I saw this in town today and thought of you, fellow Curbivores. I had spotted it yesterday and luckily, it hadn’t moved. Flat batteries perhaps? Trouble is, I cannot ID this Chinese three-wheeler, try as I might with several Google image searches. Surely someone out there knows?…
Although it’s unknown to me, I’m pretty sure this is an example of the cheap Chinese electric cars that are swamping a lot of the Middle Kingdom of late. There’s a whole parallel universe of three- and four-wheeled bubble cars in the Chinese world that is completely undiscovered by us long-nosed foreign devils.
No lithium-ion nonsense here, just good ol’ lead and acid batteries. Mother Earth be damned, it’s about ten times cheaper than the lithium stuff and easier to recharge. You also have to love the little chock / brick that someone put ahead of the front wheel.
The “low-speed” EV makers are plentiful in China and almost completely unregulated. Basically, as far as I understand, if your vehicle can’t reach 100 kph, Beijing isn’t interested. Periodically, some of the dozens of small EV makers get shuttered by some government agency or authority, but they usually reopen for business soon after.
Safety and comfort are not primary concerns of the manufacturer (or the buyer), really. This beats a moped in the rain and cold any day of the week. And at an average price of US$ 5000, hundreds of thousands of potential clients can afford these nowadays.
The insides of the beast are as quirky as the skin. The driver’s door opens left, while the rear passenger(s) make do with a right door. Didn’t expect to see a radio in there, did you?
I hope there’s something missing on that rear seat….
So there it is: the “badge” proudly states “Made in China,” which is a little redundant, but precious little else for folks who don’t read Chinese characters. Hence the mystery surrounding this contraption’s actual name. I did find an internet source that calls this a Huaxin XM5, but it’s tenuous. No idea what this thing is doing here in Myanmar, it’s the first time I’ve seen anything like this in the streets. So, what the Deng Xiaoping is this?
Whatever it is, it’s got one up on a 1978-87 GM A-/G-body sedan — it has back windows that roll down!
You put a smile on my face. GM will NEVER live that down. Not around here, anyway.
And I posted that before I scrolled down and saw Perry’s article on the ’83 Malibu wagon from earlier today (which mentions this issue) – so the the Malibu article didn’t put it in my head….
Oooh, snap! Now that’s some CC sass! MCT wins the internet today.
You’ll never identify it because these were made in numerous little “factories”. They were extremely common in the countryside, powered more often by a stinky little IC engine, but also with a cheap DC motor with a couple of lead acid batteries.
The fiberglass body panels of various versions of these showed up in a wide variety of these cheap three (and occasionally) four wheelers.
This widely diverse and widely-built “family” of three wheelers is what put much of rural and developing China on wheels. I suspect there still being made today in the hinterlands, but I think in the cities they’ve been mostly eclipsed by more genuine cars and trucks. Consider it the Model T of China, but generic instead of an actual brand.
A wide version of this (or similar) body was used for the infamous ZAP Xebra EV that was pawned off on dumb Americans desperate for a cheap EV before the current crop of genuine EVs appeared. I’m somewhat of an expert on it, having reviewed a Zap back in 2008, which went viral and directly contributed to the demise of this horrible little wart.
The backstory and review can be found here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/curbside-classic-zap-xebra-the-assassination/
Thanks for all the info, Paul!
I’m not sure these are on the way out though. According to some articles I perused while trying to identify this thing, it seems about 400,000 such EVs were sold in China in 2015.
It seems the big (i.e. “genuine”) Chinese automakers such as BYD have been trying to stomp these out of existence for years, but with little effect. Beijing apparently periodically bows to their demands and shut a few down, but local authorities usually end up getting the lines started again. So much for totalitarian states with centrally-planned economies.
What we see of China is usually the East coast’s big cities. But there are hundreds of cities with over 1M inhabitants scattered all over the country where people buy these things, not to mention smaller cities and the countryside. And there are a number of nearby client-states (Mongolia, North Korea, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, etc) that can be added to the list of potential customers.
I never knew that things like these were once sold in the US — but just because they no longer are (and thank you for having done your part to ensure this), doesn’t mean they disappeared completely.
Not surprised to hear that. Yes, it might be a quite a while before they’re pushed into the hinterlands; I might have gotten ahead of myself.
