Published on July 1st, 2024 | by Subhash Nair

Will BAIC Bring In The Arcfox Alpha S5 To Fight The BYD Seal?

The Arcfox Alpha S5 (ɑS) went on sale in China 2 months ago. Is it coming to Malaysia as well?

Chinese manufacturers have been looking at Geely’s success in Malaysia since 2018 and wondering how they can get a slice of the pie as well. Chery did it by mirroring the company’s SUV products and matching them on price. Now with the electric vehicle situation favouring BYD strongly, it’s only a matter of time before more Chinese brands come in and try to mirror BYD’s EV products here. And with BAIC rolling out a dealer network in Malaysia, it could be only a matter of time before they consider launching an EV here. Right now the plan is to introduce two petrol SUVs – the X55 and the BJ40 Plus, but maybe they’ll think about introducing the ARCFOX Alpha S5 too.

ARCFOX is BAIC’s EV sub-brand and we have written about the Alpha S name before, but a different version of it that was more Huawei-focused. This new ARCFOX Alpha S5 model seems to feature a completely different design inside and out. In China, it went on “pre-sale” in April with two variants on offer – 650 Ultra and 708 Max.

ARCFOX Alpha S5 Trump Cards

As with any Chinese EV, the ARCFOX Alpha S5 has a few “best-in-class” boasts. The drag coefficient is said to be the lowest amongst Chinese mass production cars at just 0.1925 cd – yes, they went to four decimal points to prove that point. That being said, it definitely does look very slippery with its retractable flush door handles and actually quite sporty as well. The Alpha S5 comes from the factory with blacked-out mirrors and wheels, plus a gloss black roof can also be optioned. Alloy wheel choices sit at 18″ and 19″.

Inside, you get a rather substantial 14.6″ central display that serves as both digital instrument cluster and infotainment unit. The driver also gets an augmented reality heads up display for additional intrumentation. It’s all powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, enabling the display to run games like Asphalt 9. In fact, ARCFOX throws in two gamepads with the car so you can use it to game in-car. You can also connect a Nintendo Switch console to the infotainment screen.

ARCFOX Alpha S5 Technical Data

In terms of dimensions, here’s how the ARCFOX Alpha S5 measures up:

Length: 4820mm
Width: 1930mm
Height: 1480mm
Wheelbase: 2900mm

Performance figures indicate a front wheel drive model with 268 horsepower and a dual motor flagship variant with an additional 255hp rear motor. Lower tier variants come with a LiFePo battery while higher tier models get a lithium ion battery sourced from CATL. Range is quoted at 560km, 708km, and 650km depending on variant.