Yep, that’s right. I just got off the phone with Wink CEO Mark Dweck, and he told me that he had the idea to import little useful cars like these after watching my first Changli video two years ago. “You don’t know this, but you’re the one who woke me up to this. I saw your YouTube video!” he said. I’m as shocked as you are, especially when I learned that Mark is a genuine, no-joke car guy — the sort of person that has owned multiple Aston Martins and Cords and Duesenbergs and all manner of remarkable cars. His thinking was that the market could use a car like the Changli, just, you know, better — something that he himself would own and drive. [Ed Note: This is a real conversation I got to listen to. I called up what I thought was the press number for Wink after they emailed us and, rather than get a PR person, I got the CEO! When I told him I worked with Jason he was excited because that’s where he got the idea. Some other things he said during the conversation: “I’m a very experienced car collector and I restored an MG when I was 14 in my parent’s hallway in Brooklyn.” He also had these words of wisdom: “It’s easy to make cheap products in China, it’s harder to make good cheap products. And bad cheap products are just shit, pardon my English.” Finally, he invited us down to drive the car and told us he’d even take us to a fancy dinner at some place called Gray’s Papaya, which I assume has at least three Michelin stars. – MH] You know what? Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the Changli, here’s a little video recap I did after a year of ownership for The Old Site so we’re all on the same page regarding the general category of these kinds of vehicles:
Okay, so essentially Wink is importing somewhat higher spec vehicles and selling them as street-legal, Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) for prices that go from $8,995 to $11,995. That’s a good bit more than the $3,300 or so I paid to buy and import my Changli, but avoiding the decidedly non-trivial hassles of importation and registration is unquestionably worth at least some amount of money. In fact, making one of these street-legal isn’t exactly easy. Maybe mine isn’t exactly right. I’m not saying, and what are you, a lawyer? But Wink does seem to be doing the work to make these DOT-approved and a bit more comfortable for the American market. From them: Mark also explained just how much is added to the cars to make them acceptable for Wink. There’s DOT-compliant lights and mirrors, DOT compliant special windshield, a unique dashboard and instruments, dual-circuit brakes with an electronic e-brake, DOT-compliant seat belts, and more. These aren’t the same as what’s sold for the Chinese domestic market. All of Wink’s vehicles are fully enclosed and can seat four adults. Far from golf carts, these micro electric cars feature air conditioning, heating, power windows and door locks, key fob for wireless lock/unlocking, a backup camera, dual circuit hydraulic disc brakes, folding rear seats for extra storage capacity, and more. As a separate class of vehicles, LSVs aren’t technically cars but rather fall into their own legal category. They must adhere to certain production standards, include specific safety equipment, and have VINs on file with the NHTSA. Wink’s vehicles are produced to exceed these safety and production requirements, and our factory is fully registered with the NHTSA.” There’s two main models of Wink, it seems, the Sprout and the Mark 1, and each of those is available with solar-panel-equipped variant. The Mark 2 appears to be a four-door variant of the Mark 1:
Wink seems to be pushing the very Mini-inspired Mark 1 currently, so let’s dig into that a bit. Also, they emailed me a bunch of pictures of the Mark 1, so that doesn’t hurt, either.
Wink isn’t trying to pretend that these cars are being hand-made in their own workshop by specially-trained Swiss craftsman who have been passing down the art of making small EV city cars from generation to generation since 1541, but they don’t exactly come out and say what Chinese EV they’re importing, either. I was curious, though, and a bit of digging on Alibaba soon revealed something that looks like it may be similar to this one:
The Wink Mark 1s seem to be just about identical to the Shenzen Fast Dragon Technology (hell of a name) cars that sell for $3,000. I asked CEO Mark about this, and he said he did not deal with Shenzen Fast Dragon, as they are not the original manufacturer, and that he surveyed dozens factories, and sent in inspection teams to find the actual source. They eventually settled on a modest-sized factory/carmaker, because that allowed them more flexibility to undertake the customizations they wanted. Also interesting: those big fans on the dash:
The interior has some elements and materials I recognize from the Changli, but it’s very clearly much more refined. The headliner material looks familiar, which is fine, because, despite it being the color of a fuzzy band aid, has proven to be durable. The seat vinyl looks similar to the Changli also, which makes me wonder about how well the stitching will hold up, but at the same time my experience has found it to be quite adequate.
