On the evening of March 30, Gaohe announced the prices of the new HiPhi X configuration models. Given its positioning, I was not surprised by the prices ranging from 570,000 to 800,000 RMB, but I was more focused on the actual numbers in the price itself.
Personally, I have always disliked the pricing ending in multiples of nine, which I consider to be a self-deception that is prevalent throughout the world and the entire industry. Therefore, when I saw the precise round number in the PPT, I silently gave a thumbs up to Gaohe.
From that moment on, I became curious about this enterprise that “does not conform to the norm” in pricing. What will their first car actually look like?
New Species
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the HiPhi X at a media event, and the official definition of this car by Gaohe has a very strong appeal – “supercar SUV”. Personally, I don’t like this title very much. It’s unnecessary and somewhat dissonant to label such a car as a “supercar”.
But in all honesty, this car’s appearance is quite different from that of a traditional SUV.
Unprecedented Shape
Regarding this form of HiPhi X, Gaohe stated their idea: electric vehicles have undergone significant changes in structure compared to traditional fuel vehicles. The layout of the power system requires less space, and there is more room to explore vehicle design with electric cars.
However, as shown in the following figure, black represents the outline of some of the new energy SUVs currently on the market. These electric cars do not have a new shape beyond traditional fuel vehicles. Gaohe hopes to create a new vehicle type with HiPhi X, which maximizes the benefits of the characteristics of electric vehicles, achieves optimal aerodynamic layout, and maximizes the space for passenger seats.
Therefore, the COWL point (the point where the windshield meets the front cabin) of the HiPhi X moves greatly forward, and the windshield’s incline of 65° is not like that of an SUV, while its height of 1618 mm is much lower than that of other SUVs of the same size. These combinations make the HiPhi X present a completely new and unprecedented appearance for an SUV. This high degree of recognition also gives the car a unique and fresh look.Translation:
But it doesn’t stop there, HiPhi X is equipped with a set of “No-Touch Expanding Doors” electric car doors.
The 4 main doors of HiPhi X adopt Rolls-Royce’s iconic open-door design, and unlike the currently popular hidden doors, HiPhi’s main doors have no handles. Instead, there is a switch on the B-pillar that, when pressed, can open or close the door electronically. In addition, the door can also be opened by activating the intelligent smartphone ID or by facial recognition on the B-pillar.
In addition to the 4 main doors, there is also a pair of “little wings” on the top of the second row of HiPhi X. Besides the visual effect, I found that it’s much easier to get in and out of the rear seats when the little wings are open, without hitting our heads.
With 6 doors combination, this set of car doors has high playability, with up to 6 different door opening combinations.
The most eye-catching feature is the one-button opening and closing of all car doors. The speed and synchronization of the opening process of the 6 doors are perfect.
The whole process has both the sense of ceremony and the showmanship. It can be said with no exaggeration that this set of cool car doors is the most recognizable and attractive feature of HiPhi X.
Moreover, this set of car doors is not only cool, but also functional. First of all, there are radar sensors on all 6 doors to automatically stop when encountering obstacles. When the obstacle is rapidly moving away, they can continue to open. With the help of the rain sensor, the little wings of HiPhi X will be closed when opening the back door on rainy days, so that passengers won’t get wet. In order to make it more convenient to get in and out of the car, the maximum opening angle of the 4 main doors is close to 90°. The No-Touch Expanding Doors not only flaunts the cool factor but also retain the safety and practicality of car doors.
Play with lights to the fullest“`markdown
“If the tail lights of this car are rear-ended, the maintenance cost will definitely not be low.” This was a joke made by another media outlet that day, just after watching a HiPhi X light show.
The front and rear ISD interactive lights of the HiPhi X vehicle can display various custom animations, including some common dynamic expressions. When selected on the central control screen, the corresponding animation will be played on the vehicle’s external ISD light group, which can be seen by pedestrians or vehicles passing by. Usually, you can use the external interactive lights to give a thumbs up to cars that give way or give a signal to pedestrians when letting them cross the road, which is quite interesting.
In addition, the HiPhi X headlights are a set of PML programmable lights with built-in micro digital reflectors, just like the famous pixel-level matrix LED on Mercedes-Benz vehicles. These headlights can specifically illuminate or extinguish designated areas of light sources according to the situation. For example, they can dynamically extinguish some light sources when closely following or meeting other vehicles at night to avoid dazzling them. This is called “precise extinguishing”. Next is “precise lighting”, which refers to projection.
These headlights can project various dynamic patterns in front of the vehicle, such as curved arrows projected on the ground when turning, zebra crossing formed by a light band projection when giving way to pedestrians, and even a movie if needed.
In addition to the files already downloaded in the car, these two sets of headlights support custom programming. After they are officially opened, people can share their creations with each other on the car’s computer, making them highly customizable. If they are paired with electric doors and interior ambient lighting, they are capable of completing an eye-catching show.
