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The MAXUS MIFA 9 is a large all-electric seven-seater MPV with first-class airline-style seats in the second row and lots of space, making it an excellent vehicle for family adventures as well as business use.
MAXUS isn’t a well-known brand to motorists in the UK, primarily because its main products are vans. However the Chinese company, part of SAIC Motor, which also owns MG, has just launched the MIFA 9, which is definitely more people-carrier than van. We’ve already tested the MAXUS T90EV, the only electric pick-up on sale in the UK; read on to find out why the MIFA 9 should be on your shortlist if you’re looking for an electric family car or a 7-seater for business use.
The MIFA 9 is an electric seven-seater people carrier, which makes it unique, if you don’t count van-based ‘minibus’ electric people carriers. But what makes it even more unique is the first-class airline-style seats in the second row. The seats are so large and luxurious that you can only fit two of them. You get armrests, footrests, multiple reclining positions, and various massage options – as well as heating and ventilation – all controlled electronically via a screen on the seat (the seat occupants can also control other functions such as the front windows and the sunroof/s). To make things even more plane-like, a table folds out of the seat armrest. And there’s a huge amount of legroom.
The seats slide apart to allow access between them to the three standard-sized seats in the third row. These third row seats can slide forwards and backwards, so allowing the boot to vary in length between 375mm and 810mm.
With the second and third row of seats in place, there’s 466 litres of boot space. You can fold down the backrests of the third row of seats, which can be split 60:40, to increase the luggage space to 1,702 litres. The second row of seats in our test vehicle couldn’t be folded, but there are variants with three standard seats in the second row, and if you fold down the second and third row of seats, there’s 2,017 litres of space.
Of course, to fit in three rows of seats as well as lots of legroom as well as a decent-sized boot, the MIFA 9 has to be long – 5,270mm in length to be precise. So it’s not the most compact of vehicles to park. It’s also 2,000mm wide, and 1,840mm high.
However getting in and out of the rear is easy in confined spaces thanks to the sliding electric side doors. And rear occupants even get their own large sunroof, in addition to the separate sunroof for front seat occupants. There’s also lots of storage space upfront, including under the floating centre console.
The MAXUS MIFA 9 has a 90 kWh Ternary Lithium Battery, with a usable capacity of 84 kWh, it’s front-wheel drive, and it has a towing capacity of 1,000 kg.
The MAXUS MIFA 9 is a people carrier, so its focus is, quite rightly, on providing a comfortable experience for passengers (and the driver), which it succeeds in delivering. Ride quality is excellent over the majority of road surfaces, and the MIFA 9 is a pleasant environment in which to spend time on long motorway journeys, exhibiting normal EV qualities such as a quiet and refined driving experience. Apart from its size, the MIFA 9 feels more car-like than van-like to drive.
Even the MIFA 9’s performance is respectable, with a 0-62 mph acceleration time of 9.9 seconds, but it’s best to select Sport drive mode, rather than Normal or Eco, if you want the best responses (the MIFA 9 is front-wheel drive so there’s the risk of torque steer if you pull out of a junction enthusiastically). You can also choose between standard or sport for the brake pedal and steering modes, as well as high, low or standard for energy regeneration (you can’t do this via the gear selector on the right-hand side of the steering column).
Adjusting items such as drive modes throws up a key issue with the MIFA 9 – it’s let down by having to delve into various menus and sub-menus (‘driving preferences’ in the case of drive modes) on the central 12.3-inch touchscreen to access basic car controls (we should note that the MIFA 9 is not alone in having this problem).
And there’s a bigger issue with other controls: if you get in the MIFA 9 and drive off, it won’t be long before you’re assaulted by various beeps and boings. And again, to switch off systems such as lane departure warning that are responsible for the beeping, you have to press the button at the bottom of the touchscreen shortcuts (other shortcut buttons include home, phone, media, climate and 360 cameras), then delve into system settings. There are also a number of controls that you have to scroll down to find. So in summary the touchscreen menus and sub-menus could be more user-friendly.
The touchscreen also displays a graphic of the vehicle and allows you, for example, to open and close the sunroof/s by sliding your finger on the screen.
The climate controls are accessed by a shortcut button on the right-hand side of the touchscreen. If you use Apple CarPlay – which you’ll need to do because the MIFA 9 doesn’t have its own satnav system (and note that it has USB not USB-C sockets) – these shortcut buttons disappear, but you do have some physical climate controls underneath the screen, including slider bars for cabin temperature and fan speed. But there appears to be no obvious way to adjust where you want the heating and ventilation to be directed at.
One basic car control that we couldn’t find anywhere was for the vehicle lights, so it seems that you can’t manually override the car’s automatic choice about lights.
The MIFA 9, in top spec Premium trim, has a digital rear view mirror rather than a traditional mirror. You can understand the reason for this if you have a vehicle full of people and luggage, but the issue is that the surface of the digital mirror is too reflective, so you can see the digital image overlaid with the actual reflections from the mirror, which isn’t particularly clear.
You can’t move the MIFA 9 even an inch forwards or backwards without having the seatbelt buckled up, which is a pain if, for example, you want to move the vehicle an inch nearer a charger, and the sound quality from the vehicle’s Bluetooth phone microphone was poor.
The MAXUS MIFA 9 has an official WLTP combined electric driving range of 269 miles. During a week of mixed driving the average real-world range was 230 miles. The MIFA 9 has a heat pump as standard.
The MIFA 9 has a maximum rapid DC charging rate of 114 kW, with MAXUS claiming a 30% to 80% charge will take 30 minutes. It can also charge at up to 11 kW AC.
Our test car had a plug behind the front central armrest, but it wasn’t a UK plug.
The MAXUS MIFA 9 is available in three trim levels: Elite, Luxury and Premium. The MAXUS MIFA 9 Elite 7-seater is priced from £64,306, Luxury trim is from £69,833, and Premium trim is from £76,702. Elite and Luxury trim levels are also available with 8 seats, priced from £64,306 and £69,833 respectively.
Premium trim (as tested) has extra equipment such as front and rear electric sunroofs, electric front seats and 19-inch wheels. The MIFA 9’s battery comes with an 8-year, 125,000-mile warranty.
Prices and specifications correct at time of review
The MAXUS MIFA 9 offers a comfortable driving experience but improvements would be welcome to the over-intrusive safety systems and to the user-friendliness of the infotainment system.
However, the MIFA 9 is primarily focused around its passengers rather than its driver, and this has evidently worked, because the MAXUS MIFA 9 has been voted the ‘Family Car of the Year’ by this reviewer’s family. The reasons for this include the first-class airline-style second row seats complete with their screens that enable the occupants to control multiple different reclining positions, as well as massages, together with the huge amount of rear legroom, a total of seven seats, and lots of room for luggage. The MIFA 9 also accommodated lots of outdoor equipment including paddle boards and bikes, proving that it’s extremely useful for exploring the great outdoors as well as for day-to-day family duties, in addition to business use.
The MAXUS MIFA 9 is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 8 out of 10.
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