First drive of the 2024 JAC E10X: We’ve just found the perfect city car
International travel is an amazing thing. For the cost of airfare and some accommodations, you usually get a stamp in your passport and then you get to meet new people, try new foods, and drive cars we can’t get in the US just to see how other people drive. 2024 JAC E10X Electric minutesHatchback The statistic may seem mundane (see also: Very Sad), but drive five minutes in a big city like Mexico City and you’ll understand exactly what it’s for.
There’s little chance the 2024 JAC E10X will make its way north to the US market, but for a few days last July we were happy to pretend we lived somewhere logical. This is amazing.
Small and well proportioned
We chose the JAC E10X as one of the tanks on our trip to find out.The influence of Chinese automakers in Mexico City. It represents something we don’t yet have in America but desperately need: an affordable small electric car. With prices starting around $24,000, it doesn’t get much cheaper than that.
The E10X is manufactured by Chinese automaker JAC Motors in Hefei, China. JAC has been in Mexico for a few years, but more importantly, its cars are also produced in Mexico rather than China, which helps keep costs low. It’s based on the gasoline-powered JAC Yueyue, powered by a 31.4 kWh battery pack that sends 60 horsepower of peak power and 111 pound-feet of torque to the front wheels. The car’s driving distance is about 200 miles.
Its interior design is very simple. The vinyl-lined seats have little support, two digital displays make up the driver’s instrument cluster and the main infotainment screen, and there are some hard buttons on the steering wheel for radio, phone and cruise control functions. There’s no volume knob, which is annoying, but it’s a little more forgiving than some luxury cars because you can clearly see the cost savings at work everywhere in the E10X.
Despite this, or perhaps because of it, cabin design returns refreshingly to basics. It’s a simple carcar. There’s a steering wheel, two pedals, some USB ports, and even power windows. Someone wanted to spruce up the interior by giving it a golf ball-like texture on the dashboard and using body-colored panels on the center console.
If you’re me and you’re 5’3″, the back seat isn’t too shabby in terms of comfort either. The trunk is surprisingly deep, but it forces you to store things upright rather than horizontally. However, with room for two adults and fold-down rear seats, There is plenty of room for a lot of luggage.
Small but powerful
If you haven’t noticed, cars have gotten really big lately. It’s too high to climb, it’s too hard to park, it’s too hard to see, and there’s too much metal to track. In comparison, the JAC E10X looks perfect. (Again, if you’re 63 inches tall, 6-foot Mexico editor Miguel Cortina found herself sitting uncomfortably at knee height.)
60 horsepower and 111 pound-feet of torqueModern diesel locomotive He is the definition of brave. But for a relatively light electric car, the E10X does it all in a flash, and with fairly direct steering, it shines as an urban thug. It’s like a minivan with body panels and a roof. Mexico City is sufferingVery crowded, but the E10X’s agility allowed it to slide in and out of gaps as if it were trying to achieve a new high score for itself. Traffic becomes a game, and Pikachu-like cars are designed to move around the board.
Its small size and lack of protrusions meant we didn’t have to guess where it would end up, we could just see for ourselves. No parking spaces are too small, and no double parking spaces block the street too narrow. That’s a lot of power, just packed into something the size of a lunch box.
Of course, there are some compromises. Ride quality is very poor, with even the smallest road imperfections hitting the cabin. thereYes Regenerative braking, but the feel is very inconsistent: at any moment, the brakes become harder or softer depending on the regenerative or friction switch, which is worrying. In Mexico City, no one drives faster than 40 miles per hour. But once you get on the highway outside the city, you immediately discover the upper limits of the E10X’s top speed – 108 km/h on flat sections and 110 km/h (about 68 mph) on gentle inclines.
Then there is the security aspect. 2024 JAC E10X winsLatin NCAP sparse Crash tests last year, so this is realistic.
This is for the American market
Building a small electric car in an urban environment is already an interesting and tempting idea, but the E10X suffers from the same problemMini Cooper electric car AndSmart fortwo electric motor DO: Where are the city folk supposed to go to charge the damn thing? Our hotel did not have an EV charger on site, so we had to charge the E10X from public chargers in the mall and Chapultepec Park. Not very comfortable.
Her heart is in the right place, though. Throughout our purchase of the 2024 JAC E10X, we couldn’t help but think about how American buyers would benefit from a less expensive, smaller, more manageable electric vehicle for their daily commute. thisChevrolet Bolt,Nissan leaf, AndKia Niro electric car A good start, but we need more affordable models. (We also reviewed the BYD Yuan Plus electric SUV In Mexico, a car similar to the Honda CR-V appeared. )
As for the E10X jack? The uptake of electric vehicles in Mexico is still in its early stages, but buyers already have a product well-suited for its largest city. Although JAC is not a Mexican company, it makes cars that Mexican buyers want. We saw some of them in the hands of private owners while we were there – proof that there is something attractive here.