You might think that this is a flatbed truck loaded with second-generation Smart cars that somehow ended up in China. You are wrong. This indeed is a flatbed truck loaded with Jijie Tule cars, clones of the Smart. There are 14 cars on the truck and at least three are of the special Hello Kitty Edition, with a partially pink roof.
The Jijie Tule is a low-speed electric vehicle (LSEV). It is made by a company called Jujie Electric Technology, based in the great city of Changzhou in Jiangsu Province. They also make a clone of the Volkswagen Up! (scroll down).
Happily, I met the Jijie Tule Hello Kitty Edition at the the 2017 Jinan EV Show. All the pink stuff is factory standard. Sadly, the pink on the wheels is of a darker shade than all the other pink.
Pink seats and a pink steering wheel. Nice, but Zotye does pink interiors even better. The touch screen is a nine inch and plays MP4 video, it has a radio and even a navigation system. Drive selector stick is located on the tunnel just in front of the red panic button.
The Jujie Tule is powered by an electric motor with 4 horses, mated to a 60V lead-acid battery. Charging on 220V takes 8 hours. Top speed is 45 km/h and range is 100 kilometers. Price for all this Hello Kitty smart-ass pretty is 18.800 yuan or $2725.
Size: 2730/1570/1570 (as wide as high) and wheelbase is 1850. Curb weight is 738 kilo.
Let’s compare that to the sec-gen Smart:
Size: 2695/1560/1540, and wheelbase is 1870. Curb weight was 795 kilo, just a bit more than the Tule, but the Smart had a petrol engine and was undoubtedly much safer and better build. The Tule then, is a fat cat.
On their way to an LSEV market near you.
Drive selector stick?
Really? As an automotive journalist, you don’t know that’s called the shifter?
aka “shift lever” or “shift handle”…
In an age when a four door model is called a “coupe”, it doesn’t seem that anyone cares anymore.