The “lavish” configuration and materials used in the HiPhi X vehicle’s interior are visible to the naked eye. Large areas of semi-aniline leather covering the seats and door panels add to the vehicle’s overall texture. When sitting in the car, you can clearly smell the leather. All the interior pillars from the door to the roof extending to the electric tailgate are covered in suede, which feels comfortable.
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In the three screens inside the car, the co-pilot’s screen is undoubtedly the largest, with a size of 19.9 inches, and the viewing effect naturally needs no more mention. In immersive mode, the three screens in the car can be linked and displayed.
As for the seats, the four independent electric seats in the front and rear rows are equipped with seat heating, ventilation, massage, and independent leg rests.
The rear seats are also equipped with dual armrests, electric left-right movement, one-key half-recline, one-key access to the third row, mobile phone slot, and independent USB power supply. The riding experience of HiPhi X is an executive car experience in every position of the front two rows.
As for the third-row space, the overall space is not as good as the front two rows, and it is generally not suitable for long-distance riding. However, it is worth mentioning that the headrests are adjustable, and the filling and comfort of the seats are better than those of most cars’ third rows. In addition, air-conditioning vents are reserved, and two soft-light mirrors are installed on both sides to make the third row less depressing.
Up to this point, the overall impression that HiPhi X gives me is an electric car with high recognition and high configuration, while also being an imaginative digital toy. However, after experiencing numerous novel skills of this car, I am somewhat worried- can such a “showy” product do well in terms of basic aspects as a car?
Faced with this new species, I had some doubts and carefully test drove this car.
Is this a 5.2-meter SUV?
Very large, but it doesn’t feel that way when driving.
After completing a day of test driving the next day, my concerns were basically dispelled. During the 200-kilometer experience, my feelings and expectations for this car were completely different, and this feeling was most prominent in the driving experience.The dimensions of HiPhi X are 5200 * 2062 * 1618 (mm) with a wheelbase of 3150 mm, making it basically the size of a D-class car. However, unfortunately I am someone who does not like to drive large cars on a regular basis, with poor visibility, unresponsive turning, and clumsiness, and I have experienced these negative impressions of driving a large car. Added to this, it is an SUV, so before driving it, I thought “this car should be no different to drive.”
But this time I was proven wrong. On the day of the test drive, we first drove several dozen kilometers in the urban area of Shanghai, and as soon as we adjusted the seating position, the first thing we noticed was that the seating position of HiPhi X is relatively low for an SUV, but the visibility is actually not bad. The lower height of the center console and left and right windows, the heavily inclined A-pillar, and the short, deeply angled front cockpit of the car with a length of 5.2 meters and a width of 2.06 meters did not give me the “expected” blind spots and obstruction, so I almost didn’t feel the nervousness of driving a large car. Then, like most new cars, there is no start button in HiPhi X. After stepping on the brake and shifting down to D gear, we started off with the convoy.
Thanks to the good visibility, I quickly passed the adaptation period for this car, and after driving several kilometers, I was quite comfortable with it. The rest of the journey was basically a normal urban commuting scenario, with constant stops at low speed. During this period, HiPhi X’s suspension was relatively good at controlling the nodding of braking points, and the braking force at the beginning of the stroke was also suitable for low-speed braking and stopping, so even though I had just gotten used to this car, it was not difficult to perform a graceful no-nod braking.
It is worth mentioning that HiPhi X has a “stop mode” in the logic of the accelerator pedal operation, which means that in D gear without stepping on the accelerator, the vehicle is stationary in the mode of no coasting, which is advocated by some electric vehicle owners, and this mode is enabled by default in the system settings. On the contrary, the “coasting mode” requires activation. I personally like this way of operation because if combined with strong regenerative braking, single-pedal speed control can be achieved in non-emergency situations.
However, I also have to criticize that when HiPhi X is decelerated to 0 by releasing the accelerator pedal in this mode, Autohold is not automatically activated, and the brake pedal needs to be manually stepped on. If the logic of automatic parking can be added later, the experience in this mode would be much better.Apart from a good braking experience, HiPhi X’s relatively linear and low-latency throttle feedback also makes it easy to drive in the city without putting too much effort into your footwork, driving for more than 20 miles in an hour and a half with little fatigue in the right foot.
As mentioned earlier, this car has a wheelbase of 3150 mm. To make the vehicle more maneuverable, HiPhi X is equipped with active rear-wheel steering with a maximum turning angle of 5° on one side. It may not sound like a big deal, but it is quite noticeable when driving. In scenarios like right-angle turns and U-turns, the steering angle of the front of the car is visibly large. According to official data, the turning radius of this car is 5.8 m. By comparison, the turning radius of the Model X with a wheelbase of 2965 mm is 6.2 m.
