Farizon Supervan vs Lexus IS200T

What's the difference?

You’d think Farizon would be onto a winner given it has created a van with cool looks and the packaging benefits that come with a dedicated EV architecture. However, the SuperVan left a sour taste in my mouth.

There are good bones here, but Farizon has a long way to go with fixing the electric motor whine and safety systems.

It’s great the company is aware of the SuperVan’s shortcomings and is currently working on software updates, but it begs the question, why wasn’t it good in the first place?

The Lexus range comes with a four year/100,000km warranty with roadside assist for the duration. Servicing is every 15,000km or twelve months, whichever comes first.

Sadly, there's no fixed or capped-price servicing regime, not even a pre-pay option like the stingy Germans. Lexus will only commit to indicative pricing, although the first service at 15,000km is priced keenly - it's free.

When you buy a Lexus, they don't like to let go of you. My father-in-law's original IS 200 is still fetched by the dealership - should he so desire - for its annual service. If he chooses to darken the dealership door himself, he'll drive out in a loan car. Nobody has ever stalked him at the dealership demanding he consider a new one.

The IS200t seems the pick of the IS bunch, despite pricing on par with a couple of the IS350s. It's a worthy alternative to the usual suspects, with its own look, feel and approach to luxury motoring. In fact, it's far more a luxury car than sports sedan, but manages to do both well. In the end, a BMW will edge it for handling and overall chassis grace, the Merc has that badge and the Audi is all-wheel drive and bang-up-to-date.

But none of them can touch the Lexus for after-sales service nor are any of them quite as well put together as the Japanese-built IS. It may not be as fast or as fun, but it's very, very good.

This electric van makes a fantastic first impression with its design. It’s futuristic and stands out on the road.

I haven’t driven a car that gets this much attention in a fair while, which is wild given this is a delivery van and traditionally they’re some of the dullest vehicles out there in terms of design.

What makes the SuperVan stand out the most is the variety of colours it comes in. Sure, you can get standard white if you want, but there’s also grey, green and blue. Our tester is finished in the latter which looks cool and modern.

The front continues the futuristic theme with a bright LED lighting signature for the headlights. They’re connected by an LED light strip, as well as an illuminated Farizon badge.

Given this van is electric, it doesn’t need a large, traditional grille to keep an engine cool. Instead there’s a small slotted opening at the bottom of the front bumper to cool the electric motor and high-voltage battery. It’s cool Farizon has made this van obviously look electric with this cue.

Beyond the stylish aero covers for the 16-inch steel wheels, there really isn’t much to talk about in terms of side profile design. It’s very slab-sided which is a classic van look.

It also leans into the trope that vans are essentially boxes on wheels. This is no bad thing because at the end of the day, a van is a work vehicle that’s meant to maximise hauling potential.

At the rear, this version of the SuperVan with the ‘Low Roof’ body style is perfectly square. It looks a little funny, but again this is a work-oriented vehicle that’s the opposite of a mullet - business at the back, party at the front.

Inside, Farizon has made a big attempt to make this electric van look luxurious and contemporary. Having synthetic leather seats is a luxury that many vans don’t have, along with the big digital instrument cluster and touchscreen multimedia system.

I’m a fan of the orange highlights around the cabin as they break up the monotonous black finishes.

Once you sit in the cabin, however, the commercial roots do begin to show. Virtually every surface is rock-hard plastic, which in a way is good because it means it’ll be hard-wearing in the long run.

The current IS is by far the most distinctive of the three generations. With a couple of exceptions, it is a terrific looking car. It looks long and low slung, like the best sporting sedans, with an almost Maserati-like approach to its proportions. The loud and proud Lexus spindle grille - the object of such derision when it first arrived - looks utterly fantastic and draws attention away from the odd, squished headlights.

it is one of most comfortable cars you can buy, for both front and (short) rear seat passengers.

Inside is less impressive, with a weird stacked dash and integrated screen. The materials are top notch, however and while the designers have tried to do something interesting with the dash design, there are better ideas out there they might want to consider next time around.

While good looks can get you so far, cabin practicality is where things are a little mixed for the SuperVan.

The driver’s seat is generally comfortable, offering a decent amount of support and a centre armrest, but the driving position is heavily compromised.

The worst offender are the pedals as they’re mounted so high that I need to take my foot off the floor to press them. Then the steering wheel only offers tilt adjustment and not reach.

As a result I need to have the seat pushed further back than I’d like to make sure I can press the pedals without making my right ankle hurt in stop-start traffic. Then even with the backrest virtually upright I still need to have arms extended almost fully to reach the wheel.