The basic range for the Mark 1 and 2 is 60 miles from its 60V/80 amp-hour lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which is certainly good enough for the sorts of use this car will get. The top speed has been limited to 25 mph, and based on these specs that tell me the Winks have a motor that makes 3kw/4 horsepower (peak power 7kw/ 9.,3 hp!), I’d bet this accelerates a good bit better than my 1.1 hp Changli. The specs for the solar-equipped version also say “up to 175 miles per week” but, like anything solar, there’s so many variables that can affect these results, I wouldn’t feel comfortable trusting any numbers for how much extra range could be expected.
My biggest question about these Winks is why they decided on a model that looks so much like a car that already has a presence in the US market, the BMW-owned Mini? I feel like by picking this design, they’re just asking for trouble. Remember the whole shitshow that Indian carmaker Mahindra went through with their Roxor off-road vehicle because it looked like a Jeep? And Mahindra even had a long history with official Jeep licenses, something that Wink definitely does not have with Mini. There are so many other options they could have picked, too. And, sure, a number of these are knockoff-type designs as well, but they could have picked something that has no American presence, like a Citroën Ami or Honda e, both of which have similar Chinese knockoff EVs:
I did ask Wink’s CEO Mark about this, and he told me that he has had years and years of experience in copyright and trademark law, and he’s certain that there are enough significant differences between this and Mini’s designs that he’s not concerned.
Overall, though, I think the American market needs more cars like these, because they can absolutely fill a transportation role while being environmentally friendly, cheap as pickled dirt to own and maintain, and even fun. Because they are! Parking becomes a non-issue with these things, and the process of driving a couple miles to grab groceries or takeout just feels easier and more fun in some little thing like this than a whole 4,000-pound SUV. Save your big car for the longer, faster trips, and use one of these guys for the close work.
It works, and I know because I’ve done it. If a company like Wink can take away the hassle of registration and importation, they may be worth a look, even at $9,000 or so. Plus, after talking to the CEO, I really do think these have been significantly upgraded for safety and DOT compliance. The CEO claims that they are the only company that sells cars like this that are absolutely legal and compliant. I can’t prove that at this moment, but they do seem to have done the hard work.
I’m going to try and get Wink to let me drive one of these so I can really see what they’re like. If I can pull that off, you’ll be first to hear about it!
https://www.kandiamerica.com/
Using Google Maps street view gives you the headquarters building https://goo.gl/maps/oD4BkrzQFb71XppR7
There aren’t as many around as there were 6 months ago, as they’ve almost all been bought up, but Carvana used to have a bunch of them in their inventory. A quick search on Cars.com turns up 180 of them from all across the country. If you want one, I bet you can find one close to wherever you live.
It helps that I live in Brooklyn where 25mph and 30mph roads are the norm and the only driving I really need to do is to Wegman’s, Costco, and the bike shop.
Or, because it’s gotta be Americanized, an “Ah-vic Purmisssss.”
(1) yes THAT Ligier. It’s the same guy that sold 16 years old, no driving license required, microcars and created, owned and managed a F1 Team.
Hmm, unfortunately for him, it’s patent law he needs to be concerned about, and in particular Mini’s design patents…
A used LEAF or 500e would be the ticket.
Something like the Wuling MINI EV would be GREAT.Assuming it could be made to pass safety regs,which is probably unlikely
I’m currently upgrading it from 4 horsepower to 13 horsepower, adding a roll cage, adding light-duty DOT rims with solar car tires, hydraulic disc brakes, a new more streamlined body shell, and other changes in preparation for being able to top 100 mph and do 0-60 mph in under 8 seconds. It’s going to weigh right at 100 lbs when finished, and it will still be pedalable with the motor disabled.
Unfortunately, U.S. regulations won’t let me sell it as an ebike unless I limit it to 28 mph/750W. In many states, I have to restrict it to such to be legal on their roads, even though I can pedal it to faster than 28 mph with the electric assist disabled.
It doesn’t need much battery, because the Wh/mile energy consumption is in the single digits on most days.
That said, I’m hoping to have the next iteration of it ready sometime next year. The next body is going to have about 1/3 as much drag as the one pictured, and ground clearance will be slightly increased. It’s going to be quite a fun machine, and serve as a proof of concept.
