We Drive the Onvo L60 China s Best Model Y

I'm Frank Marcus with Motor Trend and I'm here outside Shanghai, China, sampling the products of the company NIO. Now we've discussed how NIO is kind of the Tesla of China. A lot of similarities. Tesla does superchargers, NIO does battery swapping. Very tech-heavy, very software intensive, very over-the-air, updatable. This is the closest thing to a Model Y available in China. And it is not from NIO, even though that looks like an N on the hood. This is from their sub-brand Anvo. This is the Anvo L60. And by all objective measures, this is kind of a Tesla Model Y L. In China, they always like a little more backseat room. So the wheelbase is two inches longer, the overall length is about three inches longer, the height's a little bit lower, and all the specs are very close. Power and torque right on top of each other, just about. Acceleration, very, very similar. Aerodynamics are very close. This one's got a slight edge, 0.229 versus 0.236 on the drag coefficient and a little bit less frontal area, thanks to narrower tires and smaller, frameless, very aerodynamic mirrors. This one has got the full self-driving situation on vision only. That's why there's no LiDAR hump in the middle here. Design-wise, it's very similar to the Model Y also, although it was designed by a designer from Bentley. But very much the same form language, very clean, very nice. We're here to find out, is it a better Model Y or not? One of the big differences between the Model Y and this Anvo L60 is the interior. Much dressier, still minimalist, very much in the oeuvre of the Model Y, but much dressier. Nicer materials, more comfort, a larger 17-inch screen as opposed to about 15 on the Tesla. The nice, bright contrast, white versus dark. Anvo allows four different interior designs, different colors, including purple, which, believe it or not, is 40% of the Chinese market is opting for purple. Another thing that's important to know is that it is a single spec. They are all this nice. They all have these super cushy seats with ventilation, heating, and massage. Heating only in the rear, that's standard on all of them. Everything you see is standard. You only choose 60 or 85 kilowatt hour battery, and whether you want rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and then you have the colors. And there are a lot of cool colors. Apparently 20% of people go for purple on the outside. And it's also important to know that this car is about $7,000 cheaper if you buy the battery with this car, and you buy the battery, obviously, on all Tesla Model Ys. The difference here is that Anvo offers an option of renting or leasing the battery, so battery as a service. Now, all owners of all Anvos can take advantage of the battery swapping stations, of which there should be about 2,000 available by this June. Not every NIO standard battery swapping station can handle every car. So this one will need a third generation with upgrades or a fourth generation. But anyway, that lowers the price even further. So you can get one of these with this interior for a lot less than a Tesla in China. Look, mom, no hands. So I'm trying out camp mode in the Anvo L60. This would be a handy way if you wanted to sleep. They make little mattress overlays that can go on here. But also, even if you're not camping, a lot of Chinese people might take their children to swim lessons or something and wait for them for two hours. And this is a wonderful, comfortable place to watch a movie or play a game on either of the two screens here. There's a further mode where you can just put the back seats down and they make some beds that will also go across that. This is quite comfortable. And you also need to notice that the front passenger seat comes standard with a footrest, and the footrest is also heated. So I've only been at the helm a few minutes here. First impressions, this is a vastly nicer interior than the Tesla Model Y. Much higher grade materials, the 16 million color ambient lighting we were enjoying in the garage down there dresses up the interior quite a bit. And this seat is really nice. Another interesting thing about the Anvo L60 is it's one spec. You change the color and the wheels, but everything in here, including the heated seats, the air conditioned seats, and the massaging seat comes standard. You only pick rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and you pick the battery size and the color. So it's a much higher standard spec than a Tesla. This is a 17-inch screen. How big is the Tesla? Tesla is maybe 15.6. Okay, ours is bigger. Unfortunately, I can't fully assess the UX because it's all in Chinese here, but I can again tell that we've got a main menu bar across the bottom with the most frequently selected things. And I've got this one, a single finger swipe down brings you your controls for the steering wheel and the mirrors and so forth like that. And then there are areas, right? Right now we have navigation on just the one side, but we can have that in a smaller part. We can have it full screen. So we are navigate on autopilot right now, and it is still hands-on, but it's a capacitive touch system, which is infinitely superior to the torque detection ones, because those are constantly asking you to wiggle the steering wheel if you haven't had to steer for the last little while. So the software defined nature of this car is one of the big comparisons with Tesla, and it's a little ahead in the zonal architecture and the domain controller situation where they have more centralization and less cabling and copper. So less mass and greater range with that, and probably better over-the-air firmware and software update. Navigate on autopilot just decided to go around on the right here. That's an unusual situation to an American. I'm liking the orange seat belts, and there's orange stitching on the... It's more sporty. Yes, on the seats and on the armrests and the center console, all very upscale looking. Dolby Atmos with the up-high speakers. Of course, if we were dark enough right now, we can set the ambient lighting to be pulsing with the music. And of course, all week we've been talking about how NIO is kind of like the Tesla of China in that Tesla solved the charging anxiety problem by building superchargers all over whatever country they operate in, and NIO has been building swap stations. So it's better than supercharging if you don't have to sit there for 20 or 30 minutes. And of course, they're also very much like Tesla in so far as very tech forward, very software focused. Their electric motors are built in-house and designed in-house. And so it's very interesting to be driving the most direct competitor for the most popular electric car in the world, which is the Tesla. And of course, you drive this car and you think, well, why doesn't this sell Tesla? It's a much nicer car. The performance is on par. It's better tailored to the Chinese market, but there's a lot of sales inertia for the prime mover in the space. So I've just spent the day in the new Onvo L60, the NIO Corporation's answer to the Model Y. Is it a Model Y competitor? Absolutely. It's a more Chinese one, more space in the back, more comfortable riding. It's not quite as sharp edged. It won't handle and go around turns quite as quickly and briskly as the Model Y would. I also miss the fact that it doesn't have one pedal driving. We get that in the US, but then again, the Chinese market doesn't value that as much. So I see why they left it out. All we're looking for here too in China is what are the elements of this car that we'd love to see come to America, even if they don't come in this car. The domain controller zonal architecture that has reduced so much copper wiring in this car allows this larger car to weigh the same as the Model Y. That's something we need. We also need the blazing hot speed that this operating system SkyOS allows of this car. Everything, button touches on the screen are instant. Would I like to see this car in the US? Absolutely. I'd love to have heated massage and ventilated seats in a $29,000 car. It's not going to happen. For more on this car and all the other Chinese cars we're driving this week, stop by Motortrend.com.