► HiPhi Z: 662bhp, 605lb ft, 0-62 in 3.8
► Radical looks and radical tech
► Over 4000 LEDs on the exterior
While it might look like a prop from the latest Transfomers movie, this is a full production version of the HiPhi Z – another new Chinese electric car from another new Chinese electric car brand. It reaches its first European customers in August 2023, and though prospective UK buyers will have a couple of years to wait before right-hand drive models are available, we were hardly going to turn down the chance to drive a 662bhp dual-motor ‘Super GT’ so… individual.
You think the appearance is tricky to swallow at first encounter? Then get a load of the price, which in Germany – the first European market alongside Norway – starts at 105,000 Euros. This is no budget land grab but an attempt on the legacy kings, leveraging a new kind of ‘LuxTech’ premium EV appeal.
There is a lot to unpack here, so haul on one of the fetchingly purple seat belts and strap yourself in.
The HiPhi Z is certainly different…
You’ve basically nailed the marketing strategy in one. HiPhi is out to not exactly shock, but at least give you and your friends something to talk about.
The buyer profile in China is mostly wealthy multi-car owners looking for exclusivity – although with HiPhi’s other model, the X SUV, becoming the bestselling premium EV in China within months of its launch in 2021, the brand seems to have stabbed itself in the foot in the most successful way possible. That’s a trick no other homegrown product had previously managed, incidentally, and the HiPhi X is coming to Europe as well.
But for now, let’s concentrate on the Z. Hard to think of a more out-there concept-looking production model since the BMW i8. And pulling up to the kerb – any kerb – the HiPhi Z has the same kind of pedestrian-halting presence as the first wild encounters with that.
There’s an even greater amount of visual theatre here, in fact, as the Z has 4066 LEDs integrated into exterior: 1314 on the sides and 2752 spread across the front and rear. This gives it matrix headlights that can be programmed with bespoke video sequences, the ability to signal the world at large with emojis on each corner, and digital flanks that warn passers-by the doors are about to open or scroll your own written message. Be nice now.
The doors in turn are power operated, and open – conventional front, backwards rear – to 90 degrees. Revealing a four- or five-seater interior layout that dazzles with more lights, lots of vegan leather surfaces, and a central screen mounted on a robotic arm that can automatically adjust its angle to suit your perspective.
It really is as if HiPhi has spent years staring at concept cars revolving on motorshow turntables and wondered: why can’t that be real?
Which of the Chinese automotive giants is behind all this, then?
Get this: none of them. HiPhi currently exists as a singular automotive brand in an ocean of vast Chinese conglomerates.
But it is part of something larger. The company behind the brand is Human Horizons, a privately funded organisation that has ambitions to build not only ‘Smart Vehicles’ – the HiPhi range that will shortly encompass the X, Y and Z, with two more models to follow – but also Smart Cities and Smart Transport.
Those are the infrastructure and autonomous mobility strands; ‘We are obsessed with thinking about the future,’ says Human Horizons founder and CEO, Ding Lei. ‘We believe that the future holds many incredible advances for humanity, and we want to support the growth of technology in a way that helps make life more enjoyable and convenient.’
Brain not bent enough just yet? Then know the firm only came into being in 2017, and went from zero to Chinese bestseller in its chosen segment in just 3.5 years.
Over 10,000 X models are already on the road back home, and sales of the Z – which was only launched in late 2022 – have now topped 1000.
So what’s the game plan here? World domination?
No – or at least not straight away. HiPhi isn’t chasing volume targets; it’s chasing premium EV customers who either want the next interesting thing or haven’t yet found the right electric vehicle to tempt them out of their combustion habit.
HiPhi reckons it can match the best – well, Audi, BMW, Mercedes – for quality of fit and finish, and driving experience, while squashing them like bugs when it comes to tech capability. Hence the multi-axis robot screen arm (the HiPhi Bot), the use of LEDs in unusual places (including the HiPhi Star Ring ISD on the doors), the power everything, and a degree of digital customisation that surpasses all that we’re so far used to in Europe.
How realistic is that ambition?
On the Chinese-market Z we’ve driven here it’s a little hit and miss. Elements of the interior are deeply impressive: the leather-ish surfaces are well finished, the power everything is a kick (we may never want to open our own doors again), and the infotainment system is slick, responsive and intuitive. Sensibly there’s a head-up display in addition to the single central screen up front, making life easier for the driver.
However, for some reason the nice bits of the inside are prominently punctuated by hard, faintly unpleasant plastics. And while we can live with the funky colours – even the oil-rainbow of ‘holographic’ material visible through the seat perforations, and lilac trimming on the steering wheel – some of the detailing is off. The blocky ambient lighting, for example, and the 23-speaker Meridian hi-fi system that sounds like it’s trying just a little too hard. There’s a lot of wind noise, too, despite double-glazing and well-suppressed road roar.
