Test drive ｜ ｜AITO asks M5： There are surprises outside HarmonyOS, and there are regrets after the surprise.

Will the phrase "Huawei doesn’t make cars" be like "Huawei doesn’t make mobile phones" in those days, and the final development of the plot can’t escape the phrase "really fragrant"?

The clock was turned back to June 28th, 2021, and Huawei issued a statement for the eighth time, emphasizing that "Huawei does not make cars" and "does not invest in any car companies".

Less than six months later, on December 2, the AITO brand created by Celeste and empowered by Huawei was released, and the first new car, the AITO M5, was officially unveiled. Just over three months after the model was released, this new car, which was jointly built by Huawei and Cyrus, was delivered.

On March 5th, AITO Media M5 was delivered in more than 100 user centers in 36 cities across the country. As the first product of AITO, Huawei has been fully empowered from pre-planning, design, post-marketing and sales, which also makes us full of doubts and curiosity about the actual performance of this new car.

As early as the end of January this year, the reporter had a simple static experience with the M5 in Huawei’s global flagship store in Shanghai. In March, the reporter finally had the opportunity to test drive and experience the mechanical properties of AITO M5 before it was officially delivered.

First of all, it needs to be declared that, perhaps in order to give priority to the delivery, the M5 of the test drive did not use the production version actually delivered, but the test car. This also means that the experience of this test drive may be slightly different from that of the production model.

Although I contacted the customer M5 in Huawei stores before, when I saw the real cars neatly arranged in front of me, I still have to sigh that the appearance of the customer M5 is worthy of its pricing (249,800-319,800 yuan).

The shape of the whole car combines many coupe design styles. The slim headlights, large mouth grille and low body posture make it look more like a crossover than a traditional SUV. The simple and streamlined body has a bit of Porsche Macan flavor.

If the hidden trunk button on the rear wiper base is taken into account, the similarity between M5 and Macan increases by one point. Compared with the complicated design elements of many brands at present, the simple and atmospheric design style of the M5 in the world should be able to circle the powder.

Although the length, width and height of 4770/1930/1625mm are not large, the wheelbase of 2880mm has enabled it to sit on the level of intermediate SUV, and also ensured the relatively spacious interior space of the M5.

It is worth mentioning that the hidden door handle of the "beater" that was statically experienced in Huawei stores has reached a normal level in both opening angle and resilience, and the problem of "beater" no longer appears.

As for the interior, the interior is no different from the previous static experience. The 10.4-inch instrument panel and the 15.6-inch central control panel are matched with brown leather and wooden decorative boards, which can take care of the sense of technology and luxury. The design of the integrated environmental protection cockpit and the T-shaped center console is more conventional, which will not make people have too much adaptation cost. The hidden air conditioner outlet has built-in left and right sweeping function, which is worthy of praise.

Of course, the most attractive thing in the car is the 15.6-inch 2K HDR screen on the center console, with the built-in Huawei Harmony OS intelligent cockpit system. As the car version of HarmonyOS system, its experience is undoubtedly in the first echelon of all intelligent car systems. Not only the sliding and touching reactions are very smooth, but also the seamless connection of some functions between the mobile phone and the car machine can be realized when the car machine and the mobile phone log in to the same Huawei account.

Apps such as public comment can be linked with AITO’s official APP and the M5.

In addition to mobile phones, all smart devices equipped with Harmony OS system, including Huawei watches, tablets, smart screens, etc., can be easily interconnected with the M5. And this is the unique advantage of M5 in intelligent ecology compared with its competitors at the same level.

In addition to the system level, Huawei, as an intelligent equipment manufacturer, also has unique considerations for the details of some on-board equipment. For example, in the charging of on-board equipment, the wireless charging in the central control area supports wireless fast charging of up to 40W, while the four TYPE-C interfaces of the whole vehicle all support wired charging of up to 66W. In the existing new energy vehicles, this fast charging specification is really not common.

Compared with the static experience that has been slightly impressed, dynamic performance is the focus of this test drive experience.

As an extended-range hybrid vehicle, a 92kW(125Ps) 1.5T four-cylinder engine is used as the range extender, which has a very high thermal efficiency of 41%, the maximum power generation efficiency of 3.2kW h/L, a 56L fuel tank capacity, and a battery pack WLTC a capacity of 40kW·h, which can support 1100km pure battery life. The fast charging mode can charge the battery from 20% to 80% in 45 minutes, and it takes 5 hours to charge it slowly.

The M5 provides three power combinations, among which the standard version of rear drive adopts a single motor with a maximum power of 200kW and a peak torque of 360N·m；; Both the four-wheel drive performance version and the four-wheel drive flagship version use front and rear dual motors, in which the front motor of the four-wheel drive performance version has a maximum power of 165kW and a peak torque of 420N·m, and the rear motor has a maximum power of 150kW and a peak torque of 300N·m；; Four-wheel drive flagship version of the front motor has a maximum power of 165kW and a peak torque of 315N·m, while the rear motor has a maximum power of 200kW and a peak torque of 360 N m..

The model of this test drive, the model experienced by the reporter is a four-wheel drive performance version. When driving on urban roads, you can feel the strong power of the M5 only by lightly stepping on the accelerator pedal. Although Wujie M5 provides four driving modes: economy, comfort, sport and individuality, the acceleration of the front and middle sections is very rapid in any mode due to the characteristics of motor driving, and the acceleration will obviously slow down until it is over 120 km/h. After the experience, I can feel the official claim that the acceleration of 100 kilometers is 4.4 seconds.

In addition to the acceleration performance, the chassis texture of Wujie M5 is also good. The front double wishbone+rear trapezoidal multi-link independent suspension not only has good shock absorption performance, but also has excellent roll control.

However, compared with the strong power, the braking of the M5 is a little regrettable. There is a large virtual position in the front part of the brake, so you need to step deeply to get a strong braking force. This adjustment may be to reduce the dizziness caused by frequent acceleration and deceleration, but for an SUV with a "weight" of 2.3 tons, such braking performance will make people feel less confident when they just step on the brake pedal.

In addition, I don’t know whether it is the reason for the trial loading. It takes more effort to close the door of the M5 than many cars. This test drive driven by the reporter has repeatedly seen the situation that the door cannot be closed in place due to insufficient strength. This problem may be from the perspective of the loose leaf of the door, and I hope that the mass production car can be improved.

The problem that the right back door is not tightly closed can also be observed through the mobile APP.

Another big regret brought by the test car is that the reporter can’t experience the full version of the driver assistance system this time, and the experience of ACC adaptive cruise function (officially called ICA integrated cruise assistance system) is not particularly good. The ACC adaptive cruise function carried by the M5 is indeed the best in the reporter’s recent experience, and its linear acceleration and deceleration and the control of the following distance are both first-class performances. However, its lane keeping function can’t keep the vehicle in the middle of the road, but it just stays at the level of "pulling back" the steering wheel after pressing the line, which makes the better experience somewhat discounted.

As the first model listed by AITO brand and the second model produced by Jin Kang Sailis, the M5 has achieved a good balance in comfort and sports, and has a bright performance in cruising range and intelligent cockpit, but there are still some shortcomings in some details. However, in terms of product strength alone, it is worthy of the ambition of Yu Chengdong, Huawei consumer BG CEO and smart car solution BU CEO, to sell 300,000 vehicles a year.

At present, AITO has set up sales and service outlets including more than 500 experience centers and 150 user centers. Thanks to the channel advantages of Huawei and Cyrus, AITO is expected to achieve a total of 1,000 experience centers and 300 user centers this year. May wish to look forward to this new world M5, which will become a stepping stone for Huawei to tap the new energy market.