This is the HiPhi Z, one of the craziest Chinese cars ever made. It was indeed a bit too crazy. I met this pretty Khaki Green example at a dealer area in south Beijing, where it stood abandoned. It was an ex-demo car, according to a guy working in a nearby shop.
About HiPhi
HiPhi was a Chinese electric car brand founded in 2019 in Shanghai. The Chinese name was 高合 (Gāohé). The owner of HiPhi was Human Hoirizons, an automotive technology company, also based in Shanghai. In a short time. HiPhi launched 3 cars: the HiPhi X SUV, the HiPhi Z sedan-coupe, and the HiPhi Y mid-size SUV. HiPhi didn’t have a factory. HiPhi’s cars were produced by Yueda-Kia under a contract-production deal. This is an ofen-used method for smaller car makers in China.
HiPhi’s USP was its design. Every HiPhi looked like it came from another universe. It has an air duct above the license plate and a vent in the hood. The lights are far at the sides, with digital message boards underneath. Drivers could use the boards to display messages and animations.
I totally loved it, and in the summer of 2023, I visited a HiPhi shop in Beijing. A brilliant experience. Sadly, the cars were just too extreme for Chinese consumers, and expensive too. HiPhi sales in China were slow, with sales of max 8000 cars a year. On top of that, an export adventure didn’t work out at all for pretty much the same reasons. In 2024, HiFi went out of business. However, the brand is not totally dead. Existing owners can still have their cars serviced, and there have been discussions about a re-launch of HiPhi. The website is still online.
The HiPhi Z
Let’s get back to the beautiful HiPhi Z! HiPhi called it a “grand tourer” and a “Digital GT“. The design is difficult to categorize. The best description is probably a four-door sedan-fastback-coupe. The Z is wide, low, and long, with giant aero wheels and rear-suicide doors. It is not just a car, it is an event on wheels. The Khaki Green color was supplemented by black and orange detailing.
The dealer sticker sat sadly behind the windscreen. It has a lidar above the windshield. HiPhi equipped the Z, and its other cars, with HiPhi Pilot, a self-developed L2+ intelligent driving assistance system with 31 sensors.
The Z’s rear design was mad. The low roof ended in a complicated aero duct around a spoiler. Lower down the trunk lid is another spoiler. The rear bumper is wide and sticks out far.
It has a camera in the middle, above the spoiler. It needs a camera there because it doesn’t really have a rear window. The main lights are in the light bar. The black pod in the middle is for the third brake light and the logo. It has digital boards on each side of the bumper, just like at the front.
This is the badge on the left: 悦达起亚, Yuèdá Qǐyà, Yueda Kia, the name of the manufacturer. Yueda-Kia’s main business is manufacturing Kia cars for the local market. Because of the ascendancy of Chinese brands, sales of Kia had gone down and the Yueda-Kia joint venture had overcapacity, which they contracted out to other car makers, like HiPhi.
The lights at night.
The interior
HiPhi called the four-seat cabin a “Digital SciFi Interior”, and that seems a good name. The interior was spacious and light, with a double sunroof. HiPhi equipped the Z with soundproof glass for extra silence on board. The Nappa leather seats are white with a bit of purple. The seat belts are purple too. The Z had a permanent 5G internet connection for connectivity and over-the-air (OTA) updates.
The screen
Check this: The 15.05-inch infotaiment screen is based on a contraption that HiPhi called the “high-speed robot arm.” It was a hydraulic system with 3 tubes.
The screen could switch from portrait to landscape in a second, and the screen could move, or dance, with the music played over the car’s 23-speaker Meridan sound system. The digital voice assistant was addressed as “HiPhi Go”.
The rear cabin was super luxurious, with only two seats and lots of space. The seats were heated and ventilated, with a massage function. HiPhi fitted the interior with a 128-color ambient lighting system and three-zone air conditioning.
Specifications
The HiPhi Z had a two-motor all-wheel drive powertrain. The output was 494 kW (672 hp) and 820 Nm. HiPhi limited the top speed to 200 km/h, and 0-100 took 3.8 seconds. So it was a seriously fast machine.
Size: 5036/2018/1439, with a 2510 kg curb weight. The trunk space was 316 liters or 684 liters with the rear seats down. It didn’t have a frunk. The drag coefficient was a neat 0.27 Cd.
The Z had a super-sized 120 kWh CATL ternary lithium battery with an energy density of 206.3 Wh/kg. The energy consumption was 17.7 kWh per 100 kilometers, and the range was 705 kilometers. A full charge (0-80%) took 55 minutes. The price range in 2023 was 610.000 to 630.000 yuan.
The HiPhi Z, a mad and brilliant electric car with an innovative design and lots of power. It is a shame it didn’t fare better. One day, the Z will be in a museum for modern design, and in another museum for modern art.