*This article is reproduced from the public account of AUTOCARWEEKLY.
Author: Boss Wang
Cars, a very magical product, are different from many things that never change once they are formed.
Since its birth more than 130 years ago, the entire automotive industry has been evolving rapidly. This evolution includes two dimensions of technology and aesthetics, and is constantly intertwined in the craft and materials, design and era waves.
Nowadays, the wave of the times has come to a new crossroads. The trend of intelligentization of automobiles has brought a new era of human travel. Intelligence and technology make cars no longer inanimate objects, but rather in the form of an organic life form, truly begin to integrate and coexist with humans, and thereby co-create.
In the field of luxury smart cars, the changes are even bigger.
The concept of luxurious cars has been completely overturned in all fields of people’s past cognition. Space is shattered and reorganized, materials are reshaped by technology, and wherever touches there is a gathering of wisdom. All your biological characteristics are closely connected with the car.
At this year’s Chengdu Auto Show, the mass production and delivery of the four-seater version of Gaohe HiPhi X brought the concept of “TECHLUXE” to the forefront. It marks the first formal seat for Chinese brands in the luxury car market with a price of more than 800,000 yuan, but more importantly, it uses technology and luxury to change the class solidification of the luxury car market.
Ding Lei, founder of Gaohe Automobile, said: Only Gaohe with technological luxury represents the future of luxury cars. Ding Lei’s Gaohe team is composed of super senior car people who want to step on the traditional luxury car framework, and wantonly make a few good cars.
They have the courage to break through barriers and the persistence to face the future. They don’t play the same way.
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“Technological luxury” is the most prominent positioning label of Gaohe HiPHi X four-seater version. It tries to use more forward-looking technology to make travel present a better experience.
First, in terms of design, it has a memorable face, which has a natural topic-based foundation.
We always tend to follow the trend of high-end faces, because in today’s increasingly similar appearance, we urgently need some faces that are unforgettable.
As with the regular HiPhi X, the NT exhibition wing door and the Rolls-Royce-style electric dual-door are of course indispensable. In order to express technology, Gaohe Automobile provides three different unlocking methods for the door.
In addition to the conventional physical key button unlocking and the popular mobile phone Bluetooth unlocking, the vehicle also supports face unlocking using the camera on the B-pillar. This is simply a gospel for users who often go outdoors and are inconvenient to carry a mobile phone.
The four-seater version of HiPhi X by Gaohe has its own unique concept. In terms of design, the most obvious difference is the use of exclusive paint colors and techniques.
The exclusive color for the four-seater version is a matte textured paint called “titanium gray”. Matte finish is a luxury feature in traditional car painting techniques and is among the top-tier options available. However, gray as a color is relatively low-key.
I think the product manager of Gaohe chose this name to express the idea that the people who own the HiPhi X four-seater version are of high value, but act low-key. They allow themselves to be recognized by car enthusiasts as a car model with a high price tag of up to 800,000 RMB when driving on the streets, but they do not want to show off.
On a psychological level, the product manager has studied the user group of this car model thoroughly.
It is reported that this is the first time in the world that low-gloss matte clearcoat has been used in a mass-produced car model. There have been previous attempts by car manufacturers to use similar car painting techniques, but they were unable to achieve it on the production line. If any defects are found during the production process, a complete repaint is required, so the traditional approach is to outsource manual painting, which not only affects the production pace, but also has extremely high cost.
This time, Gaohe was able to overcome various difficulties and implement this high-tech matte painting process on the production line, which can be called a unique existence in the industry.
The four-seater version of HiPhi X by Gaohe also has a car light system that is good at conveying emotions.
According to “The Book of Rites,” if a gentleman has good manners, he can harmonize with the outside world without resentment. This means that if a gentleman has good manners, he can get along harmoniously with the outside world and have no resentment in his heart.
Applied to the four-seater version of HiPhi X, this refers to the PML headlights and ISD intelligent interaction light system, the world’s first, which makes the vehicle no longer a cold mechanical body, but instead creates friendly interactions with the car owner and the outside world through various ceremonial and projection functions.
Imagine if you were the car owner, waiting at a traffic light intersection on Christmas Eve, with a Christmas tree rotating on the ISD taillight. People around you would take out their phones and start taking pictures. Wouldn’t you feel a little pleased?
Secondly, it captures and even surpasses the atmosphere of luxury flagship cars.Actually, the essence of luxury is to provide an experience beyond basic needs and to obtain another dimension of experience. This kind of experience is highly subjective, which leads to another statement that luxury is more about creating an atmosphere.
In the field of high-end customization, product managers no longer blindly add configurations to products but skillfully use “subtraction” to enhance the private and comfortable feeling of each independent individual.
First, remove the last two seats. The six-seater SUV that emphasizes multi-person travel leaps into a four-seater luxurious private mobile living room that emphasizes serving the rear seat, maximizing the leg and lateral space of the rear seat, and giving users a more comfortable riding environment.
With a set of “simple decorated room” with a reasonably good spatial pattern, the next step is to start luxury decoration around these two seats.
The sense of touch is the first thing people feel when entering a car in the interior part. The soft and warm leather is one of the characteristics of a genuine top luxury car. In terms of the material selection for the interior of the high-end HiPhi X four-seater version, the product manager selected the top products in the industry – semi-aniline leather.
This kind of leather material has strict requirements, so strict that only a few production areas in the world can produce it. The production area must be free of mosquitoes, with a humid and mild climate, the leather surface must not have visible scars, and the grain must be uniform. The 60-day processing makes this kind of leather material extremely rare.
