The ‘tsunami’ of Chinese EVs is reaching European shores with yet another brand, Human Horizon’s flagships HiPhi X and Z, available now in Norway and Germany. With prices above €100 000 euros, these are not your average budget cars, and they’re bluntly targeting the heart of Europe’s premium car market, armed with luxury and high-tech.

Human Horizon’s intentions are clear: to target “younger, more affluent, and much more open-minded consumers who haven’t developed an allegiance to a brand like Mercedes or Porsche,” as its CTO and former Ford and JLR-man Mark Stanton stated before.

Phenomenal impact

“The HiPhi X established itself as the best-selling luxury EV in China, and the HiPhi Z has also been extremely well received. Now comes the first opportunity for European customers to find out why the cars have made such a phenomenal impact,” Stanton says.

So what will you get for your +100k? The HiPhi X SUV, with its no-touch automatic wing-opening doors, won the 23rd China Patent Award for Appearance Design. A pat on the back for VP of Design Nicolas Huet, who earned his wings at BMW Münich for 20 years.

He was involved, among others, in the design of the BMW 1 Series second generation, the 4 Series, and the 6 Series Gran Coupé. His last assignment at BMW was working on the new generation of i-models.

The HiPhi X was the best-selling vehicle in the Chinese sales charts for models above 500 000 yuan (€67 052) in 2022. In Germany, it starts at €109 000 for the six-seater and €123 000 for the four-seater.

Fridge in the back

Strange, as seen by the specs list, the four-seater only offers a fridge and foldable tables in the back as extra for that money. In China, the starting price for the six-seater is around 600 000 yuan or some 76 300 euros – a considerable difference.

It’s a 5,2 meter long SUV with wing doors at the rear like the Tesla X. It offers fully automatic opening and closing with facial recognition. The 97 kWh battery pack provides a range of 460 km (WLTP). Charging can be done up to 250 Amps (DC), and it offers a V2L (vehicle-to-load) charging port with bidirectional charging supported up to 3.3 kW.

The HiPhi X has 4WD and is powered by dual motors of 2 x 220 kW (front and rear), 590 hp, and 410 Nm of torque each. This gives the car – not exactly a featherweight with its 2 560 kg –  the power to reach 100 km per hour in 3,9 seconds and a 200 km/hour top speed.

To be armed to take on Germany’s top premium brands, expect the highest luxury standard like intelligent, speed-sensitive air suspension, and ride height adjustment, rear-wheel steering, and fully electrically adjustable leather seats with heating, ventilation, and massage both in front and rear, or a 17-speaker Meridian sound system, and a Givaudan fragrance dispenser, among others.

The interior design is tight and modern, with hidden air vents, 128-color ambient lighting, and a modest 14-inch driver display, a Tesla-like big 16,9-inch central control display, and a sizeable 19,9-inch passenger display. It comes packed with all thinkable driver assist systems (ADAS), and should be capable of interactive lane changing, among others.

Futuristic looking GT

And then for just €105 000, there is this other ‘flagship’, the futuristic-looking HiPhi Z, a GT-like hatchback of five meters long, available in a four-seater or five-seater version. This one gets a 120 kWh cell-to-pack or CLT battery, ensuring up to 555 km range (WLTP) and DC-chargeable at 350 Amps. Also, a 4WD drive with slightly more performing dual motors (2 x 247 kW).

It adds some particular sci-fi features, like the light strips built into the side of the car, extending from the rear to the front door, which can display messages and emojis to the outside world via 1 314 LEDs. Another gadget is the central display mounted on an adjustable high-speed robot arm that can move back and forth and switch between landscape and portrait positions.