In the city comfort mode, the suspension of this car performs well, like that of a large luxury car, with 80% of the impact caused by small bumps being eliminated by the air suspension system. Although there is some roll when stepping on the accelerator and brake, it is far from like “swaying like a boat”. This chassis performance reminds me of the BMW X5 I tested last year.
HiPhi X is a comfortable and easy-to-drive car in low-speed city driving. Despite its size of a D-class car, its good visibility, lower seating position, and added rear-wheel steering make it feel more like a mid-size luxury car from a luxury brand when driven in the city.
When the Speed Goes Up, There is Some Surprise
When I drove HiPhi X while adhering to the speed limit on the highway, I felt something different. The first surprise was its NVH performance. With a speed limit of 120 km/h, the road noise of this car was well controlled, and the chassis did not transmit many annoying low-frequency noises to the cabin. Turning up the volume by just two levels can allow occupants to comfortably listen to music in a quiet cabin.
It is worth mentioning that HiPhi X uses 22-inch wheels and large tires with an outer diameter of 789 mm, which is not easy to achieve. Of course, part of the credit goes to the Michelin PS EV low rolling resistance and silent tire formulations specially designed for electric vehicles.
Then there’s the wind noise. The HiPhi X’s angular design gives it a sharp look, and I was initially concerned that this would result in whistling at high speeds. However, during the high-speed test drive, I paid close attention to this issue and found that my worries were unnecessary. Perhaps it was due to the lack of crosswinds that day, but the wind noise performance of the HiPhi X during the nearly two hundred kilometers of highway driving was just as excellent as its road noise performance. The word “satisfactory” can be used to describe this.
Then comes the “pleasant surprise”. Unlike the fake sport modes of some car models, the change in HiPhi X’s character when switching to Sport mode is very noticeable. The steering feedback sharply increases, and the power delivery becomes more aggressive.
Stepping on the accelerator pedal, the 440 kW dual-motor powertrain delivers its 3.9-second acceleration capability, and the speedometer’s number quickly soars. Although I have driven several electric cars that can reach 60 mph in just over 3 seconds, experiencing this kind of acceleration in a more than 5-meter-long car model is still an amazing and counterintuitive feeling.
The excitement accompanied by this accelerating experience continues to rise until the speed exceeds 110 km/h, and I voluntarily release the accelerator pedal, everything returns to calm. At this time, in the quiet cockpit in cruise control mode, the piano music played by the 17-speaker sound system creates an extreme contrast but also an extremely tempting atmosphere after this short burst of excitement.
When the traffic flow becomes dense, and the high-speed lane changes occur repeatedly, this “low can be high, and fast can be low” air suspension works its magic invisibly, and the low-slung body’s roll during the process of accelerating and lane changes with the accelerator pushed down is far less than expected. When I return the steering wheel to center, the minor body lean immediately disappears along with the swinging tail of the car.
The HiPhi X’s body-following performance on undulating roads is also good enough. Although the longitudinal dynamics of the heavy car may not be agile, the clean and neat end-to-end transitions during the ups and downs of the road create a subtle elegance and sense of luxury that is just right.
The only regret under Sport mode may lie in the tuning of the steering damping. Although the strength is in place, there is still a slight sense of oddity between the relationship of the return strength and the turning angle when making a big turn. The power delivery feels a bit discontinuous when shallowly pressing or fully releasing the accelerator pedal. Hopefully, before final delivery, the engineers at HiPhi can make some further optimization in these minor details. Other than these small details, overall, the experience of driving HiPhi X at high speeds is better than I had expected for a large-size SUV.This is when it occurred to me that Gaohe had strict control over the height of the car during the styling process, and even created a set of air suspension that can lower the chassis, which helped create the unique driving experience of the HiPhi X. If the exaggerated gull-wing doors are the most eye-catching and attractive feature of this car, then the driving experience is the real gem of this car.
In conclusion
“What is the HiPhi X?” I had been pondering this question before participating in the test drive event. Although the small details that cost thousands of yuan made me have a favorable impression of the Gaohe brand in advance, I didn’t understand this car before.
Why did Gaohe put so much effort and cost into the car lights and doors?
Why did Gaohe create this kind of car shape?
Why make the chassis of an SUV so low?
……
After the test drive, looking back on the many electric cars I have driven in the past six months, recalling the feelings and emotions when driving those cars, what I felt was the homogenization of the industry after rapid development. Experiencing new electric cars has become increasingly boring and stereotyped, but not this time.
There are already many great cars in today’s car market, and these products are exceptionally well-made according to well-known automotive standards, providing you with a great experience.
But for some consumers, such products are no longer attractive, and they need something different, something more imaginative and personalized, with no prior problems, and this is precisely where the value of the HiPhi X comes in.
Although the price of 570,000 to 800,000 yuan is high, in terms of the return rate when walking on the street, the HiPhi X is perhaps the most striking car that can be bought at this price point.
And what is particularly impressive to me is that the HiPhi X is still a practical luxury SUV underneath it all.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.