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From having only a few good picks to being completely spoilt for choices, electric vehicles have come a long way in the past five-something years. Today you can get an electric vehicle (EV) in almost all price points and all shapes and sizes, it has almost been like that Hindi adage, “paisa phenk tamasha dekh” when it comes to getting yourself an EV. However, thanks to the variety choosing an EV that is right for you has now become confusing.
And just like the classic Nepali behaviour of going meticulously through the 5-page restaurant menu and ordering momo after having the service person wait for 10 minutes (we are all guilty of it). A similar trend has also been seen in EVs. And new brands have been trying to break this trend for a while now. Enter the Kaiyi X3 Pro EV (pronounced K-Yee), a new entrant in the ever-going Nepalese EV scene.
Kaiyi Auto is a Chinese car manufacturer and it is being distributed by Laxmi E-Mobility Pvt. Ltd in the Nepalese market. It is a relatively new player in the automotive industry, focusing on producing electric vehicles (EVs) and traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. Kaiyi leverages its technical expertise with Chery Automobile which is one of China's major car manufacturers as you all know.
The X3 Pro EV is an effort to combine affordability with advanced technology, making it an attractive option for those looking to transition to electric vehicles. Has it worked?
Let’s start with the exterior…
The Kaiyi X3 Pro EV brings a decent face in the front, the fascia will not have you staring, but it is good for what it's worth. You get a wide front end further accentuated by a closed grill that makes the front look smooth, to cut back on the smoothing you get sharp cutouts on either side of the closed grill that rise upward on an angle, accompanied by faux vents these look great and add much-needed character to the front end.
You get all-LED headlights that look conventional, you get slim black trim right under the headlamps, there is a big Kaiyi logo on the center and finishing off the front end is a faux carbon fibre splitter that makes the front of this car look sportier than it is.
We like the profile of this car more than the front. First up, it carries your traditional SUV silhouette and it looks proportional. The roof only flows downward slightly and the window line rises upward in a similar fashion making for a design that doesn't look overly dramatic.
You get pronounced creases on the shoulder line that add much-needed volume to the profile and all this sits on a 215/55 rubber with 18-inch smartly finished alloy wheels. Although we think it would have looked better on a bigger set of tyres.
The rear of the car is what we like the most. Car nerds will find this rear design familiar as much of it has been borrowed from the Chery Tiggo 4 Pro, but Kaiyi has done its homework to distinguish this from the original. Starting with the connected LED taillights that are sleek and come with a flashy design.
The rear also features neat cuts flanking the body on each side above the reflectors. The body then sculpts to a meaty rear bumper with fake exhaust tips on each side which wasn’t necessary. To conclude the X3 Pro EV scores well in the looks department. It doesn’t blow your mind but doesn’t annoy you either.
The cabin of the X3 Pro EV…
is better than the exterior. We will start with the front seats, finished in black faux leather both of the front seats come with electronic adjustments and a generous amount of cushion and bolstering. These are proper seats that hug you during turns and comfort you during long drives.
Pair that with a steering wheel that adjusts for both reach and rake, finding a perfect driving position should be easy. Rear seat comfort is also great, three people at the back should fit in nicely and easily without any fuss. The space is accommodating too with plenty of storage spaces inside the cabin and a 360L boot that opens up to 1100L with the rear seats folded.
The fit and finish are amazing too, the Kaiyi X3 Pro EV has incorporated a tasteful blend of faux leather, faux wood and faux stainless steel inside the cabin that looks handsome in real life. We're not fond of the piano black trim around the AC vents and on the center console, but that's just how it is. Apart from that, the interior here scores solid marks on our test.
After a day in the X3 Pro EV, it’s clear this car has it all. The designers have addressed common complaints about modern EV interiors by doing the opposite. The X3 Pro EV uses physical buttons instead of touchscreens for basic functions, enhancing safety and convenience.
