The 212 T01 is a relaunched Chinese off-roader that embraces its heritage with a retro design and robust off-road capabilities, offering significant value for its price point.
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>> This is a T01 from the brand called 212.
And yep, you guessed it right. It is
Chinese. Now, to me and you, the 212
name might be new. And technically it is
because even though the brand was
established back in 1965, it was called
BJ212 and they recently relaunched the
brand as 212 in 2024. Now over the past
60 years, this brand has developed a
cult following for its approach of
making cars that are simple and no
nonsense. And the main point of the car
is that they are excellent off-roaders.
Now in the UAE, 212 offers only one
model which is a T01. As you can see,
this is the top-of-the-line variant.
This is called the Pioneer Edition, and
this right here is a standard model.
This is the adventure variant. Before we
go further, take a good look at the car
and try and see if you can guess the
prices. You can guess the prices in the
comment section, and let's see how many
people get it right. Here's a clue. It's
under 150,000 dirhams. But the overall
design on both cars are very similar.
They're very retro. And if you notice,
they resemble quite a lot of the
previous generation of the Defender. And
to me personally, I'm in love with the
way it looks. While both the base
adventure variant and the Pioneer
Edition share the same overall design,
it's in the details where they begin to
differ. The design is very deliberate.
Flat body panels, squared off edges, and
large windows all around to offer better
visibility. Up front, you get round
headlamps, a simple three slat grill,
and protruding front bumpers that also
doubles up as a seat. With the Pioneer
Edition, the T01 adds four carbon fiber
inserts on the grill, the side mirrors,
and several other areas across the body,
mostly wherever you see the 212 badging.
Move to the side, and that strong
shoulder line immediately gives the SUV
a muscular stance. The difference again
comes down to the details. The pimped
out Pioneer Edition runs on lowprofile
tires, whereas the Adventure variant
gets the more functional all-terrain
tires. Take a step back and you realize
just how massive the T01 actually is. On
paper, this thing measures roughly 4.7 m
long, 1.89 m wide, and 1.9 m tall, and
gets 235 mm of ground clearance. These
numbers put the T01 in the same ballpark
as a G Wagon. But the one thing that the
G Wagon does not have is that
hood-mounted spotlight. Isn't that a
cool touch? But what makes the T01 so
appealing to me is that 212 has not
tried to modernize the off-roader
formula. Instead, it embraces its heritage.
Now, that retro theme continues over to
the interior as well. Now, sitting here,
I'm baffled by how much you're getting
for the amount you're paying. Now,
that's another thing that surprised us
because when they announced the prices,
we were all quite taken aback because we
never thought it would be so affordable.
Now, I'll reveal the prices towards the
end of the video, but to give you a
better perspective now, this
top-of-the-line variant is in the same
price category as a Jett T2. Now, to be
honest, I think that this interior is
far better than the other ones. The
first thing you'll notice is a presence
of physical buttons, which for an
off-roader is exactly what you need.
These buttons handle the climate
control, diff locks, traction settings,
and drive modes, making everything easy
to operate when you're off the road.
You'll also notice grab handles
everywhere on the front passenger side
and along the doors. Once again,
reinforcing the rugged functional nature
of this interior. At the top of the
center console sits a large 12.3 in
infotainment system which displays media
as well as a 360°ree camera view of the
car. However, features like Android Auto
and Apple CarPlay are not built in as
standard. Instead, 212 provides a dongle
with the car that enables these
functions. And to be fair, it does the
job. Elsewhere, the cabin is finished in
plush leather across the dashboard,
seats, door panels, and all major touch
points in the cabin. In terms of
features, here's everything that's
The T01 does not fall short in terms of
practicality either. There's plenty of
headroom and leg room even in the rear.
And there's plenty of storage space in
the door cubbies, center console, and
rear armrests. But the coolest feature
here in our collective opinion are the
multicolored star lighting that's on the
roof. Overall, the interior strikes a
very good balance. It feels solid,
practical, and genuinely well thought
out. When it comes to the boot space,
there's no official figures available,
but in our testing, it was large enough
to comfortably fit all our demo bags
Now, when you're behind the wheel on the
road, you definitely do get the feeling
that you are the king of the road. you
feel like no rules apply to you and that
you can go anywhere you want. You're sat
that high and it feels so good behind
the wheel. Now, when it comes to the
power, the T01 is powered by a 2 L
turbocharged 4-cylinder engine that
produces 248 horsepower and 480 Nm of
torque. Now, by the torque figures, you
would have figured that it's meant for
off-road performance. We'll talk about
the off-road performance in a little
while, but for now, let's talk about how
it performs while you're driving on
paved roads. Now, the first thing I want
to talk about is the amount of aura
points this car gives you when you're on
the road. [music] It's almost as much as
how much you would get when you're
driving a G Wagon. And even the seating
position doesn't encourage you to drive
with both hands of the wheel. It makes
you want to drive like this. You know, I
bet if 50 Cent was Chinese, he would be
driving this car. [music]
[music]
Now, the time has come for us to test
how this behemoth fares in the 0200
test. Now, we switch the car to sport
mode. Turn the traction control off,
left foot on the pedal, fully pressed,
build up the revs with the right, and
Now, the company says that this car can
do a 0 to 100 sprint in 10 and 1/2
seconds. So, the time that we clocked
was 11 seconds, which is very close. On
paved roads, the T01 is exactly what
you'd expect from a tall ladder frame
off-roader, but in a good way. The
fivelink axle suspension does a solid
job of balancing ride quality and body
control. The moment you take it
off-road, that's when things start to
get interesting. This brand built its
reputation on making tough, reliable
off-roaders. And even though our testing
was limited to the dunes, the T01 didn't
miss a beat. And part of what makes the
T01 work off-road are its geometry
numbers. The T01 is claimed to have an
approach angle of around 40°, departure
angle of about 35.5°,
and breakover angle that's close to 23.6°.
23.6°.
All of which means it can confidently
climb and descend uneven terrains
without scraping bumpers or hitting its belly.
Now let's answer the important question.
The question that most of you might have
stuck around this long to have answered
the prices of these cars. So the base
model which is the adventure variant is
priced at 115,000 dhams. And this car
right here, the Pioneer variant, which
is the top-of-the-line variant, starts
at 145,000 dirhams. Now, when you look
at rivals which are similarly priced
like the JetR2 and the Tank 300, somehow
this car edges them out, at least in my
book, because of its old school charm
and that thorough off-road pedigree that
it comes with. And if you compare cars
that's as capable as this off-road, you
would look at rivals like the Inos
Grenadia or even the G Wagon or even
Defenders. And that means that this car
is punching above its weight. And that's
something that's really charming to me.
On that note, we would like to wrap up
this video. If you stuck around this
long, I really want to thank you for it.
Until we see you next time, this is
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