This is a Ciimo M-NV, a super rare Chinese electric car. The chance you see one of these in Beijing is way smaller than seeing a supercar. I met this one near a Mercedes-Benz dealer over the summer.
Ciimo (思铭) is a sub-brand under the Dongfeng-Honda joint venture. Ciimo was launched in 2012 as an affordable brand positioned under the main Honda brand.
Their first car was a dressed-down version of the 8th-generation Honda Civic. It was powered by a 1.8 mated to a 5-speed manual. Basic, but it looked kind of cool, with a fresh nose and a hint of sportiness. Production ended in 2015. After that, nothing happened until the EV boom started in China in the late 2010s. Honda figured it could use an affordable EV brand, and Ciimo was resurrected.
The Ciimo M-NV is based on the Dongfeng-Honda Honda XR-V, which, in turn, is based on the second-generation Honda HR-V. Production of the Honda XR-V started in China in 2014 and ended in 2021. Production of the Ciimo M-NV started the same year, and it received a small facelift in 2023. The car we have here is a pre-facelift example. Note the bull statue in the background.
Wow! One of the biggest I have seen. In Chinese culture, a bull is a lucky animal, symbolic of perseverance, diligence, and wealth. The statue was over 3 meters long and 2 meters tall, with the eyes wide open, ready to attack.
The Ciimo M-NV is an EV, complete with cool EV badges on the front fenders. This electric vehicle was a China-only model. Honda doesn’t or didn’t sell any EVs based on the sec-gen HR-V anywhere else in the world.
The interior with classy leather seats and a 10-inch infotainment system.
The 2021-2023 Ciimo M-NV was powered by a single electric motor, driving the front wheels. Output was 163 hp and 280 Nm, good for a 140 km/h top speed. Electricity was stored in a 61.3 kWh ternary lithium battery for a claimed range of 480 kilometers, which was pretty good for 2021.
However, it always felt like the joint venture never really committed to the Ciimo brand. They didn’t add any new models and the number of dealers remained very low. Even if you wanted a Ciimo M-NV, it was hard to get one. Price wasn’t the problem: 149.800 yuan, which was in line with the competition in 2021. The current M-NV has a new motor with 218 hp, a 500-km range, and an updated interior. But the base price is still the same: 149.800, and it is still the only car Ciimo sells.
Characters: 东风本田, Dongfeng Bentian, Dongfeng Honda.
The Dongfeng-Honda Ciimo M-NV is not a bad electric vehicle, but without more efforts to support the brand, the M-NV will never sell well. It seems that Honda just isn’t sure where to go with EVs in China. The Japanese brand sells only one (01) unpopular EV under the Honda brand now: the e:NS1/e:NP1 twin, based on the XR-V. The rest of Honda’s China line-up is ICE with a single PHEV. Not a good strategy in the largest EV market in the world.