I’ve seen pictures and reports of where these are made: sometimes very small “cottage industries”, with no safety/environmental protections for the workers.
But these body parts and interior parts can be bought dirt cheap, as can the other components, so it’s compelling for folks to weld up a cheap mild-steel frame out of stock (with zero rustproofing; frame rust failures in the ZAP Xebra became rampant).
It reminds me a bit of the micro-car era in Europe after the war, when folks were desperate for anything that had wheels and could move under its own power, and little outfits all scrambled to fulfill their wishes. But that didn’t last as long, as incomes rose so swiftly.
I linkwalked all the way back to the original 2008 TTAC roadtest…$16k with options in 2008. Wow. I bought a Toyota Yaris at about the same time for $12,100 that only now, almost 150,000 miles later, is starting to remind me it’s not a new car any more.
The ones with a gas engine are probably mechanically related to the no-name Chinese motor scooters that are ubiquitous probably lots of places in the world, and in the US in states where 50cc scooters don’t require registration or insurance or a motorcycle endorsement on your drivers’ license. A few years ago I saw them being marketed in Florida as “DUI scooters”, the idea being you could use them even if your license was suspended due to a DUI conviction.
Although the licensing exemption was based on their being limited to 25 or 30 MPH, I have seen websites explaining that they can actually go significantly faster with a couple of minor mods, I think a carb jet and a less restrictive exhaust. Why you would want to, unless you are just suicidal, is a different question.
I found a page with thousands of different configurations even taxis, dump trucks and food carts. Kind of interesting.
https://www.alibaba.com/countrysearch/CN/3-wheel-electric-car.html
That paper badge/sticker doesn’t make much sense. May have been relocated from something else (to hide peeling paint?)
From top:
Anti-Theft – Voice
High Power
Long distance Hill Climb King
( Made in China )
Thank you for translating this — looks indeed like it isn’t the badge itself, just a random sticker. Ah well…
I’ll bite and say that it isn’t random but in fact a factory sticker, proclaiming the possible assets of this little vehicle. Like you could see badges of yore telling the world your car had 5 speeds, disc brakes, or a DOHC engine.
Anti theft – voice = door locks/alarm + radio
High power (self explanatory)
Long Distance Hill Climb King = Make/model
Made in China (self explanatory)
You could be right. There appear to be two identical stickers front and rear. On the other hand, both could be relocated from something else 🙂
The brand name could be the larger horizontal rectangular stickers plastered on the back and side door with three characters on it: Jin Rei Fu (Gold- Auspicious/Lucky- Fortune/Blessing)
For all parents with new drivers this would be the best birth control you could buy
You know what? I dig this. I would need to add a couple dozen horsepower but I like the form. Good thing they designed in the aerodynamics. Love the grille.
The ultimate vehihairshirt. A Reliant Robin would be jewel-like and BMWesque by comparison.
I love the Escalade lower grill.
II could see the NY Police Dept .using them to zip in and out of gridlock traffic, and using them to enforce ‘nuscence’ violations like ticketing jaywalkers, costumed characters in Times Square, and food vendors .Wonder how it would look in blue and white and with a ‘cherry ‘on the top.
Made in the late nineties, this car actually has a steel body.
http://www.carnewschina.com/2012/07/29/spotted-in-china-huaxin-qf-002-three-wheeler/
Wonder if it’s got a differential in the rear axle, or does it just have one-wheel-drive.
These Chinese-made Wildfire motorcycles (they’re not registered as cars) were popular around here several years back. Sometime in 2012 or 13, one of these showed up at an iron lot down the street from me. No price on the windshield, damage in several places (torn upholstery, dents, cracked windows, missing door hardware), I thought it would go cheap.
Nope. The guy wanted like $2,000 for it. By that time, gasoline prices had gone back down to normal levels for the US and you could buy a good running J-car for that kind of cash. It would have been fun to pick up (and insure) for $500 or so, but $2K was just nuts.
No sale.
Geozinger: was there a You Tube video of this car on the internet ? I saw one quite like it with body damage as you described. They actually ran it around the yard.
Some small lot on Fairfax and Santa Monica in West Hollywood was selling small Chinese electric vans a few years back. Strange things and I wondered how they got them.
They seemed to have been slightly used. And overpriced.