Rob headed to Auckland to check out the Dongfeng range, and drive the BOX small EV hatchback.
Who are Dongfeng?
They may be new to New Zealand, but Dongfeng have been manufacturing vehicles in China since 1969. They started as a commercial vehicle manufacturer, and rising to become the number one commercial vehicle brand in China. Dongfeng now operates in over 100 countries and has sold 60 million vehicles, including around 1.5 million outside China.
Around 35 years ago they diversified from purely commercial vehicles to add manufacturing of passenger vehicles, and they have developed, and continue to develop their own powertrains across combustion, hybrid, PHEV, EV and hydrogen.
They have the latest tech too, with over 14,000 R&D staff, and in China they operate robotaxis, driverless buses and driverless trucks for ports.
The name Dongfeng translates to East Wind, and their logo represents two swallows swooping on the warm East winds.
In Aotearoa New Zealand their strategy “is about removing barriers and delivering vehicles which are a dream to drive”, with affordable pricing, lots of features, and no “base” models.
At launch, Dongfeng announced four models in three form factors, all pure electric, and all with 6 years / 200,000km warranty, 6 years Roadside Assist, and 8 years / 200,000km battery warranty.
The Cars
| Drive | Power/Torque (kW/Nm) | Acceleration | Battery Capacity (kW) | Range (WLTP km) | Price | |
| Box 5-seat hatchback | FWD | 70/160 | 4.6s 0-50kph 12.5s 0-100kph | 43.89 | 317 | $29,995 intro price $32,995 afterwards |
| Vigo 5-seat medium SUV | FWD | 120/230 | Not stated | 51.87 | 340 | TBA in Quarter 1 2026 |
| 007 Long Range 5-seat sedan | RWD | 200/320 | 5.8s 0-100kph | 73.5 | 540 | TBA in Quarter 1 2026 |
| 007 Dual Motor 5-seat performance sedan | AWD | 400/640 | 3.9s 0-100kph | 73.5 | 395 | TBA in Quarter 1 2026 |
Our main focus today will be on the Box, which is available now in New Zealand.
The box is a 5-seat, 4m long hatchback, weighing 1,342kg – not too bad for a battery EV.
It comes in six colour options: Metropolitan Red with contrast roof, Aurora Purple with contrast roof, Icy Blue with or without contrast roof, Glacial Silver, and Twilight White.
Interiors can be specified in any of three colours at no extra cost: grey and black, white and black, or for the brave, purple and white.
The standard spec is a long list that you can check out at the Dongfeng website, but highlights include:
- Heated and cooled driver seat
- Padded, diamond-stitched interior trims
- Auto parking
- 360-degree camera system
- Heated, auto-folding mirrors
- External speaker with lock/unlock music
- Vehicle to load function
- 6-speaker audio with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
- Auto LED headlights and high-beams
What’s not included:
- Plastic trims to make front trunk ($495 option)
- Any paint option except metallic white ($499 for blue/silver, $749 for contrast roof options)
- Rear parcel shelf
- Split folding rear seat (it folds as one)
- Built-in satnav (it uses your phone)
Anyway enough facts and figures and lists, what did we think of the cars?
Interior-wise the three cars were very similar in function and looks, with a large 12” central screen and a smaller driver display. The screens are excellent quality and contrast, with snappy updates and good touch functionality. All cars have similar-looking seats with plush-looking diamond-stitched material, though the 007 had noticeably softer, more luxurious seats front and back.
All three cars have great leg room and good head room in the rear. All have sleep mode, where you pop the headrest off a front seat and then it’ll fully recline, enabling you to sit in the back and use it like a lounge seat. Great for waiting in comfort for the car to charge. Sleep mode even gives a starry display on the screen and a wakeup alarm.
Fit and finish on all cars looks excellent. Plastics in lower places are of the hard-wearing scratchy type, but everything up-high where you look and touch looks great, with some interesting quirky features like the handbag straps on the passenger dash, and the pull-out drawer glovebox.
Externally, all of the cars look really good. The Box is cute and funky-looking, the Vigo is chunky, and has a very cool split tailgate, and the 007 is sleek and long, with looks to match its performance. The Box and 007 have frameless doors, which is always a big design win in my book!
Some of the Box test-drive cars had the optional frunk plastics, and for the amount of storage it gives vs. the price, I’d spend the same money on changing the colour from white to something more interesting.
After a good poke around the parked cars it was time for a quick drive around Ellerslie.
First impressions were good – not fast, but fast enough for a city car. Firm but comfortable suspension that coped well with pot holes and speed bumps. Great visibility, easy to drive and place on the road, cornering pretty good. After 15 minutes of random wandering I pulled over to swap with my driving partner for the event. He noted that the driver screen moved up and down with the wheel, and as he was much taller than me, he couldn’t see the whole screen, and struggled to position it so that he could.
As neither of us are Aucklanders, by this point we had no idea where we were, so it was time to get the satnav going. The Box uses your phone’s satnav. Pairing my iPhone was a fiddly process where I had to pair with the stereo, then it told me to pair with a second device that then enabled CarPlay. A bit unusual but I got there, and it’s a one-off process. Once we had that working it was all smooth sailing and we navigated back to base.
After we got back we both noted that although all of the car’s safety systems were active, it didn’t make a single annoying beep. This is a major plus point with a brand-new car in 2025!
I wasn’t able to get a flight back to New Plymouth straight after the event, which gave me the opportunity to borrow a Box for the rest of the day and have a longer test drive. After lunch, I headed off in a random direction and gave myself a magical mystery tour of Auckland.
After 100km of city driving, with a couple of jaunts onto the motorway, I’m still really impressed with the Box. It’s the most relaxed I’ve felt in a vehicle driving in Auckland traffic. It’s quiet and smooth, the suspension soaks up the bumps. It gets to 100kph quickly enough on an on-ramp, and feels stable and solid at the speed limit. The brakes are smooth and powerful when you get that inevitable Auckland motorway sudden slowdown.
In Sport mode it’s a bit more lively and once I tried Sport, with regen on full, that was the way I kept it. It just gives a little more oomph coming out of corners and makes driving a bit more fun.
Most of the car’s functions are controlled via the central touch screen including aircon, though there is a shortcut on the screen for climate control, making it easy to access with big buttons that you can use whilst driving. The stereo is very good with clear sound, and the steering wheel controls are physical buttons and toggles, and work perfectly. There’s an indicator stalk on one side and a gear shifter stalk on the other. I’m so glad Dongfeng haven’t messed with these and has given us usable, physical controls.
I couldn’t find an energy usage history in the main screen, but I started with 98% battery and 406km range showing, drove for 95km of mixed driving, and finished with 75% battery and 333km range. If this is accurate, then the claimed 317km range should be achievable.
We’ll do a full review once we get the Box to live with for a week, but my overall impression based on this short drive is very positive. Excellent value, great warranty, and a decent driving experience.
