This is a Wuling Air EV, seen in a residential area in south Beijing. The bizarre machine looked like it had time-traveled from a faraway future. The Air EV is a 30 kW rear-wheel drive car with a 300-km range.
About the Wuling brand
Wuling (五菱) is a Chinese car brand. Wuling’s owner is SAIC-GM-Wuling Motors (SGMW), a joint venture between SAIC (50.1%), General Motors (44%), and Guangxi Auto (5.9%). Initially, Wuling made only cheap minivans. Today, the brand sells a wide range of affordable EVs, SUVs, MPVs, and minivans of all sorts and sizes. SGMW also owns the Baojun brand.
3-way joint ventures have long names, even in Chinese: 上汽通用五菱汽车, Shàngqì Tōngyòng Wǔlíng Qìchē, and that means SAIC-GM-Wuling Motors. Sales of the Wuling brand are very good. It usually sits in the Top 7. In August 2025, for example, Wuling sold 80.164 cars. That was good for 5th place in China’s brand-sales ranking, sitting just below Geely Galaxy in 4th place, and just above Geely in sixth.
The Wuling Air EV
The Wuling Air EV is an electric minicar with a cool & crazy design. It has super short overhangs, a stubby multi-layered front, tiny wheels, and many interesting design details.
Wuling launched the Air EV in China in 2022. Wuling offers two variants: a two-seater and a four-seater. The car in the photos is the 4-seat version. It is painted in “White”. Unlike most Chinese brands, Wuling doesn’t care about poetic color names. The other colors for the Air EV are Blue, Coffee, and Gray.
Design Details
This is the most bizarre design detail on this bizarre car. There’s a black-silver strip that runs from the mirror via the stalk over the door and the front fender to the front, where it becomes part of the ‘grille’.
Another cool idea: the beltline of the side window is much lower than that of the door window. That’s great for the passengers in the back, unless they don’t want to be seen. The B-pillar is visually a part of the windows, supported by the…
… van-like door handle ensemble. It is a large and solid handle, finished in shiny silver.
The Interior
Wuling’s interiors are always great. The Air EV has a light and spacious cabin. The seats are wide, but rather flat, with an integrated neck rest. The floor is completely flat, so passengers can move around easily. The drive selector is the island between the front seats. The car in the photos has the White interior. The other option is Gray.
The owner added a fancy steering wheel cover. The screen is super thin and measures 10.25 inches. Below the screen are 3 buttons for the air conditioning and the volume of the 4-speaker audio system. There’s a tiny extra window in the A-pillar. Not sure if that helps in traffic!
Amazingly, for such a small car, the space in the back is pretty decent, with enough head and legroom even for adults. It can easily seat 3 kids, but it has only two safety belts. There’s a cup holder between the front seats.
Specifications
It has a very large rear window, a light bar with the Wuling name, and stacked rear lights.
The Wuling Air EV is based on SGMW’s Global Small Electric Vehicle (GSEV) platform. It is a small vehicle: 2974/1505/1631, 2010. The two-seater is even smaller: 2599/1505/1631, 1635.
The Air EV is a single-motor rear-wheel drive car. The output is 30 kW (41 hp) and 110 Nm. It has a 100 km/h top speed, and it does 0-50 in 4.8 seconds. The Air EV may be small, but it can legally drive on the highway. In China, many car makers use the 0-50 standard, instead of 0-100, with smaller, less-powerful vehicles.
That’s a 12-inch tire! The size is 145/70 R12. The aero cover covers the steel wheel.
The Air EV packs a DFD Chem 28.4 kWh LFP battery with a 130 Wh/kg energy density. The energy consumption is 10.3 kWh/100 km, and the CLTC range is 300 kilometers. Fast-charging takes a relaxed 45 minutes, and a slow-charge takes 8 hours.
The Price
The Wuling Air EV 4-seat version costs 66.800 yuan, and that’s exactly $9.363. That’s a good deal for a car of this size, with these specifications. It is probably one of the most interesting Chinese electric minicars ever, and we should applaud Wuling for being brave enough to build it.