Chery Philippines charges into the EV market with the Arrizo 5e 

Last Friday, Chery Philippines held a virtual launch of the Chery Arrizo 5e Electric Vehicle. This is the EV version of its conventional Arrizo 5 compact sedan. The conventional internal combustion engine powered Arrizo 5 was introduced as a concept car in the 2014 Beijing Auto Show named Chery Concept Alpha and as the Chery Alpha 5 Concept that was unveiled at the 2015 Shanghai Auto Show. The production model was subsequently debuted at the 2015 Guangzhou Auto Show as the Arrizo 5. 

The letter “e” designation signifies its EV platform and the Arrizo 5e made its debut in China over two years ago and has now reached Philippine shores. With an estimated range of 400 kilometers, Chery says this new generation pure electric vehicle was designed by Chery for the global market. It comes with a permanent magnet synchronous electric motor that generates 120 Kw of power (approximately 160 horsepower) and 250 Nm of torque. It has a single motor front wheel drive system that can propel from 0 – 50 km/h in 3.8 seconds with a top speed of 152 km/h. Like most EVs in the market, it uses a lithium ion battery with a 53.6 KWH charging capacity with a dual driving mode system (sport or eco).

We still do not have the full spec sheet and list of options and features of the Arrizo 5e yet but its outward appearance looks very closely similar with its conventional internal combustion engine powered siblings and conforms to the Chery Design Language. The car is rated with a C-NCAP five-star security with a score of 56.24 points. Chery says its 3R-Body and cage-type structure design, thermal forming steel is similar to premium cars in six key parts, with over 60% of high-strength steel for safer car body and rigidity for easier handling.

As to pricing, it will be around  P1.9million and will be fore sale on an indent basis for now according to UAGI, the parent company of Chery Philippines.  Not cheap if you compare it with a conventional sedan of this segment. “The challenge is the 25% duties and 12% VAT imposed on EVs, even if the excise tax is waived for electric vehicles, the cost to import EV’s are still prohibitive. But we want to test the market at this point in time.” Says Rommel Sytin, the president of United Asia Automotive Group, Inc. the distributor for Chery vehicles in the country.

This year, despite the business downturn severely affecting the local economy specially the auto industry, it has been quite prolific for electrified vehicles. Just the last two months saw the introduction of Jaguar’s I-Pace EV, Porsche Taycan, and two Range Rover PHEV models.  It would be interesting to see how the Arriza 5e will position itself in this still very niche market.