The cocoon-like rear compartment didn’t take as much adjustment as we expected, though; there’s essentially no rear window (the rear-view mirror is fed via a camera; thankfully HiPhi has left the door mirrors alone) but the more expensive four-seater layout is indulgent and spacious, with power-adjustable seats controlled via touchscreen, and you get plenty of light from the huge panoramic roof panel.
All told, it doesn’t actually fair too badly against a staid Audi E-Tron or the overblown interior chintz of a Mercedes EQE or EQS. But the BMW i7 won’t be worried and the forthcoming BMW i5 isn’t looking scared. Nor is the Porsche Taycan.
Is the HiPhi Z any good to drive?
Considering everything else that’s going on, it would be easy to not so much overlook this aspect but think that maybe it doesn’t even matter. Thankfully, HiPhi has put some proper effort in here as well.
Do we even need to explain that it’s fast? With a motor front and rear, it makes 494kW (662bhp) and can sustain its maximum 605lb ft of torque for 30 seconds – enough to seriously upset your passengers’ dispositions if you desire. Certainly, the claimed 3.8sec 0-62mph time rings entirely true, and there’s no sign of the nose-raising speedboat effect you get from punching the pedal to floor in the BMW i4, for instance.
As a self-proclaimed Super GT, the Z is low-slung and long, with variable air-sprung suspension and Continuous Damper Control (CDC) to help manage its 2.5-tonnes of mass. With the assured ride that kind of bulk and length of wheelbase often brings with it, Germany’s well-tended tarmac rarely troubles the passenger compartment; the Sport setting is a touch more leaden over bumps than Comfort (duh) but neither will let the Z get too far out of shape in the corners.
Helping here is a rear-wheel steering system with 6.6 degrees of +/- latitude (so a huge 13.2 degrees overall) that manages to only rarely give you the sense that anything unusual is happening. Not that there’s much feedback through the steering in general, but the weighting is well-judged enough that you’re quickly confident about the available cornering speed – technical measures to control understeer and oversteer are present on the spec sheet, but we clearly didn’t get anywhere close to those thresholds while dicing with the German commuter traffic.
We sense the UK’s battle-scarred surfaces will present more of a challenge; the Z’s 22-inch wheels certainly won’t be forgiving. But fundamentals – such as the consistent brake feel, thanks to the use of an iBooster instead of a traditional hydraulic set-up (as per the latest BMW EVs) and clear conviction it is going to go where you point it – suggest the Z will have a fighting chance of holding its own against some strong competition.
Safety shouldn’t be an issue, either, as the Z is loaded with cameras and sensors – including the lidar system that looks like an unlit taxi lamp on the roof. Ugly on the outside, impressive on the inside, as you can display the results on the central screen and the resolution of the scan it gives you of the surrounding vehicles and people is eye-popping.
Apparently the cars drive themselves off the production line. But we’re still someway from letting the Z take full control in public, so assisted driving is limited to the usual motorway handiness and occupant-free parking we’re used to from other brands.
What about all the awkward EV stuff: driving range and charging time?
This is a little finger in the air at the moment, as HiPhi only has Chinese-market figures – WLTP is still incoming. But the 120kW battery pack isn’t messing around, and the firm’s head of business development for Europe, Kjell-Arne Wold – who’s ex-Tesla and formerly the Audi E-Tron project manager – insists a real-world driving range of around 375 miles per charge is on the cards.
Charging time is also a bit sticky, as in China everything is subject to a 100kW cap. The first cars to reach European customers will have to use an adaptor as well, likely limiting them to 85kW fast charging. That’s seriously significantly slower than the fastest rivals, eroding that tech lead HiPhi is aspiring to.
It’s likely to be a temporary handicap, as EU-friendly sockets and faster charging tech will be loaded into the cars as soon as HiPhi can make this happen – certainly by 2024. Early adopters needn’t worry too much, as the there’s a plan to offer them a trade-in solution as soon as the improved charging is available.
HiPhi Z: the initial verdict
We need to drive a European-spec car in the UK – which sounds like a cop-out but also makes the most sense before we suggest anyone holds off on the usual suspects because a hundred-thousand-Euro Chinese Super GT is on the way in 2025.
The pricing seems bold. But HiPhi is only bringing in very top spec models, and swears you’ll have to spends tens of thousands more to get equivalent performance from one of those legacy brands. There are also plenty of questions to be answered about aftersales care – HiPhi is opening its own boutiques (for want of a better word) at Munich airport and in a Norwegian shopping centre at first, with no intel yet about what will follow after.
Still, it’s going to be at least two years before the cars reach the UK, and judging by the firm’s breakneck pace so far, by that point they might just out-perform anything. Very intriguing.