In 2025, the editors of Motor tested several dozen new products. On the eve of the new year, we decided to put together a digest of published test drives: it included articles dedicated to cars that left the most vivid impressions.
## The most brutal: all-around Tank 400
The editors of Motor consider the junior Tank 300 to be the first car from China that you really want to have in your garage. Later, the conceptually similar BAIC BJ40 and Jetour T2 appeared, and now there is an internal alternative – for those who are not strapped for money, but are cramped in the cabin of a three hundredth. In price and size, the Tank 400 tends to the older model 500, but in spirit it is equal to the younger 300. Therefore, when testing the new product, we started from the latter.
Is the Tank 400 a larger Tank 300 or a Tank 500 for adventure? Both are true!
Vyacheslav Krylov
## The most technologically advanced: designer electric crossover Avatr 11
The paradox of premium electric trains is that the cooler they look, the more boring it is to ride them. This is the effect of a high base, when a car, with its defiant appearance, promises some kind of incredible experience, different from everything else.
But it turns out that the car can’t fly or teleport, and the driving process itself is, plus or minus, the same as in any other electric car. Manufacturers are aware of this, and in order not to disappoint the user, they add all sorts of futuristic bells and whistles to the product. In which there is not always at least some need.
Avatr 11 has everything shocking – from the name and format to the appearance and interior. And what car is behind all this?
Atom
## Most promising: Atom pre-production prototype
A year ago, the Atom project team gave people the opportunity to ride a functional prototype of their electric gadget. Today the prototype is different – pre-production. This means that this is exactly what the car that will be offered to the consumer will look like outside and inside. And its driving characteristics largely correspond to those of “commodity” cars.
We took the opportunity to try the electric car almost as it will go on sale.
Vyacheslav Krylov
## Most nostalgic: Honda ZR-V
Over several years of being in the “Chinese vacuum,” we have somewhat lost our connection to the global system of automobile coordinates. That’s why it was so interesting to test the most banal crossover – but from a non-Chinese manufacturer. Or maybe the differences between old and new brands have long been erased and everyone, including the Japanese from Honda, is doing approximately the same thing?
Are they asking for an extra payment for a Japanese brand or for something more? Let’s try to understand this using the example of the Honda ZR-V
KGM
## Most un-Chinese: KGM Torres and three more ex-SsangYong
Formally, the Koreans from KGM really became the first non-Chinese brand to formally return to Russia since all global manufacturers left our market in 2022. But SsangYong left much earlier than the others – in 2019, when it was not yet mainstream. During its absence from Russia, SsangYong managed to fall into the ownership of the KG Group concern and rename itself KG Mobility, or KGM for short.
Four models attacked us at once. Who’s who in the KGM model line?
Vyacheslav Krylov
## Most premium: Exlantix ET
More than two years passed from the first announcement to the start of sales of Exlantix in Russia – so everyone who wanted it probably already figured out that this is a sub-brand of the Exeed brand, which, in turn, is a sub-brand of the Chery brand. There is nothing surprising here, by modern standards. Another thing was curious: what will remain of the hegemony of the gray “Foxes” when approximately the same thing enters the battle with them – only with adaptation to our conditions and a full-fledged factory warranty?
We are trying to find common ground between Exlantix ET and its competitor Li L7 from the Chery concern.
