MOTORING REVIEW: MIFA9 electric luxury 7-seater impresses

THE  MIFA9 is a 7-seater electric MPV recently introduced to Ireland by Harris Maxus, which company we normally associate with commercial vehicles. Built by Chinese company SIAC, it is aimed at families, hotels and the hospitality sector in general as well as at taxi drivers. I can imagine being chauffeur-driven around in this big vehicle with its luxurious interior, dark windows and, thankfully, leaving it to my driver to park.

MIFA9 is truly massive, 5270mm long, 2000mm wide and with a wheelbase of 3200mm ensuring huge interior space for all occupants. The car is also very high which makes getting in and out easy.

The front looks imposing, without a grille as electric cars have no need of one so there’s a lot of sheet metal on view. Viewed from the side, you note every inch of the long wheelbase, with hardly any overhangs.

Three grades are Elite, Luxury and Premium. All get the seven seats — two up front, two Captain’s armchairs in the middle row, and three smaller seats in the very back. Fit and finish is of a high degree and two sunroofs allow a lot of light into the cabin.

The dash is dominated by a stand-alone 12.3-inch touchscreen through which you access most of the car’s features. While the graphics are excellent, I found the system quite complicated to use but in time you’d get used to it. Controls allow you a 2D image, 3D view, and a view of the chassis below at the press of a button. A small instrument cluster in front of the driver shows the battery charge, your current speed and remaining range.

Seats were in a synthetic-leather upholstery. My driver’s seat was 8-way power adjustable with lumbar support, and could be ventilated and heated and had a massage feature and three memory settings. The front passenger seat was similar but without the memory settings.

Access to the middle row seats is by electric-operated big sliding side doors. Passengers here have their own big footrests and can adjust their own seat settings via a small touchscreen on an armrest of each seat that allows them to electrically adjust their seat, to heat or ventilate it or to use the massage function. A tray table that comes from the other armrest can be used for a laptop and there are lots of USB charging ports available throughout the cabin.

The three very back seats are accessed through the wide gap between the two middle ones. People seated here also enjoy good head and decent legroom.

Storage areas include a decent glovebox, good size door bins, a big area beneath the front armrest, and a huge area below the central console, close to the floor, which will store an iPad.

With all seats in use, boot space is a small 466 litres; with the third row folded this increases to 1,702 litres; with the second and third row seats folded, you can get a massive 2,017 litres of luggage space. Harris Maxus claim that the boot will hold four golf bags with four people on board. You can make the boot bigger by pulling the lever on the back of the rear seat and then moving the bench seat back or forwards.

Power is from a 90 kWh Lithium battery that allows a range of 440kms for the Elite entry trim, 430kms combined for my Premium version, increasing to a claimed 565kms for city driving (WLTP rated). Max torque is 350Nm.

On the road, this was actually a very comfortable and easy car to drive with decent acceleration from 0-100kms in 9.9 seconds. Driving modes are Sport/Normal/Eco. Road tax €120.

On one particular drive of about 70kms and setting out with a possible remaining range of 203kms, driving almost equally on country roads and motorways, I reached my destination with 106kms of charge left. The first part of my journey seemed to eat into my battery charge, while the remainder via motorways seemed to settle down as it adjusted to my way of driving.

The many safety features included Adaptive Cruise Control, Autonomous emergency braking system, and a Lane Departure Warning system which was over-sensitive and annoying. You have to turn it off — yes, of course, via the touchscreen — every time you get behind the wheel.

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Other features were a power tailgate, power/heated door mirrors, 64 colour ambient lighting, wireless phone charger, a 220V power outlet, full complement of airbags, auto front and rear air conditioning, a streaming electronic rearview mirror that seemed to take in a lot of countryside as well, 360deg camera, LED headlights/rear fog lights, heat pump and a tyre sealant kit.

With a DC fast charger, you can charge from 20pc to 80pc in around in about 40 minutes.

MIFA 9 has been awarded a maximum five star safety rating by Euro NCAP. An 8 years/200,000kms battery warranty is standard on all grades as is a 5 years/100,000km warranty for the whole vehicle.

Priced from €79,950.