mReview: JMEV ELIGHT – The New King Of Value?

The JMEV ELIGHT is a fuss-free, no-nonsense electric sedan that seeks to open up the EV lifestyle to a wider audience.

For those of you who haven’t heard of the brand JMEV, not to worry. They’re no spring chickens when it comes to making cars. Parent company, JMCG, are a state-owned organisation that has decades of car manufacturing experience. The JMEV brand has been brought into Singapore by the same folks who’ve brought in Dongfeng, so there’s a relatively experienced local distributor too. 

The first JMEV available in Singapore is the ELIGHT, a fully electric sedan with a focus on affordability and value-for-money. At the time of writing, the JMEV ELIGHT is actually the most affordable electric sedan on the market, while still having the largest battery capacity out of the top three. 

A simple and functional interior.

To push the price down further, the ELIGHT naturally plays in the COE Cat A bracket, though with 108kW (145hp) and 225Nm of torque, it is actually a little more powerful than the majority of Cat A EVs, which usually put out around 100kW. As a result, the ELIGHT is one of the quicker Cat A EVs from nought to 100km/h with a time of 8.9 seconds. 

The biggest selling point for the ELIGHT, in my opinion, however, is its range. The official figures from its 63kWh battery claim up to 600km on the WLTP scale, and in my experience, that number doesn’t seem far-fetched at all. The average driver should be able to get over 500km on a full charge easily. 

Driving it around town is also a cinch, thanks to extremely light steering that makes the car easy to place and manoeuvre. A 360° camera also helps to make parking or navigating a tight carpark a doddle for the driver. 

A mostly flat floor in the back with just a hint of a hump in the middle.

The ELIGHT isn’t without some style, though; it has a strongly designed front end with boomerang-shaped LED daytime running lights around its Matrix LED headlights, a rather premium feature to have on a car of this price point. 

From the side, you’d also be able to see what JMEV calls the “sports-coupe” design, essentially the roof tapers off towards the back of the car to give it more of a sloping roofline. The ELIGHT’s design is inoffensive with a decent amount of thought put into it, though if I had one criticism, it’d be that the wheel gap is far too large, and it’d benefit greatly from some lower springs. The wheels themselves, though, are 17-inch affairs wrapped in Michelin tyres for grip in the wet and dry. 

The sticker doesn't come with the car though I'm sure they'd be happy to give it to you.

Inside, despite the sloping roofline, there’s a ton of space in the back seats with room to spare for heads, knees, and feet. There’s also a large sunroof offered as standard, with electric seats for both the front occupants. Material use is nothing fanciful, just a simple leather interior that gets the job done. 

Tech-wise, the ELIGHT sports a 7-inch digital gauge cluster and 14.6-inch touchscreen infotainment display that handles the bulk of the car’s operations, save for some physical buttons in the centre console. 

I think the ELIGHT is a car that knows its purpose. Instead of catering to subjective appeals like looks and feel, the ELIGHT goes straight for the objective jugular, price. As we all know, Singaporeans love a good deal, and it’s hard to argue with the ELIGHT when it’s come in at a cutthroat price point. 

No doubt, cars in Singapore cost many a pretty penny, but at least in the case of the JMEV ELIGHT, it’s a fair few pennies less. 

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