► HiPhi X: 440kW dual-motor, 3.9sec 0-62mph
► Split rear doors for theatrical practicality
► Power everything, coming to the UK in 2025
At first glance, you’re probably thinking the HiPhi X is weirdly conservative compared with this new Chinese electric car brand’s other model. The HiPhi Z is so obviously batshit insane from the moment you lay eyes on it that even the X’s vaguely disconcerting skew of the conventional SUV silhouette seems rather tame.
On the one hand, this is perhaps explained by the X being HiPhi’s very first model, and even the seasoned psychotropic enthusiast has got to start somewhere. On the other, you may not yet have seen the doors. Or the interior.
Brace yourself – it’s another wild one. And as with the Z, the HiPhi X isn’t afraid to back itself, as the starting price in Germany when this 590bhp dual-motor machine goes on sale in August 2023 is 109,000 Euros. Brand agnostic budget motoring this most certainly is not; this thing is ‘LuxTech’ gunning for the BMW iX and far from shy about it.
For the HiPhi X is the bestselling premium EV in China, and has been since about six months after its launch in 2021. No other home-grown product has managed this feat. This isn’t a case of China trying to match up to the opposition – this is China with credibility cashed against beating them.
First things first: exactly what is going on with the HiPhi X’s rear doors?
We’re all familiar with the unnecessarily showy rear portals of the Tesla Model X, right? Well, it seems HiPhi’s looked at that nonsense and attempted to create something actually useful.
Instead of one giant, mechanically complex wing door, the HiPhi X combines frameless lower doors that hinge backwards coach-style with a vertically opening roof panel. The whole lot – including the equally frameless front doors – are power-operated, and can theoretically be activated by facial recognition (there are also buttons for proles and journalists).
Sensors stop the doors doing anything stupid, such as knocking down passing pedestrians or smacking into a ceiling. The roof sections detect rain, too, but you can turn them off altogether via the infotainment system if you don’t want to make a spectacle of yourself.
If you do want to make a spectacle of yourself, you can open them separately. And note that they auto-close above 5mph, so you can pull away with them still open and then amuse people with the visual theatre of them folding back into the X’s carapace as you depart.
Also consider that they make stepping in and out of the back of the X a much more elegant affair than ducking through a conventional door opening, so there is genuine purpose. They’re especially useful in this manner for accessing the rear-most row of the six-seater model, helped by the middle-row seats electrically moving closer to each other when required.
And once you’re inside?
Lots of ‘leather’ (vegan), lots of power adjustment, and lots of screens. All four of the chairs in the fancier four-seater version tested offer heating, cooling, reclining – and massaging that really means it. Front-seat passengers can even activate a Nap mode.
They might not want to, though, as ahead of them is a sizable ‘passenger entertainment display’, which comes complete with popular streaming services in China. A filter is supposed to stop the driver enjoying this (not 100 per cent effective, but the car is TUV SUD approved) and the passenger can have audio via Bluetooth while the driver listens to the main infotainment system – this controlled via a central 16.9-inch touchscreen in portrait orientation.
Fit and finish isn’t bad at all, though we do wonder if the people responsible for weather-sealing those rear doors are still receiving counselling. There’s a bit of wind noise at speed, but plenty of head and leg room (glass panels in the roof help here, even in the six-seater’s final row).
Nestled between the two back seats in the four-person version is a fridge, which can be further optimised for carrying champagne. When activated, this moves forward on servos then opens up to present the contents like some kind of boxy robot butler.
If you can strap a motor to it, you’ll find that motor inside the HiPhi X.
Speaking of motoring, what’s the HiPhi X like to drive?
The BMW iX will probably run rings around it, should the two ever come to blows, but the HiPhi X is fundamentally well sorted and the spec sheet makes all the right noises.
With a motor front and rear it has the traction to make full use of its 440kW (590bhp) – drop the hammer here and the response feels more brutal than it does in the HiPhi Z, despite the slightly slower 3.9sec 0-62mph time and 72 fewer maximum horses. The extra height allowing for more pronounced weight transfer, the passenger compartment tilts a little more as you lay it on those old-school ICE-mobiles.
Certainly, it’s quick enough to justify the premium positioning. There are faster rivals, of course, but you’ll pay even more for those. Similarly, while the interior of the HiPhi X is sometimes creaky – being a vast monospace design doesn’t help – it’s frankly no worse than the Mercedes EQS.