Underneath the prototype plastic bodywork is a recumbent tricycle. Most cars start with more volume/mass/parts than needed and are then simplified/reduced. I’m taking the opposite approach. Start from zero and build up the bare minimum needed. This yields something much more efficient and less expensive to operate, while requiring less power for a given amount of performance. The cost and mass reductions cascade from there on every component of the vehicle. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute realized this more than 30 years ago, but was a lone voice in the wilderness on that.
We could have single-seater enclosed microcars with Hayabusa motorcycle engines that get 500+ miles per gallon of gasoline or battery EVs that get single-digit Wh/mile electricity consumption when driven sanely with respect to the existing traffic laws, but would also be able to rip off 9 second 1/4 mile times when one doesn’t care about traffic laws, while costing as much to build and operate as a cheap Chinese moped or scooter or even a decent e-bike. But no one with such a vision has had the resources to make such a thing reality, and no one in the auto industry with the resources to make such a thing a reality wants it to be a reality because sales of existing expensive/high-margined cash cows will be compromised and so too will the recurring expenses that these cash cows impose.
If your $5,000 runabout can allow you to drive all year on $20 worth of fuel or electricity, cost very little in maintenance, be repairable by Bubba with basic tools over a weekend and a few beers, and run circles around a $1 million hypercar on a track, then it gets a lot harder to justify the existence of that $1 million hypercar and that sort of performance loses its “exclusivity” by being opened up to the masses, and then the operators of such vehicles are not spending money making already rich people even richer.
https://vimeo.com/284616898
https://vimeo.com/284616919
When that video was taken, I was operating it without a motor in use. This body shell had about twice the drag as the one pictured in my profile.
Take efficiency on that level, and run it off an internal combustion engine, and you could get many hundreds of miles per gallon of fuel, possibly thousands of miles per gallon with the right type of engine and properly selected gearing. Upgrading everything to handle car speeds on bad roads really isn’t that difficult and won’t add as much weight as you’d think, because the vehicle’s mass will stay low which reduces the loading on all of the components even at highway speeds. Basically, think of a faster, street legal, slightly crashworthy version of an Electrathon car, that you can still pedal, and that is what I’m seeking to build.
I built mine in the kitchen of an apartment on a shoestring budget. The frame now has more than 70k miles on it.
I think in a lot of the suburban sprawl that most americans live in, there’s not really a great use case for these sorts of vehicles. Speeds are generally too high, parking isn’t an issue, distances can be longer than you would think, etc.
But there’s places where that’s not the case, and having a smaller vehicle that’s cheap to operate, easy to park, etc makes sense. It’s not perhaps a high volume market segment but it might be large enough that there’s money to be made.
It’s similar to the reason why there was an attempt by Smart with the fortwo to try and sell in America. Though at least in this case the vehicle you’re buying is actually cheaper than a normal new car rather than being in a similar price segment as the fortwo was, which I think really hindered smart amongst the folks who could have really made optimal use out of that vehicle’s particular attributes.
They’re also not restricted to a 25 mph top speed, have ranges in the hundreds of miles, look normal (important to most people, believe it or not!), and if someone T-bones you in an intersection you are way less likely to become permanently disabled. They are more expensive to operate to be sure, but it’s an expense that most people understand and accept. Anyway short, in-city trips are pretty cheap even in a gas car, and you save money by only needing one vehicle that can do everything. I have a hard time seeing many people buying a $9,000+ LSV as their only vehicle—if that’s your entire car-buying budget, get yourself some kind of small crossover and you’ll have something with much broader utility.
Now, I’m not saying nobody will buy these. Some people have the means and inclination to go out of their way to get something weird that suits the lifestyle that the buyer imagines themselves living. Believe me—as someone who goes around installing solar panels all day, I meet a lot of well-off, eco-conscious customers who sometimes make some rather quirky purchases in search of whatever techno-utopian vision of society they are striving toward. There are probably even enough such people to float a business on, at least for a while. If these types of vehicles are going to make a big impact though (and hey, it would be nice if they did as they consume way fewer resources than full-blown cars) they will need to be a lot cheaper.
It looks like Wink took them up on that offer.
Both sincerely, and also on ironic merits.
If the vehicle is speed-rated at 25, I sure wouldn’t want to tow it at 55-75.
Hey, Jason, what are the Changli’s tires rated for?