It’s not the kind of place I’d like to spend a considerable amount of time, which is disappointing because many people who drive this van will likely spend hours behind the wheel at a time.

Thankfully both seats offer both heating and ventilation, which is rather luxurious.

Ahead of the driver, the steering wheel is wrapped in buttery soft synthetic leather, like the seats, and is nice to hold. I appreciate the amount of physical buttons on it. They’re all clearly marked and easy to click.

The steering wheel is also heated and gets hot super quickly. There’s only one setting – on or off.

The digital instrument cluster looks flashy and has a range of informative pages you can cycle through. One even displays a vehicle weight page which is great if you’re unsure if you’re close to the gross vehicle mass (GVM).

Moving across, the touchscreen infotainment system looks glossy and high-definition, but there’s not much to do on it. This also means it’s hard to get lost and even if you do there are shortcut buttons on the right-hand side of the screen.

As standard there’s wireless Apple CarPlay connectivity which is great if you’ve got an iPhone, but terrible if you have an Android phone. This car has no Android Auto support whatsoever.

It’s great to see a continued use of physical switchgear around the cabin for things like the drive modes, regenerative braking settings and most notably the climate control settings. The latter are big and chunky, meaning they’re hard to miss.

In terms of storage up front, it’s fairly mediocre beyond big door pockets. There’s a slide out drawer with two cupholders and another small storage section, as well as another small storage drawer and a glovebox.

Around the side you'll find one of this van's most unique features. When you open up the passenger side front door and slide open the side cargo door, you’ll see this van doesn’t have a B-pillar. There’s only a plastic partition between the passenger and cargo areas.

As a result, the seatbelt for the passenger is mounted on the door. This feels a bit weird in the passenger seat because the seatbelt cuts across more than usual and doesn’t rest on your shoulder.

The SuperVan only comes with a single sliding door. You can’t opt for one on the driver’s side in Australia which is a little disappointing from an ease-of-use standpoint.

At the back there are rear barn doors that have stops at 90 degrees and 180 degrees, before opening all the way up to 270 degrees. This is great because you’ll be able to put whatever is on a forklift into the cargo area.

Speaking of the cargo area, it’s massive. This SWB Low Roof version measures in at 2690mm long, 1795mm wide and 1440mm tall. This equals 6.95 cubic metres, which is considerably more than any similarly sized van, whether that be diesel or electric.

It’s another major benefit of this van being built on a dedicated electric vehicle architecture, rather than a combustion platform that needs to take drivetrain and exhaust components into account.

Payload is 1300kg which is fairly standard for mid-size electric vans.

I like how low the load lip is at the back. This means you don’t have to lift things too high in order to get them in the cargo area.

In terms of amenities there are some lights, tie-down points, as well as three powerpoints for vehicle-to-load (V2L) support at up to 3.3kW. Disappointingly the latter didn’t work in our tester no matter how hard I tried…

Surprisingly under the cargo area is a full-size spare wheel. This is incredibly rare for an EV, especially one that’s all about maximising cargo capacity. It’s great peace of mind if you do long-distance travelling.

The IS's cabin is probably the weakest point of the car, with limited storage for your bits and bobs. Front and rear seat passengers do get cupholders for a total of four, but the rear doors don't have bottle holders, limiting you to the two upfront.

On hot days like Sydney's 2017 summer, those cooled seats are heaven-sent.

The centre console bin is small and is the only place for your phone apart from the cupholders, which isn't an ideal spot, let's face it. The boot is a German-matching 480 litres and you can split fold the seats for more room.

Having said that, it is one of most comfortable cars you can buy, for both front and (short) rear seat passengers. The front seats are especially good and on hot days like Sydney's 2017 summer, those cooled seats are heaven-sent.

The IS range kicks off with the 200t Luxury at $59,340, closely followed by the hybrid 300h, the V6-powered 350 ($65,390) and then the $73,540 200t F Sport. Pricing then heads up into the mid-$80,000s for the IS350 Sports Luxury.

The 200t F Sport's almost $74,000 price tag fetches you a car with 18-inch alloys, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors, a hefty safety package, electronic dampers, auto LED headlights, auto wipers, electric heated and cooled front seats, digital instruments, sat nav, keyless entry and start, leather (some real, some not) interior, variable ratio steering rack and power everything.

