The glut of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) flooding Singapore’s automotive scene has naturally raised questions about their long-term viability here.
After all, most of these brands are new to our market, and their credibility are mostly unknown and untested. Given the exorbitant costs of cars in Singapore, the last thing you want is to commit your money to something that will lead to a litany of issues down the road.
On the surface, the Neta X looks like it has what it takes to compete, with its stylish looks, an upmarket-looking interior, and a relatively affordable price tag. But delve deeper and the Neta provides a cautionary tale of how things are not always what it seems in the confusing world of Chinese EVs.
Who is Neta?
Neta is a brand from a Chinese car manufacturer called Hozon Auto, which was established in 2014 in Shanghai. The brand’s name in Chinese is pronounced Ne Zha, which is of course a reference to the Chinese mythological figure that is the subject of an extremely popular movie trending right now. Talk about topical.
Its first car, the Neta N01 small SUV, went on sale in 2018, and sold reasonably well in its home market. The company ambitiously pitted Neta against upmarket brands like Xpeng, Nio and Li Auto, while offering its products at relatively low prices, which perhaps contributed to its initial success.
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Hozon then underwent a rapid expansion phase, and launched a slew of new models over the next few years. By 2023, Hozon was confident enough to not only start exporting its cars abroad, but also build them there. It soon started up production facilities to assemble Neta cars in Thailand and Indonesia, with further plans to expand to South America as well.
However, things rapidly began to change over the past year. In the face of extremely fierce competition at home, Neta’s sales began to slump dramatically in 2024, and the company consistently failed to hit its targets, resulting in massive losses.
If you Google “Hozon Auto” or “Neta Auto”, you’ll find a long list of news stories about the company’s financial woes, with tales of cost cutting, job layoffs and production stoppages.
Clearly, things aren’t exactly looking up for Neta at the current moment. But that hasn’t stopped them from further expansion, and they made their Singapore debut in January with two electric models, the Neta Aya small hatchback, and the Neta X crossover tested here.
What is the Neta X?
A quick glance at the Neta X would immediately draw comparisons with the current king of the segment, the BYD Atto 3. The similarities between the two are hard to ignore, and it’s very clear who Neta is targeting in our local market.
The X’s overall design language can be best described as simple minimalism, with its clean-cut lines and interesting details like the slim daytime running lights up front that give it an aggressive-looking snout.
The more interesting aspect though is the X’s relative size. It doesn’t look like it, but the X is actually bigger than the Atto 3. Its length of 4,619mm and wheelbase of 2,770mm is longer than the BYD by 164mm and 50mm respectively.
That naturally translates into lots of space for passengers, and the X is indeed quite roomy, especially at the rear. The shape of the roofline too means that there is generous headroom as well.
It’s equally spacious for cargo too, with the X offering a commodious 508-litre boot, expandable to 1,388 litres if you fold the rear seats down. The boot floor can also be lowered for more versatility.
Up front, the X presents itself with a rather classy dashboard design. The tan leather material is complemented by the brass detailing around the air con vents and door handles, and it certainly wouldn’t feel out of place in a much more expensive car.
Like many of the newer Chinese EVs these days, the X adopts the minimalist approach, with a lack of physical buttons and nearly everything controlled from the central 15.6-inch touchscreen.
To its credit, the underlying operating system is quite fast and responsive, but the user interface is not exactly the most organised or easiest to navigate.
How does it drive?
The Neta X’s driving demeanour is mostly characterised by its smoothness. It’s not exactly fast, with 0-100km/h coming up in a fairly leisurely 9.5 seconds, but it gets there in a relatively unruffled and unfussed manner.
Power output is rated at 100kW/134hp, which means it easily slides into COE Category A, while the 210Nm of torque is just about par for an EV in this segment. Range is rated at 410km from its 62kWh battery, but in real world conditions you’ll probably get somewhere in the mid to high 300s.
Truth be told, the Neta X is not particularly exciting or outstanding to drive. The steering gets you around corners well, but is otherwise unremarkable. The ride quality is comfortable, but refinement is marred by the surprisingly loud operation of the electric motor.
The car’s regenerative braking feels almost non-existent too, despite having three selectable levels to choose from. That said, this might not necessarily be a bad thing for those who aren’t used to the strong regen braking of EVs.
But…?
While the Neta X seemingly presents itself as creditable alternative to the BYD Atto 3, my experience with the car during the test drive surfaced a number of issues that would make one pause with wary.
Functionality-wise, the car came without Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity, which truthfully though is just a minor inconvenience that can be rectified with an over-the-air (OTA) software update.
More worryingly, there were a handful of build quality problems that riddled the car, with the most annoying being the driver’s door that refused to stay shut properly without giving it a hard slam, or several slams.
But the biggest issue was that the car was somehow unable to connect to a public charger, despite attempting several times using different chargers from various operators. It led to the unprecedented step of me returning the test drive car one day earlier than scheduled as I didn’t want to risk running out of juice without the ability to recharge the battery.
In fairness, Neta’s local dealer here, Evology Automobile, were understanding about the feedback, and promised to look into how it could rectify them as soon as they could. But it also serves as a precautionary warning for those who are considering a relatively new EV brand from the many that have emerged onto the market in recent months.
If it wasn’t for the quality issues, the Neta X is actually a reasonably competitive rival to the BYD Atto 3, especially at its price point of $161,888 with COE (as of March 2025) which puts it just about on par with the BYD.
The question then though is whether it’s worth taking a risk on a brand with so many unknowns hanging over it, but our advice is simply to tread carefully and do plenty of research before committing.
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benjamin.chia@asiaone.com
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