Photo: Yogomo.org
Stories about things that are happening in the People's Republic of China tend to lack the finer details that makes them complete. For example, when officials claim sales of electric cars have increased, they tend to ignore the fact that most of them are embarrassingly bad.
Just take the Yogomo 330,launched at the Shandong EV Expo in Jinan City. The car is a total ripoff of the design launched by Kia with its second-generation Picanto city car in 2011, also known as the March in its domestic Korean market.
The cloning process is nearly total. In fact, with the exception of the front badge and the lack of rear wipers, everything is exactly the same, right down to the shape of the headlights and the interior.
But while the body looks like an average Koran car, what's underneath is different. The Yogomo is classed as a Low Speed Electric Vehicle, essentially a glorified golf kart available with three electric motors making 4, 5 or 7.5 kW, all connected to an archaic lead-acid battery. In the future, the company plans to offer a lithium-ion version with a 13 kW motor.
The only major advantage is that the 330 is cheap, costing just 30.000 to 40.000 yuan or $4,830 to 6,440. But that's like saying you want to drink sanitizing alcohol instead of fine whiskey because it's cheaper.
The reason why Yogomo cloned the Kia so well is because they've done it before. A couple of years ago, the Chinese copied the Citroen C1 and they even sell a bus modeled after the VW Bulli concept.
The cloning process is nearly total. In fact, with the exception of the front badge and the lack of rear wipers, everything is exactly the same, right down to the shape of the headlights and the interior.
But while the body looks like an average Koran car, what's underneath is different. The Yogomo is classed as a Low Speed Electric Vehicle, essentially a glorified golf kart available with three electric motors making 4, 5 or 7.5 kW, all connected to an archaic lead-acid battery. In the future, the company plans to offer a lithium-ion version with a 13 kW motor.
Wow, that's the equivalent of a whole 18 horsepower… and we thought the Picanto was a slow car!
For now, the top speed of the model is supposed to be 60 kilometers per hour, but we imagine that only applies if the car is falling from the sky or rolling down a really steep hill. Frankly, no car should be allowed to use vacuum cleaner motors to power itself.The only major advantage is that the 330 is cheap, costing just 30.000 to 40.000 yuan or $4,830 to 6,440. But that's like saying you want to drink sanitizing alcohol instead of fine whiskey because it's cheaper.
The reason why Yogomo cloned the Kia so well is because they've done it before. A couple of years ago, the Chinese copied the Citroen C1 and they even sell a bus modeled after the VW Bulli concept.
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