The steering isn’t voraciously communicative, but the weighting is well judged, there’s no sense of slack being taken up as you apply that initial lock, and despite 10 degrees of rear-wheel steering adjustment, it rarely gives you the impression it’s up to anything odd. Same with the brakes, which use a Bosch iBooster instead of conventional hydraulics, maintaining consistency.
Air springs that auto-adjust with speed as well as driving profile seem nicely matched to the continuously variable dampers in terms of keeping the body under control. But the ride doesn’t feel quite as composed here as it does in the HiPhi Z, even though that’s a lower-slung, more overtly sporty car. The Z being developed second may have something to do with this. There’s still a big question mark over how either car will cope with the greater challenge of the UK.
Almost everything the X can do can be tailored via the central infotainment screen. Making it possible, for instance, to choose between using the paddleshifters to manage regen or flick through the driving modes.
Are those LED panels on the bumpers?
While not quite as extreme as the HiPhi Z – which has LED panels on the side of the car as well – the occupants of the HiPhi X can communicate with the surrounding world using its ISD system. That’s Intelligent Signal Display.
These sections of the front and rear bumpers can show customisable iconography, ranging from emoijis through to designs intended to alert other road users to your intention to pull a u-turn. Hard to say if this is a massive gimmick or the start of something new. Without doubt it’s a talking point.
In addition to this, the X comes with Programmable Matrix Lighting headlights, which as well as being useful for optimising lighting when driving can also be adapted to project bespoke images, animations and videos. Again, hardly essential, but something no-one else is yet doing.
How convincing is the ‘LuxTech’ angle?
Well, there’s definitely plenty of tech. The HiPhi X has sensors and cameras galore, with relatively high-level assisted-driving capability, without resorting to the lidar system deployed on the Z (we’re told that both cars perform remarkably similarly despite this difference, and the decision to explore both routes will help inform future models).
HiPhi has traded rear visibility for visual style and interior comfort, so the view out the back is best seen via the camera feed displayed in the rear-view mirror. Yet there are sensible decisions here, too, such as the rejection of digital door mirrors – which haven’t been a good solution in this writer’s experience so far.
There’s plenty of space inside, lots of adjustability, and if it’s not whisper quiet in the manner of the BMW iX, the overall look of the cabin is arguably less divisive than the nouveau gauche interior of that particular electric SUV.
The option of six useable seats seems novel in this class for those who might need it. And though we’re not sure the way it brings the Mercedes R-Class to mind speaks of long-term success, that over 10,000 HiPhi X have found homes in China since sales started in 2021 suggests the brand might still be onto something.
HiPhi’s share of the Chinese premium EV segment has been as high as 24 per cent.
Driving range and charging time?
There are no official WLTP figures just yet. But putting the science to one side, HiPhi head of business development for Europe, Kjell-Arne Wold, who has a background with Tesla and helped launch the original Audi E-Tron, insists around 280 real-world miles should be possible.
That’s almost 100 miles less than similar driving range projections for the HiPhi Z, but the X has much bluffer aerodynamics, greater weight and a smaller 97kWh battery – though there is a plan to fit the 120kWh unit from the Z in the future.
Charging will be limited to 85kW initially, due to issues adapting the Chinese charging standard to Europe. Much, much slower than the fastest charging rivals, but this should be addressed with updated cars in 2024, and early adopters will have the opportunity to make a favourable trade-in.
HiPhi X electric SUV: the initial verdict
There’s plenty about this that seems hard to swallow: the price, for starters – but also the insistently tech-first approach, and the Mercedes R-Class reminiscences (not that we’re necessarily saying the R-Class was a bad car).
But it also seems to us that the electric motor has reset conventional brand acceptance in a way the internal combustion engine never could. If you like ethos of the HiPhi X, can appreciate the interior and the advantages offered by those rear doors, and can afford the asking price, why wouldn’t you consider one reasonably seriously?
Afterall, there’s a lot of recent evidence to suggest the Chinese brands know what they’re doing with EVs, and at first encounter HiPhi seems to be a further example of this. With some exceptions – including that pesky BMW iX – it’s the European legacy badges that still feel like they’re playing catch-up in this area.
Come 2025, when HiPhi is likely to start selling right-hand drive models in the UK, the X will surely bring some disruptive liveliness to the posh EV arena. We’re looking forward to it.