In addition, allowing users in the rear seat to have control over their exclusive space is also a basic quality that a qualified executive car should have. Therefore, an 8-inch high-definition touch screen naturally becomes the interaction center for the rear seat.
Without any learning cost, users can control their own posture on the rear seat at will on this screen. The angle of the backrest, leg rest, and footrest is just the basic operation that this level of car should have. Ventilation, heating, and massage are also legitimate rights that independent seats should enjoy. Adjusting ambient lights and the second-row air conditioner is to make it easier for the boss to complete the operation by himself without bothering the driver in the front seat.
However, the “vehicle-mounted smart refrigerator” that can be opened with just one click on the screen next will bring the experience of this car to the peak. This is the world’s first vehicle-mounted smart refrigerator. It is fully electrically controlled, with a switch life of up to 10,000 times, and can set three temperatures of 0°C, 7°C, and 15°C.
A lying champagne bottle slowly pushed out by the electric tray, and when it was pushed to the end of the track, the champagne was gently lifted, revealing the exquisite crystal champagne glass hidden underneath.
This single action brings the rear-seat experience of the Hengchi HiPhi X four-seat version into the realm of top-tier ultra-luxury brands such as Maybach and Bentley, giving users who host business meetings in the back seat even more confidence. This is the extra bonus that the sense of ceremony brings to the user, and perhaps the champagne bottle may never be opened, but the hidden business value behind it is immeasurable.
Next, this detail is the best concrete expression.
You see, the Hengchi HiPhi X four-seat version uses an 18K gold material for the button in the center armrest of the second row.
Do you know why Chinese entrepreneurs like to wear Rolex’s Day-Date so much? Not only because it has accurate timing and a high value retention rate, but also because its “dogtooth circle” is made of precious metal and each scale is set with diamonds, meaning “there is progress and profit.”
If the owner does not like the original design of the Founder’s Edition seal, Hengchi Auto also supports personalized customization such as specific numbers, letters, or Chinese characters. The owner can customize a logo for their own company with the carmaker, further enhancing the sense of exclusivity in this detail.
I think that every day, sitting on the rear independent seat and delicately manipulating this piece of gold button, even without pressing it to take out the small table plate from the armrest box, is a delightful thing for oneself.
In addition, from my point of view, the Hengchi HiPhi X four-seat version can not only serve as a B2B business car but also be used as a secret weapon to increase the success rate of a marriage proposal.
Imagine hiding the ring in the champagne tray in advance, using the H-SOA electronic architecture’s scene DIY function in the entertainment system to set up a romantic proposal mode. Then invite your girlfriend to sit in the back seat, and find an appropriate moment to press the refrigerator start button. Next, you can say the proposal you have prepared for a long time.
“Will you marry me…?”
There is no doubt that in such an atmosphere, her answer will be, “I do!”
Thirdly, it gives us a lot of imagination space, and there is no limitation to this kind of imagination.
The culminator of this is the H-SOA electronic architecture carried by the Gaokao HiPhi X.
It provides different premium modes from two dimensions: on the one hand, openness. By opening up interfaces and development tools, it allows users to freely integrate different subsystems of the vehicle to create new functions, making the vehicle a window for users to communicate with the outside world.
On the other hand, it is capable of evolution. Car manufacturers can use SOTA+FOTA functions to keep the user’s car new, which is a process of continuously enhancing user stickiness. It also supports 5G and V2X vehicle-to-road collaboration technology, preparing for the upcoming technological wave.
In advertising terms, this is truly your own car, and you can make it unique and constantly new. These two dimensions are the judgment of Gaokao’s competitiveness: technology defines the future of luxury itself. Rooted in the understanding of the times, it also provides the ultimate explanation for Gaokao’s emphasis on “user co-creation”.
In addition, in terms of powertrain and mechanical hardware, as well as the four-seater version of the Gaokao HiPhi X, it also has a maximum power of 220 kW front and rear dual-motor, a hundred-kilometer acceleration of 4.0 seconds, equipped with a 97 kWh Ni55 battery provided by CATL, high-performance dynamic chassis, HiPhi Pilot intelligent driving assistance system and other high-spec hardware, which shows Gaokao’s top-notch sincerity in all aspects as a newcomer.
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Gaokao HiPhi X was officially delivered in May this year. In three months, its terminal sales have exceeded 1,000 units. It is reported that now the pre-orders of the four-seater model have accounted for 30% of the total pre-orders. It is already remarkable that a car with a price of 800,000 yuan can be recognized by users in such a short time.
In fact, we don’t have to limit the price and imagination ceiling of a Chinese brand electric vehicle. From Huaren Yuntu to Gaokao HiPhi X, the product value and luxury experience brought after years of brewing must have innovative and even subversive significance.
If you carefully examine Ding Lei’s philosophy, you will also find that Gaokao Automotive has always insisted on finding such users who possess unique ideas and perspectives in the noisy era, who can examine their true needs and desires, and continuously explore the new balance between the times, society, and themselves.The Pioneers, who are defined by HiPhi as individuals who “must see the sunrise before dawn”, because they carry hopes and aspirations, always depart before dawn, and most importantly, they persist in bringing value to society, or creating something.
HiPhi X is the embodiment of innovation and pursuit of technology in the minds of the Pioneers. It is thanks to the existence of HiPhi X that this innovation and pursuit can go further.
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.