Home » I Visited The Craziest Electric Car Brand In China. It Blew My Mind

I Visited The Craziest Electric Car Brand In China. It Blew My Mind

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And on that sunny day, I went out to visit a HiPhi shop in Beijing. HiPhi is one of the many new Chinese EV brands, but they sure are the maddest of all. I am a great admirer of madness, so a visit to HiPhi was atop of my list. The fun started immediately with a white HiPhi Z, a powerful sedan coupe with suicide doors and giant wheels. Behind the Z is a HiPhi Y, and a bit further back a huge pole with the HiPhi logo. On the left are HiPhi home chargers, which are designed around the HiPhi logo. Further to the left, with the blue rooftops, is a fish market.

The front of the building says ‘Delivery Center’ but, in truth, I was visiting a dealership; customers can test drive and buy cars here. The dealer is located within an enormous car market in western Beijing, not far from a fish market. I have been to the area dozens of times, and gazed at the used car dealerships, repair shops, and car modification shops.

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In recent years, new EV brands have also opened shops there. In the good old times, there were large and somewhat misty dumping grounds, with all sorts of old and brand-new abandoned vehicles. That part of the market is sadly gone today. But that’s OK, because in that time, we got HiPhi, and like I said before: It’s absolutely bonkers.

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A Look At These Crazy Cars

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Before we get into what HiPhi actually is, let’s look at the brand’s three cars: the X, the Y, and the Z. (HiPhi has unveiled a fourth model, the HiPhi A, basically a hardcore variant of the X jointly developed with Chinese-German car maker Apollo, but it hasn’t been launched on the market yet). All three cars are totally mad, by far the maddest Chinese cars on the market today. They are beautiful cars, well-designed and well-made, with all sorts of crazy details that most carmakers wouldn’t even dare to design in their wildest dreams.

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My welcome to the dealership came in the form of an unmanned desk with an authentic stone look. Behind the desk was an impressive wall with the HiPhi logo. On the right side an extra air conditioning unit to cool down staff that would, I presume, normally man the desk. Atop the desk were bottles of reasonably cold water, brochures, and hand sanitizers. The latter were leftovers from COVID-19; there are hand sanitizers all over China still, but nobody is using them anymore, so they are often looking dusty and quite crappy. (I once used a hand sanitizer when I entered a small supermarket, the lady behind the counter looked at me kind of weirdly. Hey! It was just for fun, you know?).

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This kind of advertisement is typical for many new EV makers. It shows HiPhi’s suppliers, trying to impress customers. It is a mix of Chinese and foreign suppliers. Impressive indeed. The dealer only had the HiPhi Y and Z in the shop. The X was missing. They told me it was out with a customer. I waited around for an hour but the X didn’t return. Too bad! But there was more than enough to see. Let’s start with the Y.

The HiPhi Y

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The Y is the most normal and cheapest HiPhi, but it’s still weird. It’s an over 5,000-pound, rather large five-seat full electric SUV with frameless doors and light units that can show graphics and text.

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Chinese car buyers love to have neck pillows. Back in the day, they had to go after-market to get some. But happily, nowadays, most carmakers — including HiPhi —  simply pre-install neck pillows.

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The Y has a unique rear-door design, called the “Second Generation Smart NT Wing Doors.” NT stands for ‘no touch.’ The lower part opens conventionally, but the upper part moves up. There is a window in the wing, too. HiPhi is very proud of its door design, and it features prominently in advertising.

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(Note the neck pillow above).  The screen situation is impressive. On the left is a 12.3-inch instrument panel, in the middle is a giant 17-inch infotainment screen, and on the right is a 15-inch passenger-entertainment screen. I found the graphics on the main screen to be ultra-clear.

The drive selector is mounted on the column jutting off the column holding a strange two-spoke steering wheel. The wide center tunnel has several storage spots, as well as a 50W wireless charger. It has a 25-speaker Meridian Audio system.

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The Y is available in four trim levels: Pioneer, Elite, Long Range, and Flagship. The first three are single-motor, rear-wheel drive. The output is 336 hp and 302 ft-lb, which isn’t that much for a high-end Chinese EV in 2024. Top speed is limited to 190 km/h (118 mph) and 0-100 takes 6.9 seconds. Energy consumption is a steep 15.6 kWh per 100 km (it’s a big car).

