The HiPhi X, the first product of Shanghai-based Human Horizons' luxury smart electric car brand HiPhi, was recently launched, with a four-seat founder edition priced at RMB 800,000 ($117,800) and a six-seat founder edition priced at RMB 680,000, much higher than the RMB 468,000 price tag of the new Nio ES8.
With such a hefty price tag, what is so special about the unheralded HiPhi X? The founder of Human Horizons, Ding Lei, gave a detailed introduction of the model's highlights at the press conference.
In terms of body design, the HiPhi X blends a supercar with a large SUV to create a supercar SUV concept with smooth lines.
After Its side doors are open, the rear doors can also open upwards like eagle wings, somewhat similar to the Tesla Model X's door design.
"This is the world's first mass-produced smart NT spreading wing door, luxury pair of doors with NT overhead wing doors, and supports multiple touch-free automatic entry methods such as face recognition, smart key and smartphone ID," Ding Lei said.
Ding Lei said the model has a length, width and height of 5,200/2062/1618 mm and a wheelbase of 3,150 mm. It has an effectively reduced drag coefficient to 0.27Cd and accelerates from 0-100km in 3.9 seconds.
As a pure electric vehicle, the public is most concerned about the vehicle's range.
Ding Lei said the long-range version of the vehicle has a range of 630 kilometers under NEDC conditions thanks to its dual 220 kW front and rear electric motors with 97.2 percent motor efficiency, 97 kW-hours high-capacity battery, CrossLoop energy management system and cloud-based battery management.
HiPhi says that it will implement L3 level autopilot features on the production model, which includes innovative features such as ICC intelligent navigation, HWA high-speed driver assistance, TJP congestion valet, and L4 level fully autonomous valet parking based on vehicle-road collaboration.
In addition, the HiPhi X has many highlights. For example, the projected light design can be customized to type out text or zebra crossings; the car is equipped with multiple linked screens for intelligent interaction.
The car is equipped with HiPhiGo, an emotional and intelligent travel companion developed by HiPhi and Microsoft, which is capable of voice recognition and voice control of the entire car, in addition to creative abilities such as writing poetry, drawing and editing videos.
This year, the price of the Tesla China-made Model 3 has been lowered to a minimum of RMB 249,900, and Nio has also lowered the purchase threshold by separating the body from the battery.
Whether Human Horizons, which has been a low-key and notorious car maker, can break into the high-end market with this supercar SUV, all remains to be seen.
