Sometimes, it can be hard to keep track of all the startup companies that are emerging in the electric vehicle marketplace. While Tesla is still the benchmark that many of these upstarts strive to match, it’s often easier said than done. One of these firms trying to establish themselves as a legitimate Tesla competitor is Mullen Automotive and the broader firm Mullen USA. The company has had a rollercoaster history regarding its fortunes, but it thinks now is the time to strike. But is there substance beneath the corporate buzzwords and shiny sheet metal? We wanted to find out and made the trek to Mullen’s “Strikingly Different” EV Tour, which stopped at the M1 Concourse raceway in Pontiac, Michigan, to see for ourselves if there was substance behind the flashy sheet metal.
Mullen FIVE CUV
The first product that we had a chance to get some seat time in was the Mullen FIVE CUV. Mullen first revealed this model two years ago and claims that the first production units will begin delivery early next year. The company had two of these SUVs on hand at their “Strikingly Different” tour for the public to ride along in. While it’s important to note that they are late-stage demonstrators that are still getting some of the final bugs worked out, we certainly learned a lot during our time with the FIVE.
The exterior styling on the CUV is a mixture of elegance and futurism, but it will also not set the world on fire when it comes to reinventing the wheel or establishing a new precedent in aesthetics. Mullen is playing it safe here and is saving the wilder elements of the FIVE’s styling for the 1100 hp FIVE RS, which recently debuted as a rolling demonstrator model.
The interior of the FIVE we were in during our brief autocross run is a simple and clean place to spend time in. Digital instrumentation, including a large infotainment screen, is standard. Mullen even claims that the built-in camera monitoring system on the side of the B-Pillar can recognize driver preferences by simply using an image of their face. This system can also adjust the temperature in the FIVE to keep pets safe if an owner leaves them in the CUV. But with the systems we saw currently being mere visual candy versus a functional piece of tech, we get to wait for the production version to see if it can indeed live up to some of its more ambitious promises (including a feature that notifies the driver if the vehicle is being broken into and if the alarm has been triggered.) Our biggest gripe, though, centered around some of the finer details that exist in the interior. For example, the door handles operate with the help of a small touch-sensitive button. But in our example, this button was finicky, and we had to eventually have our hosts help us open the door after a few moments of feebly trying to get it to work ourselves. The seats were also a mixed bag, with good lower back support balanced out by a lack of side bolstering.
Mullen promises that the FIVE will eventually come with a wide plethora of performance options, but our ride was in a rear-wheel drive example with a 188-horsepower electric motor sending power to the rear wheels. It certainly made a good first impression during our brief exposure, but we suspect that most buyers will go for one of the dual-motor models to get better performance and all-wheel drive capability. Mullen’s website claims that the FIVE is capable of getting a maximum estimated driving range of 325 miles between charges, but reps we spoke with said that the models they had on the tour were capable of achieving 236 miles of range, which contradicted the official websites claim of a max of 325 miles.
Mullen GT…. Or Is It Mullen Dragonfly?
Unlike the Mullen FIVE, which has a relatively straightforward development history, the Mullen GT is a complicated backstory not only into its own development but also Mullen’s history as a whole. The GT story started back in 2015 when it originally debuted as the Qiantu K50 under the umbrella of Chinese auto giant Great Wall Huaguan. Great Wall would sell the car from 2018 to 2020 before moving on from the vehicle. A few years later, in 2019, Mullen promised to import kits of the K50 and sell them as fully assembled models in 2020, but that plan never materialized.
Fast forward to 2023, and the Mullen GT is still in development, with the company saying that it’s now targeting an on-sale date sometime in 2024. However, it appears that Mullen is still working out what to finally call the car if and when it reaches that point. While materials at the tour called it the Mullen GT, several representatives at the event called it the Mullen Dragonfly, and the model has also been called the Mullen K50, Dragonfly K50, as the Qiantu K50 by Mullen in prior statements. Move past the chaotic alphabet soup of monikers, and you’ll see that the sports car retains a lot of the styling and basic engineering that defined the K50, including the Dragonfly on the hood and Qiantu-sourced etchings in several places.
The demonstrator that we rode in was a late-stage prototype. Still, unlike other development vehicles we have ridden over the years, this one has impressive polish and refinement. Some of the body gaps in the sleek-looking coupe shape could be tighter, but again, we’ll give it a pass due to its role as a development car. The footprint here is roughly what you expect from other sportscar entries, and as a result, the GT is not rewriting the script in terms of style and is instead playing it safe. Slip inside the GT, and you’ll find a large portrait-style touchscreen infotainment system that’s curved towards the driver while a separate digital instrument cluster provides essential information. A large curved shifter is also included, and the seats did a good job of keeping us firmly in place at the track.
Performance for the Mullen GT comes from two electric motors that work together to produce over 400 horsepower with all-wheel drive standard. Mullen claims that the GT is also capable of having a maximum range of 236 miles before it needs a charge, and the prototype that was making the laps at M1 Concourse was still capable of impressive amounts of acceleration despite its battery being at 12 percent charge (it was a popular choice for many tour visitors). Sport mode helps add more pep to the GT’s step, but while there’s plenty of grip at high speeds, we didn’t notice any noticeable torque shifts between the two electric motors. The motors are hooked up to a T-shaped 78.0-kWh battery pack that’s mounted directly behind the driver to help improve weight distribution. The GT will be Mullen’s halo model, with the company claiming a base model will start at $150,000, with interested owners being able to place a refundable deposit via Mullen’s website. A spicier RS version is slated to appear later, but Mullen hasn’t released any images of that model as of this writing.
The Elephant In The Room
While we’ll give Mullen a nod for launching the Strikingly Different Tour in the first place, it still does little to address the proverbial elephant in the room, and that’s the fact that Mullen has still not sold a single non-commerical EV offering yet. This is despite the company embarking on a program of expansion with Mullen purchasing a controlling stake in Bollinger Motors (another EV company that we covered in depth here on the site) and also repurposing Chinese-sourced commercial vans as EV offerings along with production of Class 1 and Class 3 Commerical vehicles.
As a result, the long-term future of Mullen Automotive is very murky. The Mullen FIVE and GT look good on paper and appear to give the performance and range that buyers want in an EV offering. However, Tesla and others have had a massive head start in the EV marketplace, and Mullen appears to be still spinning its wheels, especially when you look at the company’s past history as well as the current status of their products. For example, the Bollinger B1 and B2 are still prototypes and have not formally entered production, with Bollinger postponing the development of the duo before Mullen restarted it as part of their move to gain a sizable amount of control over the firm. In addition, the company has had a number of controversies over the years, including a recent de-listing of its stock from NASDAQ for not meeting the $1 minimum trading threshold.
We also hope that Mullen will polish some aspects of the “Strikingly Different” Tour to help it be a better promotional tool for advertising the company to consumers. The space they had at M1 was a bit cramped, and we wished that many of the representatives were better trained on some of the products, with some of our questions being met with answers that included the timeless “we don’t know.” Answers like that will undoubtedly make potential newcomers uncomfortable, especially if they want more information about a particular product that they might want to put a reservation on.
Carl Malek has been an automotive journalist for over 10 years. First starting out as a freelance photographer before making the transition to writing during college, his work has appeared on numerous automotive forums as well as websites such as Autoshopper.com.
Carl is also a big fan of British vehicles with the bulk of his devotion going to the Morgan Motor Company as well as offerings from Lotus, MG, and Caterham. When he is not writing about automobiles, Carl enjoys spending time with his family and friends in the Metro Detroit area, as well as spending time with his adorable pets.