The rear-wheel drive version can be had with two kinds of batteries: a BYD FinDreams LFP battery with 76.6 kWh for a 560 km range (348 miles), or a CATL ternary lithium battery with 115 kWh for an 810 km (503 miles) range. The Flagship is a dual-motor all-wheel drive car with rear-wheel steering. The output is 505 hp and 457 ft-lb. Top speed is limited to 190 again, but 0-100 takes only 4.7 seconds. The battery is the 115 kWh ternary lithium battery again, and energy consumption is even steeper at 16.4 kWh per 100 km.

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(Check out these HiPhi-branded folding storage boxes).

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The HiPhi Z

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If the Y is crazy, the Z is absolutely mental. It’s a low-slung sedan-coupe with a super busy design. I walked around the machine a couple of times and got dizzy trying to figure out what’s going on. The Z has running lights on each side of the front bumper, in each door, in a pod at the rear, and in the rear light units. It’s totally insane, and I love it. It has a large LIDAR unit atop the windshield, and HiPhi logo on the ‘hood’ is illuminated.

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The Z is so brilliant. It is low, it is long, and it has suicide doors. The doors are wide and thick, and the windows roll all the way down. The one I saw is a ‘Phantom Day White’ car, which has purple detailing on the roof, doors, and fenders. The seat belts are purple too! That is nice attention to detail by the HiPhi design team. Even the floor of the shop seems to match the car’s design, but I guess that is a coincidence. The Z is a long, wide, and low car, and it weighs over 6,000 pounds.

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The vehicle has 22-inch Michelin Pilot Sport EV tires and the most confusing alloy design I have ever seen. It is multi-layered with tiny slats to improve the aerodynamics. The illuminated HiPhi logo always stays upright, like on a Rolls-Royce.

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The doors have LCD screens that can show graphics and text, with input via the main screen.

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The Z doesn’t have a fuzzy instrument panel or passenger screen. It only has a driver-focused main screen. There is a large-diameter steering wheel with two spokes and a load of haptic buttons on each side, the wheel looks a bit 1980s futuristic.

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Strangely, for such a large car, it only has a single cup holder. The drive selector is located on the center tunnel, which is a little old-school. Most high-end Chinese cars have the drive selector on the steering wheel column.

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The Z is a four-seat car with two captain seats in the back, divided by a high armrest section.

The rear is the best part. It has a wing integrated with the roof, and another pop-out wing just below it. There is a wide rear light strip and with an illuminated square section in the middle, with the HIPHI name in the center. It has LCD screens on each side.

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It’s the ass of the future.

The HiPhi Z is a powerful dual-motor all-wheel drive car with rear-wheel steering. The output is 672 hp and 820 Nm (605 ft-lb). The top speed is limited to 200 km/h (124 mph) and 0-100 (0-62 mph) takes 3.8 seconds. The car has a drag coefficient of 0.27 Cd, so it should slip through the air nicely. Electricity is stored in a CATL ternary lithium battery, buyers can choose between 90.18 kWh for a 535 km (332 miles) range or 120 kWh for a 705-kilometer range (438 miles). The average energy consumption is a steep 17.7kWh per 100 kilometers.

This is a big car.

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The HiPhi Z has an impressive ADAS package with 32 sensors including one LIDAR sensor above the windshield. The L2 ADAS system is called HiPhi Pilot. The Z costs a lot of money, but based on the madness-per-yuan, it is surely worth it. The price range is 510.000 to 630.000 yuan, which is $70K-$84K.

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The shop was large and nicely decorated, with large green sofas and beige office chairs. There was a cabinet with books and wuzzy statues, and the plants were real. Too bad there weren’t any customers to enjoy all this niceness. I was in the shop for over an hour and saw three staff members (all in this photo) and zero visitors.

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The image above shows a super cool 1:18 scale model of the Z, complete with a home charger. It went for 1200 yuan or $166. Not cheap, but these Chinese dealer models are often of very high quality. I know, because I collect them. I have like 100 1:18 scale models, some dating back to the late 1990s.

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In the old days, I had to go out and visit dealers to see if they wanted to sell me one, as these models were only for customers. Later on, they sold them to anyone. Nowadays you can buy them online. Easier, but not as cool. Maybe I can write a story about collecting Chinese dealer cars later on.

