My New Favorite Car Costs Only $4,800, But I Can't Have It
Image Credit: Bestune.
Meet my latest obsession: the 2026 Bestune Pony. Yes, it's a car, I am absolutely sure it is. It's a tiny, three-door, four-seat EV from China, and my guess is that it was designed by a group of very cheerful Lego enthusiasts who just discovered pastel colors. And it was just unveiled at something called the "Fan Cooling Festival," which sounds infinitely more fun than any car launch I've been to recently.
Let's get the bad news out of the way. We will almost certainly never, ever see this little darling on American roads. It's one of those wonderful, whimsical, and wildly affordable pieces of forbidden fruit. But a girl can dream... And oh, I am dreaming. Especially since they've just added a new color for 2026 called "Snow Cherry Pink" and a "Cocoa Brown" interior. A pink car with a brown interior? It sounds like a Neapolitan ice cream sandwich on wheels, and I am absolutely in awe.
Image Credit: Bestune.
What makes this little box so captivating, aside from its undeniable charm? For starters, the price. The 2026 Pony starts at the equivalent of about $4,800. I'm going to repeat that, because it feels important. Four. Thousand. Eight. Hundred. Dollars. The top-trim model? A wallet-shattering $6,300. You could buy a whole fleet of these for the price of one high-end American EV.
For that astoundingly low price, what do you get? Well, you get a car that is just under 10 feet long and about 5 feet wide. It's so small you could probably park it in your living room as a conversation piece. Power comes from a rear-mounted electric motor that delivers a mighty 42 horsepower. My riding lawnmower is probably eyeing it with envy. It produces 66 pound-feet of torque, which is just enough to, you know, move. The 0 to 30 mph time probably isn't measured with a stopwatch so much as a calendar, but who cares? You're not buying this for drag racing; you're buying it for pure joy.
Image Credit: Bestune.
The battery is an 18.11 kWh pack, which Bestune claims is good for a 138-mile range. But that's on the Chinese CLTC cycle, which is famously optimistic. Let's just assume it's more like a suggestion than a guarantee. In the real world, you'd probably be looking at closer to 90 miles. But for a city runabout, for zipping to the grocery store or meeting a friend for coffee? That's perfectly adequate. It's more than enough for a car that costs less than the sales tax on some luxury SUVs.
What's truly surprising is the tech they've managed to cram into this little biscuit tin. Higher trims get a 10.1-inch center screen, a Bluetooth key that works with your smartphone, and even over-the-air updates for the entertainment system. It even has something called a "DeepSeek intelligent assistant." I have no idea what it seeks, but I hope it's a good parking spot, because that's about all the help you'd need in a car this tiny.
Image Credit: Bestune.
This new model is a big step up from the one launched just last year. That first Pony had a measly 28 horsepower and a range that would barely get you across a large town. So, to see them boost the power by 50% and more than double the range in just a year, all while keeping the price ridiculously low, is genuinely impressive. It shows what's possible when the goal isn't to build the fastest or the fanciest EV, but simply the most accessible.
And that's what gets me. Here in the States, our electric car conversation is all about 300-mile ranges, blistering acceleration, and six-figure price tags. We are so focused on EVs that can do everything a gas car can do, we've forgotten that sometimes, we just need something simple. Something that gets us from A to B without drama, without a five-year loan, and with a whole lot of personality.
For now, I'll just sit here, scrolling through pictures of the little Bestune Pony. I'll imagine zipping around town in my Snow Cherry Pink toaster, waving at confused onlookers. It's a delightful, affordable, and cheerful little electric car that exists on the other side of the world, a sweet reminder of what could be. It's the electric car for the rest of us, and for now, it'll have to remain the car of my dreams.
