Why Im delighted to be bringing you a review of this? The Chong on Lumen a very simple little electric car, with a starting price of just 7 300 US dollars lets get started with Hands On test drives and reviews of exciting Chinese market Vehicles. Wheels boy is the number one source for China. Auto insights be sure to check us out on Instagram and Facebook, foreign Music, of course, its impossible to talk about any car in this category without addressing the very tiny elephant in the room, the ruling mini EV that car is responsible for creating or at least popularizing. This entire segment here in China, but while the Lumen corn is clearly grasping for the crown of the mini EV, it is doing it in a very different way, starting from the outside, while the mini EV is cute in the sense that it looks like a larger Car that was kind of shrank down the Lumen Corner, the Lumen from Chong on, looks more like a well anthromorphize cartoon character. They even gave the headlights eyelids these remind me of those things you see on Jeep Wranglers that make them look like they have Angry Eyebrows, but less aggro and more adorable. A couple of interesting things to note about this car. These headlights, while adorable, are halogen on all three trim levels, whereas the mini EV has LEDs available for higher trim level cars. This thing does, however, have more advanced door handles pop out concealed ones versus the traditional ones, on a wheelie mini EV.

This adds to the overall more rounded look of this car versus the wooling. Speaking of the entire car, its larger than the mini EV, both in length and width, though it is slightly shorter, its 3.27 meters in length and 1.7 meters wide not huge by any means, but noticeably larger than a mini EV, also larger than a mini EV. Are these wheels? We got 14 inches baby versus those tiny baby, 12 inch wheels on the mini EV Baldwin. While this car is a wider and longer than the mini EV, it also has a slightly shorter wheelbase than that car. So I guess Im not surprised to learn that its rear cargo space is well equally tiny, as that in the mini EV. The Lumen, like its competitors, is only available with slow charge, not fast charge. I can tell you from experience: thats not particularly convenient to use when we picked up this car. It had 35 kilometers of range, we charged it for two hours and it then had 66 kilometers of range. I really wish it was fast charge, but that kind of electrical architecture would probably make it considerably more expensive as well. Oh wow, just like the mini EV, this thing has one single giant door on each side, lets close that door and talk about the interior, noticeably more width on this car. As I mentioned, it is wider and it is noticeable specifically in the shoulder area. When you sit inside another thing, thats very noticeable is right here.

Every version of this car, all three trim levels have a 10.25 inch Center screen as standard, whereas the mini EV makes do with a instrument, cluster digital display and no Center screen at all. The extra 2500 US Dollars you pay for the base trim level of this car is starting to make a little bit more sense, the rest of the Interior. Incredibly simple: there are some color matching panels here in the center, where you have your transmission knob, your window switches, your Eco and Sport driving modes. Look forward to testing the difference between those and, of course, your handbrake. There is no Park function. This thing is like a manual you just put it into neutral and pull the handbrake to park. There arent a lot of other Creature Comforts to be found in the interior, but thats not surprising, considering the price that were talking about here. You do, of course, have your heating and air conditioning controls here: theyre physical buttons. You also have some USB ports, one here and one on the back for your rear passengers, but other than that. Well, theres not much to be found. One thing that did surprise me, however: this is a mid spec version and it does have electrically adjustable rear view mirrors not bad. The interior is plastic fantastic, but so is the mini Eevee and every other car in this segment. The overall style does feel more like a real grown up car than the mini EV, though some would argue that makes it less Charming Music time for us to get out making sure the parking brake is on First and check out rear seat space, not really looking Forward to this, to be honest, lets see, try to adjust this to where I had it before right about there.

Okay, I am five foot nine inches tall about 1.72 meters and Ive got about that much space between my knees and the seat Headroom about that much another fist there as well. The seating position, however, not good. My knees are obviously very very high. My feet are very high because the floor is very high and then the back rests, which are non adjustable, are very very straight. I would say this is equally as uncomfortable as a mini EV, but thats, not particularly surprising. I was relieved to learn that the Lumen has both driver and passenger side airbags as standard something that isnt true on the mini EB still, neither of them has anything in the way of traction, control or electronic stability programming so Ill have to resist my urge to Push this tiny EV to its performance limits the standard Driving Experience for this particular segment. Isnt particularly good, were talking about cars that are priced between four thousand and ten thousand US dollars, so you cant expect them to ride. Like an S Class, I would say this car fits right in with its competitors. This thing has a slightly shorter wheelbase. As I mentioned in the Willing mini EB, but it somehow manages to provide a ride that doesnt have quite as much head bobbing as the mini EV, not sure how it does that. Perhaps it has to do with the rear suspension. The mini EV uses a non independent multi link, while this uses a trailing arm.

Im, not sure why that happens, but all I can tell you is this feels ever so slightly more comfortable and more under control than a mini EV. But while the ride might be slightly better than the mini EV, I would say that the steering is actually somewhat worse, its more rubbery and vague than the mini EV. It almost feels like they put a power assisted box onto a golf cart. The other inputs like the brake pedal are well pretty stiff, surprisingly stiff for such a light small car. Actually, of course, this thing is never intended to be used as a highway commuter, rather a city Runabout, but I must point out the fact that nvh is pretty ridiculous at almost any speed. That starts with a single front mounted electric motor, which winds all the time, whether youre, accelerating or whether its regen, oh man, its just so loud theres, also the fact that they seem to have increased cabin space without increasing the amount of insulation. I can tell because, when youre having a conversation with someone in this car, it sounds like youre talking to them inside of an empty soup can but lets get down to what really matters in this segment and thats power. The mini EV makes up to 30 kilowatts. This car matches that in its base and mid spec trims Im driving the mid spec right now, but there is what Im choosing to call a performance version available which makes 35 kilowatts.

It appears chongon hasnt released torque figures for the Lumen, but I can at least tell you about the range entry level cars squeeze acclaimed 155 kilometers of cltc range from a 13 kilowatt hour battery pack mid spec cars get 210 kilometers from a 17.7 kilowatt hour pack And the previously mentioned performance version is said to deliver 301 kilometers from a pack measuring 28 kilowatt hours, foreign Music Id say the specs and features of this car make it a better value than the Willing mini EV, and it has a Driving Experience thats, just as Good or just as bad as a mini EV, depending on how you think of it, however, in October of 2022, chongon managed to sell a pretty impressive 12 000 lumens, while ruling managed to sell 42 000 mini EVS, it seems like the mini EV is going to Hold on to its Crown as the king of the little electric Hatchback for just a bit longer. Thank you.

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