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Above is a separate room with similar furniture. Not sure why it was separated. There was a big TV, two fire extinguishers, and a poster on the wall showing the X.

[Ed Note: This is a gorgeous dealership! -DT]. 

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The HiPhi store even featured a large playground. Lots of dealers have playgrounds now; this trend started in the late 2010s. The toys and tables looked brand new. The screen was off. Kids won’t love that, but anyway, no kids around!

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The delivery area and workshop were squeaky clean. I counted four Z’s and two Y’s. But again, no X.

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It was time to leave. It had been a good visit. Nice folks and a nice shop. I was presented with cold water and a bunch of brochures. But two things were missing: I didn’t see any actual customers and I didn’t see the X.

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Finding the X

The X remained elusive. I wanted to have it in this story, so I needed to find one. I knew where to look: Off to the shopping mall I was. Many Chinese EV brands use “experience stores” in malls as their primary sales channel. More on that in a later article. I went to such a mall to check out a HiPhi experience store, to see if I could find the X. I drove all the way, headed into the mall, up escalators and elevators, and ultimately found the HiPhi shop, which was near shops from BYD, Hycan, and Tesla. And guess what?

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They didn’t have the X either. Just the Z and the Y again. That was weird. Fortunately, I knew of another mall with a HiPhi shop. I had a quick lunch in one of the many restaurants, and on I went to the next mall. That mall was near the embassy area, where I used to work. I parked my borrowed Jeep in the underground lot and went up via the usual maze of escalators. After an hour I located the HiPhi experience store, and…

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… they had the X! The X sits between the Y and the Z on the madness ladder, but closer to the Z than to the Y. The car that I saw was painted in Danyan Orange. The name refers to a special kind of crystal rock found in Hunan Province.

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The X was the first HiPhi that launched on the Chinese EV market. It is a large SUV-MPV with enormous 22-inch wheels. The design is wild with a short hood, wide arches, a heavily sloped windscreen, and…

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… the doors. The X has the craziest doors of any Chinese production car. The doors open rearwards and upwards. The upper part has a window/sunroof again, and it opens at a 45-degree angle. The side doors are huge, making for very easy entry and exit. The doors open with a tiny button on the B-pillar. It looked kind of flimsy, but it worked fine. HiPhi sells the X with four seats or six seats. This orange car is a six-seater, and the seats in the back are very tiny. Only big enough for small kids.

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A TV, a board, and a home charger. There is an English slogan there: “Aim High,” a slogan that HiPhi is using on and off.

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The steering wheel looks quite normal by modern Chinese standards, with four spokes and a slightly flat bottom. The seats are flat, too, but the black leather is very nice. The X has a 14.6-inch instrument panel, a huge 16.9-inch main screen, and an even larger 19.9-inch screen for the passenger. It is a large and spacious vehicle powered by single motor at the rear making 299 hp and 410 Nm (302 ft-lb); a dual-motor all-wheel drive is also offered, making 598 hp and 820 Nm (605 ft-lb).

The RWD does 0-100 in 7.1 seconds and the AWD does it in 3.9 ticks. The top speed is limited to 200 km/h (124 mph). There is only one battery on offer; a 94.4 kWh CATL ternary lithium unit. The RWD has a range of 650 kilometers (404 miles) and the AWD makes it to 560 (348 miles).

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This is a screen in the door! It can show all sorts of graphics; here it shows a sound-wave effect in red.

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The X has a shark-fin D-pillar design and the largest rear lights of any recent Chinese car.

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In the showroom, posters advertising the Y show a non-Chinese lady in a wedding gown, showing it is possible to stand straight up and look pretty and hold a bunch of flowers. Good to know. Nice wedding car. Lady stands– full throttle 505 hp– the ceremony will be over soon.

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On the back of the X, the HiPhi name is illuminated, but how long will it still shine? The brand is going through some trouble, you see. But before we get into that, let’s take a step back.

What is HiPhi?

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HiPhi (高合) is a Chinese high-end luxury EV brand owned by “Human Horizons,” a Chinese technology and mobility company. HiPhi bills itself as a tech brand — software first and then the car. The company states that its brand spirit is “Exploration, freedom, and creation.”

