Here we have a Bestune NAT E05 ride-hailing car. I met it in Beijing, parked close to a Xiaomi SU7 sedan. The NAT E05 was painted white. Well, I have never seen one in another color. It has slightly tinted windows and five-spoke aero wheel covers.
China is home to the largest ride-hailing company in the world. DiDi Chuxing ( 滴滴出行) with over 550 million users and tens of millions of drivers. These drivers have different backgrounds. Some are taxi drivers earning an extra buck. Others are one-person companies driving their own cars. Yet others work for a larger company that deals exclusively with DiDi.
Various Chinese car makers have developed special ride-hailing vehicles for this latter category. These cars usually have interiors optimized for easy getting in and out, extra space for luggage, a basic interior that is easy to clean, and pre-fitted hard- and software for ride-hailing with DiDi.
The Bestune NAT E01 is such a car, just like the BYD D1. NAT stands for “Next Automatic Taxi”. The design is functional, not pretty. It has a short hood, a steeply sloping windshield, a long wheelbase, and a straight back end. The door arrangement is interesting. On the right side, it has a normal front door and a sliding rear door. On the left, however, it has…
… two normal doors, but the rear door is really very long. The Bestune NAT E05 is based on FAW’s FME electric car platform. Size: 4450/1840/1680, with a 2850 wheelbase. Bestune is a brand under First Auto Works (FAW). It was previously known as Besturn. The Chinese brand name has remained the same: 奔腾 (Bēnténg).
The driver’s seat has orange coloring, but the other seats don’t. The driver’s seat is wide too, and fitted with an armrest.
The center stack with a pre-installed ride-hailing system. Drivers can use the system to find and book new rides and for navigation. The dashboard layout is simple but functional. The screen is for the business so most functions are controlled via the classic buttons and switches on the center stack. The drive selector is located on the steering wheel column.
The NAT E05 is a five-seat car with space for four passengers. The rear cabin is spacious. Check that legroom!
The rear lights are integrated into a bar just below the rear window. The NAT E05 is classified as an MPV in China. It has a 454-liter trunk. Now for power. The E05 is a single-motor front-wheel drive car. The output is 120 kW (163 hp) and 155 Nm. That is enough for a 140 km/h top speed. Electricity is stored in a 54 kWh LFP battery with an energy consumption of 12.8 kWh per 100 kilometers and a maximum range of 425 kilometers.
Character time! This is a highly stylized handwritten version of 奔腾, Bēnténg, Bestune. The E is in blue. Blue is the semi-official color of electric vehicles in China. Blue cars instead of green cars.
More: 中国一汽, Zhōngguó Yīqì. 中国 = China. 一汽 = First Auto, short for First Auto Works (FAW). The Bestune NAT E05 is a ride-hailing car and thus mainly aimed at companies involved in this business.
But it is also available on the private-car market. Every sale is a sale, isn’t it? The price range is 155.800-164.800 ($22K-23.2K). That’s probably a good deal for a car that was made to be strong, suffer all sorts of passengers and their abuse, and ride for a long time on China’s endless roads.