Launched in China back in 2022, the Geely Panda Mini has received a facelift ahead of the Auto Shanghai motor show later this month. The tiny four-seater electric city automotive, which competes against the likes of the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV and Air EV, gets a fair cuter design and a few much-needed safety upgrades.
Revisions include a brand new front end, still with large round headlights but with a black strip joining them, running across the charging port with the “Geome” badge (short for Geometry, now folded into the principal Geely lineup). The front bumper design can also be cleaner with pill-shaped corners, something that’s repeated within the rear. Meanwhile, the 13-inch wheels get latest covers moderately harking back to a fidget spinner.
The redesign continues on the within with a much more modern design for the dashboard, door cards and two-spoke steering wheel, together with air vents within the aforementioned pill shape. You continue to get a 9.2-inch slimline LCD instrument display, an eight-inch infotainment touchscreen, an optional reverse camera and an octagonal rotary gear selector sitting atop a narrow centre console.
Safety has been bolstered considerably with the addition of a front passenger airbag, taking the space on the dashboard once occupied by a storage cubby. Mind you, that also means the Panda Mini only has two airbags in total. Stability control and hill start assist have also been added, although the automotive still misses out on driver assists resembling autonomous emergency braking (after all).
Also unchanged are the mechanicals, with the only front motor continuing to push out just 27 PS (20 kW) and 85 Nm of torque. Much more shocking is the minuscule 9.61 kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that delivers a spread of just 120 km – and that’s on China’s ridiculously lenient CLTC cycle.
The “Endurance” models are more powerful, producing 41 PS (30 kW) and 110 Nm of torque and getting a bigger 17.03 kWh LFP battery for extra range. Extra is relative, nevertheless, as even these variants are only able to travelling as much as 200 km on a single charge. Despite the additional oomph, all Panda Minis are limited to a top speed of just 100 km/h.
You do no less than get support for 22 kW of DC charging with the larger battery, taking half an hour to top up the pack from 30 to 80% charge. You furthermore may get quicker 3.3 kW of AC charging, shaving half an hour off the charging time from 20 to 100% – five hours for the bottom models, 4.5 hours for versions with the 17.02 kWh battery.
The principal good thing about these underwhelming specs is that the Panda Mini is seriously low-cost, ranging from only 29,900 yuan (RM18,000). You’ll need to pay more for models with the larger battery after all – no less than 49,900 yuan (RM30,000), rising as much as 53,900 yuan (RM32,500) for all of the bells and whistles. The brand new interior and safety features, by the way in which, have also been fitted to the Panda Knight and Panda Kart.
With the Panda Mini now getting dual airbags and stability control, there’s less of a barrier for it entering Malaysia with a Proton badge (except for, you recognize, the entire right-hand-drive conversion thing). It is going to, nevertheless, be somewhat bit costlier over here, and its poor range means it is going to struggle to seek out buyers. Would you get one? Hold forth within the comments after the jump.
Seeking to sell your automotive? Sell it with Carro.
This Article First Appeared At paultan.org