The HiPhi name has a complex meaning: Hi corresponds to High, which represents high realm, high taste, and high compatibility. Phi represents the Golden Ratio rule, symmetry and unity, and perfect integration. The HiPi logo is a stylized Greek letter phi (ϕ). The brand’s advertising is often related to space, showing spaceships and faraway planets. The company used to be headquartered in Shanghai, but they moved their operations to the great beach city of Qingdao in Shandong Province in 2022.

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Ding Lei. Via Baidu. Full bio here.

The founder is Ding Lei (丁磊), aka David Ding. Mr. Ding has had a long and distinguished automotive career. He joined Shanghai Volkswagen in 1988, right at the beginning. In 1995, he switched to Shanghai-GM, becoming CEO in 2005. He left the car business in 2011 and held various high-ranking roles within the Shanghai government. In 2017, he founded Human Horizons, which launched the HiPhi brand in 2019. HiPhi doesn’t have a production license for car making, a problem that many other new Chinese EV makers have faced. Production is therefore outsourced to a joint venture with the Yueda Group, best known for their other joint venture with Kia. The factory is jointly owned. (This is a similar setup that NIO used to have with JAC).

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Trouble in HiPhi land

Sadly, it seems that the HiPhi brand is a tad too mad even for China. Chinese consumers are eager to try new brands, technologies, and designs, even at high prices. But there is a limit, and it appears that HiPhi was over it. The HiPhi brand got a lot of positive press and loads of attention but sales have been slow from the beginning. In China, it is generally accepted that to survive, a new independent brand should sell around 10,000 cars a month. HiPhi, however, never sold more than 1900 units a month, and sales dropped like a stone late last year, to only 564 units, and even further in January, to only 232 cars.

By that time, rumors were flying around saying that HiPhi had suspended production and was unable to pay its bills. HiPhi confirmed it faced some difficulties, and said it was looking for new investments. They didn’t find any. Next, dealers and shops were closing. HiPhi said it was restructuring its sales channels. The latest news as of February 19 (when I wrote this article) is that HiPhi has postponed paying wages for January and that wages will be reduced. There have also been stories about a suspension of production for six months, but this has been denied by the company. Details aside, HiPhi does appear to be in trouble. It comes at a painful moment, just when it has launched an export offensive in Europe. If HiPhi goes under, it will be a sad end for a promising brand.

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This story ends with a Diamond Blue X I saw on the street, baking in the sunshine after a short summer rain.

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Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
8 months ago

These are very cool. Too bad about their difficulties.

El Barto
El Barto
8 months ago

I didn’t get very far into this well-written article to know this was a car brand not long for this world.

I’m almost certain that most of the electronics won’t last more than five years if that – everything is made to look good and work when new, but they’ll be plenty of corners cut in manufacturing, so good luck to the peeps who bought their cars when they need to replace parts and they can’t get them.

China might not be building garbage cars these days, but I can smell the Chinesium all the way from New Zealand.

SirLanciaAlot
SirLanciaAlot
8 months ago

I need to see those 1:18 scale Chinese car dealer models right away!

Facundo Piedrafita
Facundo Piedrafita
8 months ago
Reply to  SirLanciaAlot

We need an article about this.

Lotsofchops
Lotsofchops
8 months ago

[T]hese Chinese dealer models are often of very high quality. I know, because I collect them. I have like 100 1:18 scale models, some dating back to the late 1990s.

Wee-woo wee-woo, burying the lede alert.

Steve Balistreri
Steve Balistreri
8 months ago

Interesting hearing about these car companies I’ve never heard of. It’s funny that they list all their suppliers. All the “legacy” car companies never mention their suppliers even though a significant percentage of their vehicles are built and engineered by other companies. Unless it’s a high end stereo system, brembo brakes, or a Cummins engine. They probably want to keep that image from way back in the day when a Ford was designed and built by Ford.
These new companies don’t have that legacy, and with so many suppliers in China it’s probably more a point of pride to be able to advertise well known suppliers.
Definitely do an article on your model car collection!

