New Video Review Of The Wuling Bingo — It Looks Really Good!

The SAIC, GM, and Wuling joint venture introduced the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV in mid-2020, and it became an instant hit in China. They got the formula just right, as the Mini EV went on to drive the growth of a new market for these types of tiny EVs. The Hongguang Mini EV has sold over a million units in the short time since it was launched, and its success has inspired a number of new models from other automakers to produce similar mini EVs for the Chinese market.

The joint venture is hoping to find similar success with the new Wuling Bingo, and perhaps do even better than that on a global level and not just in China. The new Wuling Bingo is in a segment just above the Hongguang Mini EV, being a proper compact 5-door hatchback. It was launched recently in China and it comes in 4 main color options of black, white, green, and pink. The Bingo’s dimensions are 3950/1708/1580 mm with a wheelbase of 2560 mm. It will have two options, one with a 30 kW (41hp) and another with a 50 kW (68 hp) motor. These options will come in a 17.3 kWh and a 31.9 kWh version with a range of 203-333 km, respectively.

It also starts at a very appetizing $8,681.51. That’s $8,682 for a decent 5-door car with 17.3 kWh battery and a 30 kW (41hp) motor. That’s not bad at all, and this car should sell like hot cakes. They have so far released pricing for 5 options for several trims ranging from this $8,682 to $12,093. The higher trim options also come with DC fast charging from 30% to 80% in about 35 minutes. And so, we have another pretty cool and affordable small EV for the Chinese market. It will soon be joined by the upcoming BYD Seagull in this segment. The BYD Seagull is a small battery-electric vehicle that has a 30.7 kWh LFP battery and a 55 kW (75 hp) motor.

All these specs make the Wuling Bingo look like the real deal, as finally there is an affordable and really impressive small 5 door city car that is also 100% electric. But how is the Bingo in real life? Well the Fully Charged Show got their hands on one and you can watch their full review in the below video.

From the review, the Fully Charged Team seem convinced that this new Wuling Bingo is the real deal and could be a winner, especially for the price. I won’t give too much away, but you can get more details on the Wuling Bingo by watching the video for yourself.

The world needs more of these small affordable cars to enable more people to join the electric revolution. The Bingo is on sale for between $8,682 to $12,093 in China. Let’s take a look at where the Bingo would be placed price wise using some popular brand new ICE models in a country like South Africa, for example. Let’s also assume that the prices in South Africa would be about $10,000 higher than in China after factoring in shipping and distribution costs along with other import duties and taxes. This means the Bingo would be priced as around $18,682 to $22,093. Let’s also look at a scenario where the Wuling Bingo is assembled locally, and this case adds $5,000 to the Chinese prices and not the full $10,000 in the import scenario due to certain costs and duties being reduced via locally assembly, plus any associated incentives for local assembly. The Bingo would then start from $13,682 to $17,093.

Here is a table of some popular small ICE vehicles in South Africa.

Looking at the table above, the Wuling Bingo would be reasonably competitive with some of the popular small hatchbacks in South Africa even if it was imported fully built and landed at prices $10,000 higher than in China. The Bingo’s pricing would get a lot more interesting if we assume assembling it in South Africa would add say about $5,000 more to the price in China.

I hope this Wuling Bingo gets to places like South Africa sooner rather than later, as South Africa really needs more affordable EVs. Sales of BEVs in South Africa have been quite slow due to a number of factors, such as a limited selection of BEVs, as well as the fact that most OEMs bringing EVs to South Africa are focusing on the premium segment. This means that most BEVs on sale in South Africa start from above R1 million ($55,000). A recent survey showed that most South Africans looking to buy a car would buy a BEV if it was priced below R500,000. Currently, the most affordable BEV in South Africa, the MINI Cooper SE, starts from about R750,000, which is way higher than the Wuling Bingo.

There is some progress, as sales of battery-electric vehicles breached the 500 units per year mark in South Africa for the first time ever in 2022. Last year, 502 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were sold in South Africa, up from 218 in 2021. There has been a slow but steady increase in BEV sales in the country, punctuated by a sharp decline in 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic. BEV sales looks set to double again in 2023 at the very least, with January and February sales showing that 160 BEVs have been sold so far in South Africa. With 10 more months of sales reports still to come, 2023 will be the best year yet for BEV sales in South Africa. If BEVs such as the Wuling Bingo were to be introduced in South Africa, we would see much higher sales of BEVs in the country and it would help to really catalyze the adoption of BEVs in the country.

I have used South Africa just as an example to illustrate how the new generation of EVs such as the Wuling Bingo can be quite competitive with some of the more popular ICE vehicles in terms of upfront purchase prices. There are many markets around the world where this would also be a likely scenario. We need the Bingo to go worldwide.

Images from Zotyefan, Wikipedia, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 license