JY Air launched in Thailand – new EV from Chinese airline, up to 216 PS, 520 km range, from RM98k

Yet another Chinese carmaker has landed in Thailand, with the JY Air making its debut at the recent Thai Motor Expo. The electric five-door liftback from JuneYao Auto – which boarded the Land of Smiles before even checking into the Middle Kingdom – is set to engage in a bitter dogfight in a cutthroat EV market that also includes the likes of the GAC Aion ES.

This time, the atrocious aviation cliches are warranted, because the Air is the product of JuneYao Airlines, having purchased the defunct Yudo Auto in 2022. The company is leaning hard into its mile-high background, claiming that the Air was inspired by “the experience of a transoceanic flight.”

To wit, JuneYao says the car’s C-shaped headlights, which feature up to 240 LEDs, are akin to lights at the ends of a jetliner’s wings, while the sweeping roofline apparently brings to mind “the skyline seen during night flights.” At the back, the Air sports full-width OLED taillights, neatly integrated below the rear windscreen. It certainly looks aerodynamic thanks to its streamlined one-box form, something that’s borne out by the low drag coefficient of just 0.23.

Inside, the Air is far less distinctive, with a typically minimalist interior dominated by a 15.6-inch freestanding infotainment touchscreen, sitting above a tall centre console with twin Qi wireless chargers. The aforementioned display can be rotated in 15 steps to face the driver or passenger, runs on a Crystal OS and the ubiquitous Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, and will greet occupants with the phrase “welcome on board.”

JuneYao claims that over 75% of the Air’s cabin is wrapped in soft-touch materials, including the available faux leather upholstery on the seats. There’s also a large panoramic glass roof with an area of two square metres, which should help make the interior – likely already plenty roomy enough thanks to the generous 2,800 mm wheelbase – feel even more, um, Air-y.

Two variants will be offered, these being the Standard and Plus. The former utilises a single front motor making 204 PS (150 kW) and 250 Nm of torque, getting the Air from zero to 100 km/h in under 7.9 seconds on its way to a top speed of 170 km/h.

Also fitted is a 51 kWh CATL lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that provides a range of up to 430 km on the somewhat lenient NEDC cycle. Stepping up to the Plus, meanwhile, nets you a slightly more powerful motor that pushes out 216 PS (159 kW), as well as a larger 64 kWh battery that enables the air to travel up to 520 km on a single charge.

The range-topper also supports up to 138 kW of DC fast charging power (only 70 kW for the Standard), saving ten minutes when topping up the battery from 30 to 80% (20 instead of 30 minutes). Both variants accept up to 11 kW of AC charging, so charging the Air from 10 to 100% takes 5.3 hours for the Standard and 6.5 hours for the Plus.

Aside from the technical specs and some equipment, the Plus is also differentiated by having seven airbags (including a front centre airbag) compared to just two for the Standard. Both models come with a full complement of driver assists such as autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane centring assist and speed limit assist, with the Plus adding blind spot monitoring, rear collision warning, rear cross traffic alert with auto brake, a driver attention monitor and a door opening warning.

Promotional pricing starts from 759,000 baht (RM98,500) for the Standard, rising up to 869,000 baht (RM112,700) for the Plus. After December 30, those figures will go up to 899,000 baht (RM116,600) and 1,018,000 baht (RM132,100) respectively.

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