Manwich Sandwich
Manwich Sandwich
8 months ago

Interesting company and a great article. And it dovetails with with a prediction I made recently…
https://opposite-lock.com/topic/94847/hot-take-2024-will-be-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-many-smaller-chinese-bev-makers

Horizontally Opposed
Horizontally Opposed
8 months ago

I still think good design is not this. Like AMC did – good proportions and logical construction never goes out of fashion. Like the Wagoneer: designed by Brooks Stevens in 1960, that perfection wasn’t messed with until 1991. That’s good design! So no, these are not good design at all – no one would accuse them of that. But they’re fun and different and there’s a place for them too.

TOSSABL
TOSSABL
8 months ago

If external displays are the future, I don’t want any part of it. The bumper stickers / pickup window vinyl / stereos are currently bad enough.
But I’ll admit my inner 8yo thinks some of this is just way cool. This is why I don’t let him drive.

Oh, and we both look forward to the article about dealer models 😉

Last edited 8 months ago by TOSSABL
Jon Benet
Jon Benet
8 months ago

All the Phil’s of the world might buy one if they make a Model L. HIPHI-L Sorry Dad Joke

Manwich Sandwich
Manwich Sandwich
8 months ago
Reply to  Jon Benet

And it would be popular among the Phillistines as well!

Strangek
Strangek
8 months ago

This is good stuff. I’d neither seen nor heard of these cars or this company before. I like the gull wing half doors, but I don’t understand them.

Jayson Elliot
Jayson Elliot
8 months ago

I’m sorry, but these seem like gimmicky crap from an immature company obsessed with LED lights and pointless decorations.

Angular Banjoes
Angular Banjoes
8 months ago
Reply to  Jayson Elliot

Yeah, I don’t see anything to like about these things. They’re tacky as hell.

Alexander Moore
Alexander Moore
8 months ago
Reply to  Jayson Elliot

I think that’s what’s fun about them? It’s insane to see a very expensive, very high end car using the same design ideas as a five-year-old in a Lego store. Only now, and only in Mainland China—it’s incredible they were even made at all.

Paul E
Paul E
8 months ago

Is it a safe guess that the version that’s loaded with bonkers secret gadgets and weaponry will be called the Q?

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
8 months ago

A warning story to be paid attention too. These high flying spend it til make it tech people and their approach doesn’t work in the automotive field.

LMCorvairFan
LMCorvairFan
8 months ago
Reply to  Mr Sarcastic

Elon would like a word?

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
8 months ago
Reply to  LMCorvairFan

But he didn’t need investment. He was waste a billion just to make room in my Scrooge McDuck vault. It works in computers, it works if you can piss away billions and never notice, but if using other people’s money? Nope, despite what many people here think 99% of the people on the planet don’t have the ability to puss away billions and most stock Investors need the money they invest to live indoors when they retire. Yes most stock holders are hard working individuals like us who can’t control the company our company investment company invests our money in

LMCorvairFan
LMCorvairFan
8 months ago
Reply to  Mr Sarcastic

Yah, he used a bit of his own and a lot of other people’s money through vencap, spacex loans and govt largess.

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
8 months ago
Reply to  LMCorvairFan

Nope lately yes but in the beginning he had billions and passed them away lime his grandfather earned them

Boulevard_Yachtsman
Boulevard_Yachtsman
8 months ago

I’m getting a strong Fratzog vibe from the Z’s wheel cover. Maybe Stellantis could partner with HiPhi and rebrand it as an electric Polara here in the States, complete with a Fratzonic-chambered exhaust and $50K markup. They’d likely sell 10’s of ’em.

Ben
Ben
8 months ago

It’s the ass of the future.

AKA jailbait. 😉

Those doors, while neat looking, seem like the worst of all worlds. All the problems of falcon doors, but you still have a normal opening door so it doesn’t help you in tight parking spaces. Also, I assume that makes it impossible to roll down the windows.

I actually don’t hate the crazy styling of these (although looking at that one set of wheels gives me a headache), but they seem more like concept cars than something that should have made it to production.

Max Headbolts
Max Headbolts
8 months ago

I would absolutely have the Z for my daily cyberpunk dystopian driver! I’d of course have to remove all the telematics and re-route connectivity to my home server for “reasons”

Carlos Ferreira
Carlos Ferreira
8 months ago

The X looks pretty good, at least from that angle, but the rest are a hot mess that look like they were designed by prototype Midjourney using only data collected from 90’s video games.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
8 months ago

That sounds better than a Buick Enclave.

