The Chinese EV market is booming, with new brands launching every day. But not all survive, competition is fierce, prices are down, and consumers can choose between trillions of cars and brands. One brand that didn’t make it was SiTech. I met a white SiTech DEV1 in Beijing.
SiTech was an EV-brand under FAW. The Chinese name is 新特, Xinte. The brand was launched in 2018. The SiTech DEV1 launched on the Chinese EV market the same year, and it was the only car SiTech ever sold. It was not a bad-looking car, but it was just a tad too old-school for China.
The interior shows that, with a simple dashboard, a small screen, a low-tech mechanical handbrake, and loads of cheap black plastics.
The front-wheel drive DEV1 was powered by a single electric motor with 55 kW (75 hp) and 100 Nm, the top speed was 100 km/h. Electricity was stored in a 35.1 kWh ternary lithium battery, the range was 305 kilometers. These specs were not bad for 2018, but the DEV1 was expensive, with a base price of 147.900 yuan.
The high price scared buyers away. After disappointing sales, the SiTech brand was canceled in 2020, but the website is still online, half, with most pages out of order.
The DEV1, however, didn’t die. The design was sold to a new EV company called EV House, and they sell the DEV1 as the EV House Young. The company added some funky colors but didn’t update the dashboard. There is a new motor: 35 kW (48 hp) and 125 Nm, and a new 32 kWh LFP battery for a 302 km range. It sells for 66.800 yuan ($9.4K), less than half of the original price of the DEV1.
Characters: 中国一汽, China First Auto, this badge is on any car of every FAW-owned brand. In the past, many Chinese car makers used ‘China’ in their brand names, but not anymore, only FAW still does this.
Well, too bad it didn’t work out for SiTech. But at least the DEV1 lives on.