Essential controls like headlamp levelling, ORVM adjustments, folding mirrors, traction control, and hill descent control are all present. The driver’s door pad includes one-touch controls for windows and locks.
The central console features a gear lever, start-stop button, electronic parking brake, auto-hold button, volume control, 360-degree camera, sport mode, and infotainment off button. It also has space for the car key, cooled storage, cupholders, and a wireless charging pad.
Above the console is a 10.25-inch touchscreen with Bluetooth, smartphone mirroring, and a 6-speaker setup. Below it are faux aluminum switches for air conditioning, designed for easy use even at speeds of 60 to 80 km/h.
The X3 Pro EV excels in interior usability and ergonomics, combining functionality with modern minimalism.
Let’s hit the road…
Unlike most EVs currently sold in the market that are capped at just under 100 kW to fall under a tax bracket, the X3 Pro EV comes with 120 kW of power which is around 160hp in ICE terms.
One peculiar thing about the X3 Pro EV, or we could have just been idiots, but we couldn’t find the 'Normal' drive mode. The car drives on Eco mode by default where the car picks up slowly, the steering wheel doesn't have any feel and the driving experience is a little lackluster.
Then there is a button on the centre console that says 'Sport' on it and as soon as you press that, the car picks up much faster, the steering wheel feels more weighted and the driving experience is great. It is full of precision and feedback. But we couldn’t find the normal mode for the life of us. It would have been good to have a balanced option. But if there was indeed a normal mode, we apologize that we couldn’t cover it in our full review.
So let’s just talk about Sports mode, cause that is the best one. After driving lots of EVs with that 99 kW power figure, driving this one was amazing. You feel the remaining 21 kW whenever you are pulling away from a stop light, overtaking on the highways, and trying your best to stay under the speed limit while driving back home at night.
The car feels just more eager to speed up getting from 0 to 100 km/h in under 10 seconds and climbing up to a top speed of 150 km/h. You get McPherson Struts out front and Multilink suspension at the rear, these do well to handle bumps and potholes, and disc brakes on all four wheels handle stopping duties pretty well. The dimensions too help while driving the X3 Pro EV, the 4.4m length is a good soft spot on the roads, feeling not too small and not too big. The addition of a 360-degree camera takes all the guesswork out of the equation when navigating tight spaces inside the city.
The X3 Pro EV comes with a 53.6 kWh battery that is good for 401 km on the CLTC cycle (370 km on the NEDC cycle) which is the more optimistic metric in the range measurement, but the car should be good for at least 300 km on real-world conditions. You can charge the X3 Pro EV at your home from 10 to 100% in around 11 hours while fast charging from a DC point should take around 30 minutes for a 30 to 80% topup.
The X3 Pro EV also comes with an all-you-need safety features package, these include, ABS with EBD, electronic brake assist, 3-point self-locking seat belts, 6 airbags, pedestrian reminder, child protection rear door lock and many more. One nitpick we would like to do here is the complete omission of the rear wiper on our test variant, we would have been happy if Kaiyi installed regular cheaper wipers on the front in place of the expensive boneless wipers and gave us a regular wiper on the rear as well.
To conclude, the X3 Pro is a fast confident and safe machine to drive on the roads, it picks up speed fast and handles itself well, thus encouraging you to drive. Which is always a good thing.
The Kaiyi X3 Pro EV comes at a price of ….
Rs. 52,96,000/- now we would not call that affordable, but it isn’t expensive by any means either. For all that Kaiyi has packed the X3 Pro EV in such a way that you are getting a car that looks good, brings all the plush fit and fittings on the inside, the in-cabin usability and ergonomics are awesome, has power that rivals the car double its price, it has all the modern-day conveniences you need but is completely devoid of all those overly futuristic elements that hamper usability and will age rather worse.
In our opinion, the X3 Pro EV is a clever composition from Kaiyi and anyone looking to buy an EV should give this one serious consideration.