Kldfgnjsj
Kldfgnjsj
8 months ago

Hard for a lot of us to look at these with friendly eyes, especially if we are invested in North American OEM products or the supplying companies therein. But I find it interesting that even folks in China are rejecting the wild designs in favor of something more in line with their previous expectations. I appreciate the insights this article gives us. More information is better, even if it comes from different sources.

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
8 months ago
Reply to  Kldfgnjsj

A journey of a thousand miles begins with the 1st step. In other words you can’t get to the distant future without going year to year.

UnseenCat
UnseenCat
8 months ago

The Z is just… something straight out of a cyberpunk videogame. Complete with RGB lighting.

Cerberus
Cerberus
8 months ago

Well, they’re, uh . . . interesting. Certainly not a forbid fruit I want to eat (durian?), but cool to read about.

Harmon20
Harmon20
8 months ago

I’m scrolling and skimming, quickly, down the article to see if anything catches my eye and in the midst of quite a bit of white space I see

It’s the ass of the future.

Stopped me dead in my tracks. You have my attention. I must stop scrolling to investigate. This is good writing.

Last edited 8 months ago by Harmon20
Alexk98
Alexk98
8 months ago

I point blank do not believe the range numbers on the Y just off the data they give us.
They quote 15.6 kWh/100km, which for the smaller 76.6 kWh pack results in 491 km Range, or 13% less than the 560 km claimed. For the larger 115 kWh at 16.4 kWh/100km, that leaves you with only 701 km of actual range, a full 109km (almost 70 miles) less than the claimed 810km.

Since I’m a pedantic engineer and bored, here’s the math for anyone curious:

76.6 (kWh) / 15.6 (kWh/100km) = 100* 76.6 / 15.6 km of range = 491 km

These numbers are even worse if the quoted battery pack sizes are full, rather than usable.

491 / 560 = 0.877 or 12.3% less range than promised. This is of course their energy consumption figures are accurate. This does show just how bad range testing is in most countries as well. A few percent off real world is perfectly believable, but there’s no excuse for a 10%+ deviation from the actual manufacturer measured consumption values.

Alexk98
Alexk98
8 months ago
Reply to  Alexk98

I don’t mean for any of this to be a criticism or to detract from Tycho’s, because these are really fascinating cars and so alien from my American perspective, I just get really riled up by many of the Chinese EV makers blatantly inflating range values to make their cars more competitive and advanced than vehicles from other countries that are penalized by reporting accurately.

And yes, Tesla’s practices and over reporting of range also drives me insane. In fact Tesla has special exemptions and modifiers on EPA range tests to artificially increase their claimed range, hence why many Tesla owners report lower than expected real world range in nearly all scenarios.

Jb996
Jb996
8 months ago

Can we get a disclaimer up front about who paid for this?
Any article like this, with manufacturer visits, tours, etc. NEEDS to clarify. Who paid for it?

“HiPhi paid for me to…”
“I used my own money to fly…”

It may be stated in the article, but I stop reading after the first paragraph if there isn’t clarity about bias.

Spartanjohn113
Spartanjohn113
8 months ago
Reply to  Jb996

Tycho studied in Beijing, lived in China for 16 years, and has been writing on the Autopian since 2022. I’d imagine if HiPhi flew him out, he would have test-driven the vehicles and not have to hunt for the X model.

Jb996
Jb996
8 months ago
Reply to  Spartanjohn113

Sure, maybe, I imagine, possibly. Why are we guessing?

Just saying that “I flew to China and visited…” does not set the stage for an obviously conflict-free scenario. It’s sets up a long and expensive trip.

If it was “While visiting China, I stopped by a dealer…”, or “I drove down to my local dealer…” I wouldn’t have said anything.

Lockleaf
Lockleaf
8 months ago
Reply to  Jb996

That distinction you draw seems to be digging deep. Even in the versions you describe, there is nothing that actually says his trip was not funded by a conflict of interest. It seems like “I flew to China and visited” is not acceptable, but “I flew to China and got bored and visited” would be? But both could be funded by a third party. There is nothing to deny that in there.

Jb996
Jb996
8 months ago
Reply to  Lockleaf

I was trying to allow for nit-picking on local / low-cost scenarios, but sure, I agree, just put the note or disclaimer!

