It’s more expensive to commute than drive this EV
BY my estimates, it costs about P2.10 to travel per kilometer using the Weltmeister W5.
That is a cheaper way to go around versus public transportation. Here is my case: jeepney fare is now a minimum of P14 for four kilometers–that’s P3.50 per kilometer and P2.20 per kilometer after.
My P2.10 is estimated based on my calculations of overall preventive maintenance and charging cost running the average 70-kilometer drive I’d do traveling from home to Manila.
Weltmeister, (wrongly translated by a blogger to be “volt master”) means world champion. It does sound like “volt master” when pronounced with a Teutonic tounge: velt-may-steh.
Herr Automeister
Weltmeister’s founder, Shen Hui, is an Automeister. The former director at the Geely group became Volvo China Chairman before setting up Weltmeister. He worked all his life with power, electricity, and utilities. Companies like Fiat, Pateo, an automotive connectivity provider, Eaton a transport producer, and Borg Wagner, power and drive train specialists.
He then moved to, at the invitation of Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Automobile holdings to work beside him on a project that would change both Geely, and Shen around. By this time he adopts a revolutionary English first name–Freeman, something unheard of in Communist China. He took than name when handed over the reins of Volvo from Ford after Geely’s buyout.
But WM Motor Technology, a holding company to Weltmeister was only founded in Zhejiang Province in 2015. Zheijang is known for tea and their many historical sites. It is 1,278 kilometers from Beijing–a 13-hour drive, a 1.5-hour flight, or a 4-hour high-speed train ride. WM Motor’s annual capacity of just 100,000 units but can expand to 4x as much simply by adding modular assembly lines. W5 is their first-ever vehicle and is now China’s best-selling battery-electric compact SUV.
This short story is crucial to the W5 test drive.
Quickly from concept to car
Unlike the Nissan LEAF, which started from concept cars as far back as 30 years ago, Weltmeister’s cars took 3 years from concept to release, are not ashamed of sharing technologies and designs from partner companies and building and testing cars in the quickest ways possible.
My colleagues call the W5’s styling as modest, conservative, and understated. I disagree. I think the external styling is fresh, familiar, and at one point from the left rear quarter corner view, a Volvo. Though there is no technical tie-up with Volvo, the vehicle carries that strong D-pillar presence much like a Volvo SUV. There is a lot of chatter on this styling part because the W5 is complete with what is necessary in a compact SUV. Example: LED headlights, a self-raising tailgate, a foglamp housed in a triangular frame that’s also a non-working front vent (hey’ isn’t that the Mitsubishi dynamic shield accent?) and that curious front emblem WM calls the “living logo.”
That front logo is a living, pulsing charge indicator. Once plugged, it shifts color from orange to green and the bars fill up until the end to indicate a full charge. The W5 boasts of prismatic battery technology than can travel 403 kilometers on a single charge when new.
Driving the range
I test-drove a very much used W5 media car that is nearly 8,000 kilometers old and the battery at full (100 percent) charge indicates 402 kilometers. This means the battery capacity degenerated by 1 kilometer after it has traveled nearly 8000 kilometers.
Inside, one will immediately notice the oversized touchscreen–a massive unmovable tablet that does everything but the laundry. It ran the aircon, displayed the 360° camera views (super useful when driving the narrow streets of Lukban, Quezon), the radio and Bluetooth, showed the car’s functionalities and controlled almost every aspect of it. Unfortunately, there is no Apple Car Play or Android Auto which means the connectivity options are less.
The Bluetooth connection however is flawless and works on very device I had. The main screen of the control panel had massive icons, like a bubble chart, displaying the oft-used controls and the familiar gear icon for vehicle settings. Weltmeister designs cars with many connectivity options and I can positively speculate that Apple and Android connectivity only requires a software update, something Weltmeister does over-the-air in China.
There is a weird device on top of the steering column which I found out to be a driver-facing camera. In the Chinese versions of the car this camera works to monitor things like driver fatigue and eye coordination. This can also be activated by a software revision. Something to wait for then.
There is a wonderfully refreshing full digital instrumentation which on the lower left side, and right in the aim of the left eye’s lower peripheral vision is the power reserve. Right and center is a rotary dial that replaces the traditional shifter. I’d want something heftier in that department though, not saying that the rotary dial is not enough–just wanting a grippier, more expressive piece instead of a round dialer. It takes some time to get used to. Also the indicator up front for D (drive) and R (reverse) is a bit tiny. Only the words “READY” in like 14-point Arial tell you that the W5 is prepped to go. And going, like any other EV means no noise.
The W5’s driver’s seat gets extra bolters on the side, power controls and such. The passenger seat is a more regular affair while the rear seats feel like a sofa. Comfort levels are very high and even with the synthetic seat material, there is no cheapness in the feel or the look. The foams are thick and firm and the craftsmanship is very high. This quality level is prevalent throughout the car.
Under the floor, in a platform, Weltmeister calls “Ajax” is a 52-kilowatt battery and a front-drive electric motor that delivers 217 hp and 315 Nm of torque. Consider those numbers versus W5’s 1,809 kilograms. The 0-100 kph times of the W5 is officially about 8.2 seconds (I logged 9 seconds) and this quickness can be repeated–at the expense of battery life of course. I kept the car in SPORTS mode for one trip home (110 kilometers) and had an extra 14-kilometer penalty on the power drain. The consequence of wanting the extra adrenalin because of a more linear response from the controller pedal.
Switching SPORTS mode to ECO mode, a more sane, yet still satisfying setting requires fiddling a switch below the central drive control knob which also controls the regenerative braking from Level 1 (mild power recovery) to Level 2 (high recovery). The thumb switch is confusing to use, when driving. It’s not very intuitive. However, regenerative braking is quite effective. Setting on Level 1 allowed me to regain about 8 kilometers of battery life driving down the zig-zags of the 11-kilometer Ligaya Road to the Tanauan-Talisay Road. Similarly, down the Tikew-San Pablo-Calauan Road, the W5 was able to recover 4 kilometers on Level 2 on the much steeper downhills after 6.8 kilometers.
Charging the W5 at home can be done using a 16 amp socket (30 amps is more comforting) 220-volt outlet. That took me 16 hours to get to a full charge of 402 kilometers. An option is Weltmeister’s home charger that can take charging down to 8 hours. Upfront, under the WM Living Logo is a panel to access the GB/T standard connector. Ayala Malls have a DC charger that can support the GB/T standard.
Given that the W5 was charged nightly for the duration of this test drive, there is no absolute way to determine if the 400-kilometer range is attainable. Using the odometer versus the power meter I logged 378 kms. before hitting 10 percent on the power meter. This was at ECO setting including traveling at night for about 4 hours with both aircon and lights on. With SPORTS mode, it is about 292 kms. including a night trip of about 5 hours.
The W5 is a cheaper alternative to commuting until the P2.548M price tag is factored in.
Not affordable to everyone but to those who can buy it will be a less pricey alternative to other BEVs–the P2.98M Nissan LEAF and the Kia EV6 which will be released this March. The Weltmeister isn’t World Champion yet, but it’s rapidly getting there.
With the sense and standards being developed at Transnational Diversified Global (TDG) there is an ecosystem already made–solar panels, charging stations, and software solutions for mobility are all happening at the same time the car is being sold. It is run by people who know the auto industry, the power utility forms, and the IT space, the three most important elements in running an electric car. This expertise is the biggest differentiator buyers will consider–beyond just being an affordable electric car–it’s buying into an electric ecosystem.
