Five Seats, Full-Size Comfort: Inside the New V8X from Wey

Same Bones, Fewer Seats

On August 14, Wey launched the V8X, a large five-seat plug-in hybrid SUV built on the same platform as the six-seat V9X. The two share the same 3,050mm wheelbase, but the V8X trades the third row for a massive trunk. It’s a straightforward idea: not every family needs six seats, but many still want the space and presence of a full-size SUV.

The lineup starts at 238,800 yuan for the Sport Max and goes up to 315,800 yuan for the Luxury Family Ultra+. There are five versions in total, split between Luxury Family and Sport trims. Wey is also throwing in some launch incentives: a 5,000-yuan deposit counts as 8,000, and buyers can choose between a 10,000-yuan trade-in subsidy or a three-year zero-interest loan.

What Makes It a ‘Big Five’?

Wey says the cabin has an effective area of 5.9 square meters. With only two rows, the second row gets more legroom, and the cargo area doesn’t have to be sacrificed for occasional third-row passengers. The V8X Luxury Family version has 864 liters of trunk space behind the rear seats, which Wey claims can hold 12 carry-on suitcases. Fold the second row down, and that expands to 2,225 liters.

That’s a big deal for families. You can load a stroller, camping gear, several suitcases, and a bunch of loose items without playing Tetris with the seats. In a six-seat SUV, you often have to fold the third row to get any real cargo room, and then you’re down to four seats anyway. The V8X skips that dance.

Power and Range: More Than Just a Smaller V9X

The V8X isn’t a stripped-down V9X. It’s a different animal under the hood. The Luxury Family Max uses a 1.5T Hi4 performance powertrain, a 400V architecture, and a 44kWh LFP battery, good for 258km of CLTC electric range. The Ultra steps up to a 1.5T Super Hi4, 800V, and a 66.6kWh NMC battery, pushing electric range to 402km. The top Ultra+ gets a 2.0T Super Hi4, still with the 66.6kWh pack, and total system output of 500kW and 930Nm.

Both Ultra and Ultra+ support 6C fast charging, which can add 170km of range in five minutes. Combined CLTC range is 1,652km for the Ultra and 1,659km for the Ultra+. Those are serious numbers for a family hauler.

Sporty Options, If You’re Into That

Wey also offers two Sport versions, which are shorter (5,040mm long, 2,968mm wheelbase) and come with blacked-out trim and red brake calipers. They’ve retuned the stabilizer bars, dampers, and steering for a sportier feel. The Sport Max uses the 1.5T Hi4 with a 44kWh battery (261km electric range), while the Sport Ultra gets a 2.0T Hi4 and a 55.4kWh pack, good for 324km. The Ultra does 0-100 km/h in 4.5 seconds with a full battery and 4.7 seconds when depleted—not bad for a big SUV.

Quiet by Design

Wey spent a lot of time on noise, which is unusual to see highlighted so early in a launch event. The V8X has 9 acoustic glass panels, triple-sealed doors, and 104 aerodynamic optimizations to cut wind noise at speed. But the bigger challenge is powertrain and road noise. That’s why they added active noise cancellation: ENC for the engine and RNC for the road. The system uses the car’s speakers to emit opposite-phase waves, canceling out specific frequencies. So you get passive insulation to block sound and active cancellation to deal with what gets through. For a car that’ll spend hours on the highway, that matters.

Handling a Big Car: Rear-Wheel Steering

Large SUVs have a turning radius problem. The V8X addresses it with optional rear-wheel steering, which is standard on the Ultra+ and a 5,000-yuan add-on for the Ultra (normally 8,000). The rear wheels can turn up to 10 degrees in either direction, cutting the minimum turning radius to 5 meters. That makes U-turns and parking in tight garages a lot less stressful. At higher speeds, the rear wheels turn in the same direction as the front, which improves stability during lane changes.

The suspension is also serious: double wishbone up front, five-link in the rear. The Luxury Family trims get closed twin-chamber air suspension, while the Sport Max uses EDC continuously variable dampers. The air suspension can adjust its support characteristics by changing chamber volume, and the EDC constantly tweaks damping based on road conditions. So you get a smooth ride over rough pavement but controlled body motion in corners and during hard braking.

Smart Features and Driver Assistance

The V8X is packed with tech. It uses a Thor-U chip with 700 TOPS of computing power, and the sensor suite includes one lidar and 27 sensors total. That enables point-to-point NOA (navigation on autopilot) from your driveway to your destination, including parking. Wey is offering the city and highway NOA service free for life as part of the launch package, which normally costs 32,000 yuan.

Inside, the “Xiao Wei” assistant handles voice commands for driving tasks like starting, lane changing, speed adjustment, and parking. It can also learn individual preferences for seats, climate, and entertainment, and apply them to specific seats. So if you always sit in the front passenger seat, it’ll adjust things to your liking when you get in.

The Big Five-SUV Play

The V8X isn’t alone in this strategy. The NIO ES8 five-seat version and the upcoming L80 are also “six-seat platforms, five-seat bodies.” As platform costs for large NEVs climb, it makes sense to offer both seating configurations on the same architecture. Automakers save development money, and buyers get to choose based on their actual needs.

Wey’s take is straightforward: keep the tech and comfort, drop the third row, and give families more cargo space. The V8X doesn’t cut corners on features—it still has heated, ventilated, and massaging seats in both rows, a fridge, rear sunshades, and dual-zone climate control. It’s not a budget version; it’s a different kind of family SUV.

But the market for large five-seat SUVs is getting crowded. Many brands are chasing the same family buyers. The V8X has loaded up on specs—space, performance, charging speed, comfort, and smarts—but in the end, it’ll come down to price, experience, and brand trust. Wey has brought a strong contender. Now it needs to convince families to choose it.