AVATR 12 EREV Review: China’s Weirdest EV is a Beautiful NIGHTMARE
So, this car here is half really, really, really frustrating, but half masterpiece. Welcome to ev.com. [music] [music] This is the antidote to boring EV designs. This is the Avatar 12. Probably one of the most special and original EV designs to date. You know, last time we reviewed the Xiaomi U7, and while I really like that car, and I thought it was a great car, designwise, perhaps it could have been a little bit more original, which is not something that is a problem for this car right here. This looks like, well, it looks like nothing else. The love child of the Batmobile and a UFO. aggressive lines and unique light signatures to help it stand out on the road. Retractable door handles, digital wing mirrors, no back window, and electric spoiler. And it is probably as long as it looks, just over 5 m, which is longer than something like a Xiaomi U7 or a Tesla Model Y. But it's probably one of the most futuristic looking EV designs you will see today, but with perhaps the exception of something like the next P7 from Xpunk. But for me, this car here is a beautiful disaster. How? Well, keep watching to find out. So, the Avatar 12 is by no means a new release. It's been out for a couple of years. It's been refreshed a couple of times. This version I have today is a 2026 version, and it is an extended range electric vehicle. So, not the pure electric car it was when it was first released. This, of course, is a reflection of consumer tastes. People now are considering plug-in hybrids and extended range electric vehicles instead of going pure electric from the get-go. They are definitely becoming a more popular choice, especially in those places where public charging is a bit rubbish and a bit expensive. Would you consider an extended range electric vehicle for your next car? Make sure you let us know in the comments. So, we have a 1.5 L gasoline engine and an electric motor. The Avatar One 2 has a 52.01 kWh battery from CL who is a partner in the JV with Chong Anne. We only have 4C charging. I say only, but the battery is not massive. So, this kind of charging speed is probably going to be enough. The gas tank is a 45 L gas tank. And if you have a full gas tank and a fully charged battery, this thing will go around 1,200 kilm, which is a massive distance. From a fully charged battery, the manufacturer claims a 356 km CLTC range, but based on our tested efficiency, we predict around 10 to 15% less than this. While officially the drag coefficient of the Avatar 12 is 21 CD, which would make it even lower than the Tesla Model Y, there was some controversy earlier this year when a Chinese blogger actually tested it as above. 28. Needless to say, Avatar have not been very public about these numbers going forward. Realistically, it's probably somewhere between 21 and 23. Much like the exterior, the designers were definitely given a very, very long leash when it comes to the inside of the Avatar one. In short, it's weird, but [music] I love it. It reminds me of some of those kind of classic sports cars that are kind of very quirky, but you kind of have to admire the design. Very premium, lots of soft touch materials everywhere. I think it's probably the EV, which perhaps most closely resembles the inside of a spaceship. But I'm not just talking about this 35.4 in screen we have going across the front here or these two side view mirror displays. And some of you may have noticed this is actually one continuous windcreen that goes all the way up to behind my head. So basically we have an uninterrupted view of the horizon and the stars. I like that. I'm not sure how well this will do on a hot summer's day in keeping you cool. We're talking about this car. We need to remember design comes first, practicality second. [music] The side paneling, the curves and lines all have this kind of otherworldly vibe. And this is something that I think is really cool. But there are a lot of things inside the Avatar one which will take some getting used to. For example, these digital rear view mirrors. I've been driving this car for a few days. I've been looking out here for 20 years and now I have to look here. It's an incredibly hard habit to shake and also it doesn't really improve the blind spot. It doesn't really improve on a normal wing mirror experience. It might help with drag coefficient and it might look nice in terms of design, but [music] it's probably not needed. I do admire the Avatar 124 trying, but [music] it's not for me. And then, of course, we have a digital rear view mirror as well. I know you guys in the comments who are farsighted are going to be screaming at me that these things are not what you want to see. I think for most case scenarios, you probably wouldn't opt in for the digital wing mirrors at least. Another thing is the window button. So on the door here, there's no [music] things for opening your windows or closing your windows. They're actually in the center unit down here, which okay, is an interesting way to design your vehicle. All that happens is every time [music] you arrive at a toll booth or you need to open your windows, you're doing this and then you're like, "Oh, no, it's actually over here." So, it's we've been doing this for so long and now we have to do this, which seems a little bit unnatural. Feels very unnatural as well. Opening the door, too. Rather than a kind of thumb button or a traditional handle down here, we [snorts] have this. [music] This is the door opening button. doesn't look very obvious and I feel like every time you had a guest in your car, you would have to tell them how to open the door, which suggests that it's probably a little bit more complicated than it needs to be. And to open it, you have to press it not once, but twice, which to me suggests that many people would open this by accident. One cool thing about this door here is that we don't actually have any there's nowhere to put our drinks or whatever, throw our rubbish in in our doors. out. But actually there is because behind here is a button and this actually flips open. So we do have a decent size enough for put a few bottles of water in there or hide whatever you might hide in there. And we have our manual door open here. So this is actually really cool. In the center here we have a 15 in floating touch screen. This vehicle is powered by Huawei including the OS as well as the autonomous driving functions. The system is quick if perhaps a little Huawei s sometimes it tends to shout you a little bit but you can of course customize this screen as well as this what is called the remote screen with your chosen widgets. So Avatar have been doing these screens for a while and now we can see brands like Xiaomi kind of taking this further with their hyper HUD as it's called. The difference with the Xiaomi's is that it actually encroaches on your view of the road because it comes up the windscreen. Here the dash has actually been lowered and it sits even below the windscreen. So we don't have any of our view compromised. However, the result is that this dash has been lowered and it means less space in the footwells. I like this screen. All I would say is that the bezels are a little bit big and it'll be nice if it was a continuous screen rather than having these big black spaces