Man drives Nio electric vehicle over 3,000km from China to S'pore

A Chinese PhD student at Imperial College London gained traction on social media after he was spotted driving a Shanghai-registered electric vehicle (EV) along East Coast Parkway (ECP) in Singapore.

The scene was caught on camera by a driver travelling behind the student, Jason Wen, and the footage was uploaded to Xiaohongshu on Feb. 26 evening.

According to the video, Wen was driving an ES6 Electric All-Round Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) manufactured by the Chinese EV company Nio in 2023.

His online pseudonym, "英国潇洒哥Jason" (which translates to "United Kingdom's nonchalant man, Jason"), could be seen on the SUV's rear windshield.

In the post caption, the Xiaohongshu user tagged Wen's account and praised him for driving all the way from China to Singapore.

The Xiaohongshu user also asked Wen to drive carefully in Singapore, as mainland Chinese vehicles are left-hand drive and mainland drivers are used to driving on the right-hand side of the road.

Wen drove over 3,000km from China

In a Xiaohongshu post published at around 1am on Feb. 27, Wen confirmed that he drove the SUV from China to Singapore.

However, instead of Shanghai, where the SUV is registered, he said he departed from the southwestern province of Yunnan, which borders Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos.

Wen then travelled through Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia before arriving in Singapore, and the entire trip spanned over 3,000 km, he wrote in the caption.

In the photos Wen attached to the post, he could be seen standing next to his SUV in front of Marina Bay Sands and holding up the Chinese national flag in front of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Wen also posted two photos showing him charging his SUV in Thailand and Melaka.

Reactions

In the comments section of Wen's post, many Xiaohongshu users were impressed by his international road trip, given the amount of paperwork involved.

Some also asked how much he spent on the trip and how he managed to find charging ports in the countries he travelled to.

According to Nio, its ES6 SUV can travel up to 930km on a single charge when equipped with Nio's 150kWh battery.

Mothership has reached out to Wen for comments.

Not the only China-registered EV spotted in S'pore

However, Wen's SUV was not the only China-registered EV spotted in Singapore on Feb. 26.

In a post published at around 7:30pm, a Xiaohongshu user said he spotted a black EV registered in Guangzhou at a mall car park at HarbourFront.

According to his photo, the EV is manufactured by Chinese EV company Aito.

A commenter who claimed to be a friend of the EV driver said her friend travelled alongside Wen to Singapore from China.

In Wen's photos, a black Aito EV could be seen parked alongside his SUV in Yunnan, Laos, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur.

Although he censored the EV's car plate partially, the remaining numbers correspond to the car plate numbers shown in the Xiaohongshu post.

Top images via Xiaohongshu