The 10-speaker stereo is Mark Levinson branded and is controlled by Lexus' own connectivity and sat nav suite. The sound is fantastic, the control system less so. Commands come from a few shortcut buttons (good) and weird mouse-type arrangement on the centre console that is largely infuriating. The less said about the on-screen graphics, the better - they're low-res and on occasions, amateurish. You can connect via USB or Bluetooth but the app integration is limited. You also get an at-first unfathomable DAB+ radio.

Once on boost, the engine is smooth with a lovely flat torque curve.

Options are limited to $1500 for premium paint, which makes up eight out of ten colours.

Out of interest, $74,000 gets you a reasonably well equipped BMW 330i M Sport or Luxury Line and a few hundred dollars more will get you into a hybrid 330e M Sport. Audi will cheerfully sell you a loaded-up A4 quattro 2.0 TFSI and Mercedes might be tempted to sell you a C350e. Infiniti will probably throw themselves at you with a V6 twin-turbo Q50 Red Sport rocketship, or at the very least a V6 Hybrid Premium.

All versions of the Farizon SuperVan in Australia are powered by a single, front-mounted electric motor that produces 170kW and 336Nm.

This is fed by an 83kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery which is sourced from Chinese battery producer CATL.

Farizon doesn’t quote an official 0-100km/h time, though it claims the top speed is 135km/h.

The 200t denotes a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder under that long bonnet, delivering 180kW and 350Nm to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission. This translates to seven seconds dead to 100km/h for the 1680kg sedan, which isn't hanging around.

Claimed range for the SuperVan depends on the body configuration, but it’s up to 376km according to WLTP testing for the SWB Low Roof body style.

The battery pack can be DC fast-charged at rates up to 140kW, which would see the battery charge from 20 to 80 per cent in 36 minutes.

The battery pack can also be AC charged at rates up to 11kW, which would see the battery charge from 15 to 100 per cent in seven hours.

The SuperVan also offers vehicle-to-load through Australian domestic household plugs at up to 3.3kW of continuous power. This allows you to use the van’s battery pack to power appliances, tools, or other emergency backup systems.

Farizon doesn’t quote an official energy consumption figure for the SuperVan, but during my unladen testing I saw an average of 23.5kWh/100km, which would give a theoretical range of 350km. This would likely drop with a heavier load onboard.

Try as we might - and we did - we couldn't get at all close to the claimed combined fuel figure of 7.5L/100km. We didn't even hit the standard plus 30%, but we did get 12.2L/100km. That's a fairly solid miss.

Driving this van is punishing. It’s quite unlike any other modern van I’ve experienced as they can be fun to drive. This SuperVan, however, leaves me feeling like a lot of the elements need finessing.

First up there’s the electric motor. It makes a decent amount of power and easily gets this big box on wheels moving. In Sport mode the front wheels can get overwhelmed if you’re not careful.

However, this van has an incredibly loud electric motor whine. It builds as you gain speed, then once you reach your desired speed it hovers at an annoying high pitch. Some extra sound deadening would likely help.

Additionally, there’s a pedestrian warning sound that plays under 25km/h, as well as a beeping tone when reversing. While this is common for EVs, this one feels like it’s louder on the inside rather than the outside. This somewhat defeats the purpose.

There are three levels of regenerative braking as standard and all of them require you to use the brake pedal to come to a complete stop. This means there’s no one-pedal driving mode.

With all the settings the regen braking is either completely on or off. There’s no in between which creates a thrashy feeling in the cabin, especially when travelling down a hill and you’re trying to coast along without activating regen braking too much. As a result, I like the weakest regen setting the most.

Surprisingly the interaction between the regenerative braking and the traditional friction brakes is rather seamless. Even the brake pedal feels relatively normal, compared to a regular combustion vehicle, which is sometimes uncommon for EVs.

As standard there’s an electric power steering system which, unlike some other new Chinese vehicles, feels like it’s actually connected to the wheels. While you can tell the steering is electrically assisted, you can still feel what the wheels are doing.

Thanks to the dedicated electric architecture, the turning circle is surprisingly good for such a large vehicle. It measures in at 12.2 metres kerb-to-kerb.

Like many commercial vans, the SuperVan has a double wishbone independent front and a rear leaf spring suspension setup. This typically prioritises cargo-carrying ability rather than on-road comfort.

When unladen the SuperVan’s suspension is incredibly jittery and harsh. You can feel every single bump in the road and crossing a speed bump makes me grit my teeth. It doesn’t help that the tyres need to be pumped up high. As standard the rear tyres need to be pumped up to 61psi.