in between the center screen and the digital wing mirror screens. So, in the middle here, of course, we have our wireless charging for our phone. And it's really cool. You have a sensor ceremony. You get in the car, the pad actually drops down, so your phone is more secure and actually has some vents here to blow some cold air on your phone to make sure it doesn't overheat. So, that's kind of like a cool way to enter your car and begin the driving experience. The only thing is if you're, you know, stopping at a a traffic light and you lift your phone up, you know, this thing ends up coming up and then it's got to go down again. And the motor in there sounds tired already. And this is a new car, so I can imagine this motor not holding out for a huge amount of time. Pretty much sums up a lot about this car. Is it the most practical [music] way to do it? No. From is it cool from a design perspective? Yes. Does it look good? Yes. Does it make you feel happy? Yes. In the back. And we do kind of have Oh, electric doors. By the way, all the doors in the Avatar One 2 are fully electric. In the back here, we do have kind of like this bordering on executive travel experience. We have lots of leg room. The seats are very low and kind of angled back, so it's kind of like comfortable as if you're kind of driving a cruiser. Headroom a little bit tight for me, but I think most people would be fine. Ideally, you would only have two people in the back. So you could have this armrest down in the middle. So you've got a place to put your phones as a charging port here as well. You have our cup holders here. And then we do have heated, ventilated, and massaging seats. Same as in the front here. Although these are zero gravity as well. The funny thing about this is the types of massage we have are wave, what I can only describe as a dog paw, and butterfly. So if you want to make heads or tails of that, I don't know. We have a nice sunroof up here. And we do have a TV screen here. I don't know how to bring this down. I've checked in the screen. I've checked here. There doesn't seem to be any obvious way bring this television down. I guess it would just be another one of the mysteries of the Avatar one two. But if you did bring it down and you were sitting in the back here getting a massage, it would be a very nice way to spend a longer journey. What do you think of the Avatar one's interior? Do you think its interesting quirks outweigh the minor problems? Make sure you let us know your feelings in the comments. So, the back of the Avatar One is probably even more interesting than the front. So, we have this kind of light cluster here that cuts through onto the door panel. This is a lift back and there is no rear window on here at all. So, we have a digital rear view display. Nice little electric spoiler here which I think helps to break up the design in the back. And if we look inside, we can see that the opening of this trunk is almost as high at is as it is wide. We still have a goodiz boot, 425 L there. But as you will see throughout this review, this car doesn't really prioritize practicality. Rather a great interesting and memorable design. So this car of course uses electric motors only to move. So it's kind of like a toned down version of the pure electric version which I think is actually for the best. So in terms of power we have 231 kW and for torque we have 367 newton m. So these numbers are fairly conservative for you know new energy vehicles and it gives us an acceleration time of 6.7 seconds which for me is really in that sweet spot. It's kind of similar to a kind of a single motor pure electric vehicle. It's not crazy, but it still has a little bit of acceleration should you need it. And I think for the most part, this is better because over the long term, you're getting better efficiency. I don't think this car is meant to be driven quickly or aggressively. I think it's a a cruiser. We have digital rear view. We have digital wing mirrors. combination of these really messes with my spatial awareness and my my perception of space. Actually, maybe you guys have better experiences of using these digital rear view and wing mirrors. Make sure you let us know in the comments below. But for me, it's something which I haven't got used to yet and I'm not actually incredibly confident when I'm driving this car. It's quite a long car and for maneuvering and things like parking, it's supposed to be improving things, but for me it makes things so much more difficult. And then we have this steering wheel, which isn't exactly a yolk, but then again, it's not really your traditional type of steering wheel. Obviously, it's been chosen because it doesn't obstruct our view of this long screen we have on the dash here. As I mentioned, this car is much more of a cruiser. kind of like you put your hands here, you kind of chill out and you you follow the road. You know, it is quite heavy. It is quite a low slung profile. It is a sedan. You do feel a lot of the road. You feel a lot of the bumps, but but for things like highway [snorts] driving, it's very smooth. It just eats up those motorway miles. So, another reason why this >> pro assist activated, >> this type of steering wheel is also great for if you're not even driving at all. So, if you're using the car's autonomous functions and having a steering which is smaller and kind of out the way makes more sense and I think we'll see these kind of steering wheels more and more as self-driving improves further. Our efficiency during testing was between 15.2 and 15.5 kW hours per 100 km which consisted of mainly urban driving. So, we predict an actual battery range of around 320 km. So, I think if you're driving 20 or 30 km a day, this is enough. But further than that, you're probably going to have to be adding gas. This car here is not very practical at all. You should buy one. In all seriousness, there are a lot of practical EV options on the market today, but [music] you won't find another more original, more unique design than this Avatar one. A design which keeps you on your toes. A design that keeps surprising you. A design that makes you go, "Huh?" every time you step inside. We need more original EV designs like this. While it might be the more practical choices that win out in terms of sales, it's designs like these that will be remembered. What do you think? What do you think of the design of the Avatar One 2? And do you think you could overlook its imperfections? Be sure to give us a like and a subscribe and make sure you let us know what you think in the comments below. I'll see you next time.
Experience one of China’s boldest EV designs — the AVATR 12.
A car that’s part spaceship, part luxury sedan… and part beautiful nightmare.
In this EV.com review, Toby takes the refreshed version of the AVATR 12 on the road to see whether its wild design choices actually work in the real world. From the dramatic exterior lines to a cabin that feels like a sci-fi film set, the AVATR 12 is unapologetically original.
Is the AVATR 12 a masterpiece of originality… or a reminder that design needs balance?
Let us know your take in the comments — and subscribe for more EV reviews from across China and the world.
#EVcom #AVATR12 #ElectricVehicles #ChinaEVs #evreview
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