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
8 months ago
Reply to  Jb996

Maybe we’re (you are) guessing because there’s no story. Tycho travels to China on business all the time and has family there.

The staff here has been very clear about disclosures and there’s no reason to assume the absence of a disclosure is nefarious. This may just be Tycho being in the neighborhood.

Jb996
Jb996
8 months ago

I’m astounded how many people apparently fall back on some unstated personal history of the author.
Is there a readership requirement that we memorize the biographies of all site authors in order to understand the context in which they may, or may not, be traveling for personal reasons versus sponsored?

I stand by my healthy skepticism:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/13/technology/china-propaganda-youtube-influencers.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57780023
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/how-china-uses-news-media-weapon-its-propaganda-war-against-west
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-buying-positive-news-coverage-11272018114512.html

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
8 months ago
Reply to  Jb996

You’re making up a story where there is none. The writers here disclose these things. When they don’t disclose, there’s nothing to disclose.

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
8 months ago
Reply to  Spartanjohn113

I’d imagine? Like I’d assume? Like ass/u/me?

Spartanjohn113
Spartanjohn113
8 months ago
Reply to  Mr Sarcastic

Wait, what are you trying to do to my rear bumper? The only people allowed to touch that are the possibly-Mrs.-Future-Spartanjohn113 and the Maaco in Burton, when they work on the paint this spring.

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
8 months ago
Reply to  Spartanjohn113

Young guy are you? Goes back to the 70s assume makes an ass out of you and me. Can’t remember the movie but I bet 2 minutes from posting an old dude posts it.

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
8 months ago
Reply to  Spartanjohn113

BTW that bumper cover makes your ass look huge.

Lockleaf
Lockleaf
8 months ago
Reply to  Jb996

I think Tycho is just a cover for Jason when he travels to China (which seems to be decently frequently based on the article frequency we get). Its all paid for by a coop funded between Beau’s black ops business and the CIA, in association NADA.

The autopian ALWAYS posts if someone else paid for the author to go and do. The lack of statement IS the statement.

Jb996
Jb996
8 months ago
Reply to  Lockleaf

They certainly have, in the past, absolutely written that they paid themselves when it was a big trip, rental, special access, etc. and funding wasn’t clear.

Uberscrub
Uberscrub
8 months ago
Reply to  Lockleaf

I like this theory, but I find it hard to believe Torch could have written that much (for the Autopian) without far too much scatological “humor”

Mr Sarcastic
Mr Sarcastic
8 months ago
Reply to  Uberscrub

No Torch no taillights.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
8 months ago
Reply to  Uberscrub

Note this “coincidence”:

T O r C H i n s k Y

T Y C H O

And the use of “bonkers”

The evidence is mounting that Jason == Bishop == Tycho.

David Tracy
David Tracy
8 months ago
Reply to  Jb996

There’s no disclaimer to put here. Tycho flew to Beijing on his own accord.

J Hyman
J Hyman
8 months ago
Reply to  David Tracy

Wait, Honda’s making a flying car?

Jb996
Jb996
8 months ago
Reply to  David Tracy

How in the world did everyone just intuitively understand that Tycho paid for himself to fly to Beijing??
No where did Tycho give any other reason for going, and he only talks about one single dealer.
It wasn’t like your (David’s) articles, where you may start with something like “I traveled to Asia to visit my brother, and while there…”, which clarifies, or like articles that look at a broad array of cars, models, etc., which are clearly un-sponsored.

Is there a readership requirement that we memorize the biographies of all site authors in order to understand the context of when they may, or may not, be traveling for personal reasons versus sponsored?
Are these biographies and author financial reports posted somewhere, with sufficient detail, so that I can start memorizing?

Despite the disagreements with me, I see the title is changed. I think that was the right decision.

Glutton for Piëch
Glutton for Piëch
8 months ago

missed opportunity for ‘Aim Hi’

I think it was Doug I saw recently review one of these… interesting for sure.

Always thought the Z looked like the last GTR concept got fucked by Philips Hue

Last edited 8 months ago by Glutton for Piëch
Robot Turds
Robot Turds
8 months ago

Those are some of the most clusterfucked-up looking designs I think I’ve seen and I don’t mean that in a good way. And those HUGE lights look really tacky.

Viking Longcar
Viking Longcar
8 months ago
Reply to  Robot Turds

username checks out

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