With some added weight onboard the SuperVan’s suspension does settle, but it’s still quite choppy. We didn’t get a chance to test this vehicle at the full GVM, but it would be interesting to see whether the rear springs get a little more compliant then. Range would likely plummet though.

In terms of visibility, you sit up high in the cabin and there’s a large windscreen. These are both big ticks. It also helps there are large side windows and side mirrors that make seeing kerbs easier.

Like many vans however, over-the-shoulder checks aren’t possible in the SuperVan as there are no rear windows, plus seeing out the back through the tiny envelope is virtually impossible.

Thankfully there are front and rear parking sensors as standard, as well as a surround-view camera that has good quality but a choppy camera feed. Having the standard sensors and camera system is great while doing tricky parking manoeuvres.

Lastly, let’s talk about the chimes… They are some of the loudest and most incessant I have ever experienced in a new car. They’re so loud that they honestly scared me at first.

There are a variety of different tones for all the different safety systems. One that grates the most are the intelligent speed limit assist which bongs each time it detects a new speed limit, then again if the system thinks you’re travelling over that limit. It’s particularly annoying because it picks up 40km/h school zones even when it’s not school zone times.

Another chime plays for the driver monitoring system when it can’t detect your eyes. This is annoying if you want to wear sunglasses while driving.

You can turn off these settings in a menu on the touchscreen, but they all default back to on when you restart the car.

Other loud bongs play when you change the drive mode, the regenerative braking setting, even when you turn on the adaptive cruise control. You just can’t escape it.

After having the good fortune to step out of the IS350 and into the 200t, it was immediately apparent that the 200 is the better car. For a start, it feels so much more nimble. Sure, it doesn't have the seamless urge of that silky V6, but the 2.0 turbo does a fine impression of a bigger engine. Once on boost, the engine is smooth with a lovely flat torque curve. If you're off boost, though, you're in a bit of trouble - the eight-speed is reluctant to downshift and needed prodding from the steering wheel mounted paddles on occasion.

As with just about every Lexus, the ride is impeccable and refinement virtually unmatched in the class.

From a driving point of view, the fundamentals are better - less weight over the front wheels meaning the steering feels better, it turns in better and it moves more fluidly, which is impressive because the 350 isn't a slouch. Even the dashboard is better. The 350 has a traditional two clock arrangement where the 200t has a single dial in the middle that is digitally remastered. Press a button and it slides to the side to provide extra info on your choice of the available data. It leaves a fair amount of black space but it's easier to read and doesn't suffer as badly from reflections.

As with just about every Lexus, the ride is impeccable and refinement virtually unmatched in the class. There's something about the way a Lexus knocks the edge of all but the biggest bumps, sails over speed bumps and handles imperfections that is hard to beat and hard to find unless you're spending really big bucks. The adaptive damping never feels like it's doing anything which is exactly the point - even when switching to Sport+, there's an ease to the ride without it feeling loose.

You'll barely know the engine is there, and the way the transmission slurs around the gears means non-stop serenity.

Standard safety kit includes eight airbags (including knee bags for front seat occupants), ABS, stability and traction controls, blind spot sensor, lane departure warning, rear cross traffic alert, brake assist and driver attention detection.

The IS scored the maximum available five ANCAP stars when it was re-tested in October 2016.

The Farizon SuperVan is covered by a five-year, 200,000km warranty, while the high-voltage battery pack is covered for eight years or 200,000km.

There’s also five years of complimentary roadside assistance.

Logbook servicing is required every 12 months or 30,000km, which is relatively standard for commercial vehicles.

The first five services are capped and all up cost $2730. This averages out to around $550 per service, which is a little on the expensive side for an EV. However, diesel vans can be much more expensive to maintain in the long-term.

Farizon currently doesn’t have a dealer network in Australia and only sells vehicles in Queensland through its website. The company is working on setting up a dealer network in the coming months and is prioritising the eastern seaboard.

The Lexus range comes with a four year/100,000km warranty with roadside assist for the duration. Servicing is every 15,000km or twelve months, whichever comes first.

Sadly, there's no fixed or capped-price servicing regime, not even a pre-pay option like the stingy Germans. Lexus will only commit to indicative pricing, although the first service at 15,000km is priced keenly - it's free.

When you buy a Lexus, they don't like to let go of you. My father-in-law's original IS 200 is still fetched by the dealership - should he so desire - for its annual service. If he chooses to darken the dealership door himself, he'll drive out in a loan car. Nobody has ever stalked him at the dealership demanding he consider a new one.