The vehicles ran at maximum speeds of 38 miles per hour (60 kilometers per hour) and had to be recharged for eight hours after every two to three hours of driving.

For most of the year, 80 per cent of Gufeng's working-age population is absent, the majority 230 miles (and six hours) away in Shanghai, or in Zhejiang, an affluent coastal province further south.

After 51 miles of mostly highway driving, he averaged 124 miles per gallon (MPG) and 123 Watt-hours per mile of electricity.