some of the luxuries.
This Changan has it all. And then some
Add sumptuous finishes, adventurous ergonomics and generous space. Advanced driver assistance includes adaptive cruise, lane departure and 540° panoramic camera. Never mind ESP, TC, ABS, EBD, trailer sway control, hill-start and descent control and emergency braking with assist and multiple airbags. Yip, Hunter REEV truly has it all.
Adventurous is not quite enough to describe Changan’s endeavours under the skin. And once again, on paper, it’s quite brilliant. Completely different, too. Like a Dakar Audi, this 140 kW 340 Nm 2-litre turbo petrol four pot is only the generator. It charges a 31.2 kWh 280V lithium ion phosphate battery, which in turn powers a pair of front and rear motors to deliver 200 kW and 470 Nm of electric grunt.
Hop in and you can drive up to 150 km on electric power only. Until then, Hunter REEV is most impressive. Eight seconds zero to 100 highlights a truly impressive performance envelope. And being an electric four-wheel drive, it’s capable off road too. But that only lasts until the battery is flat. And then the wheels fall off.
And then that elephant stood up
So, suppose you’re towing your horsebox, speedboat or racing car. In a straight turbodiesel, or petrol bakkie, you’d just need to be sure to be near a fuel station every five or six hundred kilometres. The rest is easy. Whatever that bakkie is rated at, is how it will pull. So maybe 140 kW and 400 Nm and you can pull a 3.5 ton braked trailer.
First off, your braked trailer must weigh under 2.2 tons to pull it with Hunter REEV. Which is still reasonable enough. But the real elephant in the room only stands up after you’ve towed 100 kilometres or so. When that battery goes pap. In normal driving its flat in 150 or so kilos. There are ways to extend that, but they’re all compromised.
When the battery is spent, Hunter REEV changes character completely. It’s sluggish, the engine screams like a rabid CVT and half the power just disappears. There are two sets of performance data below. One is with a charged battery. The other is tested with the poor petrol lump desperately trying to keep pace with charging the depleted battery.
There’s another issue. When we stopped to charge the battery after becoming desperate, we found the bakkie does not have a charger cable. So unless you find a hen’s teeth 130 or more kilowatt station with its own cables, you must leave the car to charge itself. See how long it takes before your estate neighbours come complaining...
Why not just do what you do best?
So sadly, all this otherwise brilliant Changan Hunter REEV goes to prove, is that the Chinese are still struggling to reinvent that wheel. Which is pretty baffling. Changan does sell a pretty decent 110 kW and 350 Nm turbodiesel Hunter. But that’s a clearly downmarket offering that has nothing of REEV’s looks and appeal.
Which has us scratching our heads. If Changan sold this bakkie, or indeed a staunch turbodiesel, or turbo petrol version of it, it would have an absolute winner on its hands. Instead it’s tried to fix what was never broken to deliver a bakkie that simply cannot cut the mustard. As a bakkie, that is.
Sure, if you just need to prance up on that prep school pavement, this REEV is a neat conversation piece. But a bakkie to beat the best? No chance. Yet had Changan just followed the market and copied what those Japanese do best to slip a traditional drivetrain in this Hunter. It’d have the traditional bakkie brands far more concerned.
Like this, however, those guys have nothing to worry about. Unless they’re also chasing Barbie and Ken, that is. … – Michele Lupini
Images & data: Giordano Lupini
ROAD TESTED: Changan Hunter REEV K50 4x4 DC
Engine: 140 kW 340 Nm 2-litre turbo petrol I4
Motor: 200kW 470Nm Nm electric (2 motors)
System output: 200kW 470Nm
Hybrid: 2 electric motors front & rear
Direct Electric AWD
Battery: 31.2 kWh 280V lithium ion phosphate
Load Capacity: 1000 kg
Braked Trailer: 2200 kg
TESTED:
State Charged Flat
0-60 km/h: 3.53 sec 5.10 sec
0-100 km/h: 8.97 sec 12.16 sec
0-120 km/h: 11.53 sec 16.85 sec
0-160 km/h: 20.15 sec
400m: 16.0 sec @ 140 km/h (19.18 @ 125)
80-120 km/h: 5.83 sec 8.48
120-160 km/h: 8.72 sec
CLAIMED:
VMax: 160 km/h
Fuel: 2.5 l/100 km 9 l/100 km
CO2: 50 g/km 200 g/km
Range: ‘Up to 1000 km’
Warranty/Service: 5y 150K/6y 90K km
LIST PRICE: R799K
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