Human Horizons’ HiPhi X: The Chinese Luxury EV SUV That Brings Cutting-Edge Technology to Europe
Human Horizons, a Chinese luxury EV start-up, has brought its HiPhi X to Europe. This full-size luxury SUV is the company’s answer to the BMW iX and Mercedes EQS SUVs. Although it is not as new as the HiPhi Z electric GT, the HiPhi X is still a relatively new car, with the HiPhi brand only being founded in 2019. The HiPhi X is differentiated from the Z by its cutting-edge digital technology, which Human Horizons believes will define the future of automotive mobility. It also offers a genuinely luxurious ambience and level of passenger accommodation.
The HiPhi X has a simpler, comfort-first dynamic brief than the Z, which it meets more successfully. It also offers some more innovative design features. Sharing its platform and air-sprung-and-all-wheel-steered axles with the Z, the X is both longer and taller but not quite as bluff as a conventional large SUV. It’s like a stretched Jaguar I-Pace, offered as it is in both two- and three-row cabin formats.
The HiPhi X has some interesting practicality-boosting tricks. In the version with individual second-row seats rather than a three-seater bench, the outer second-row chairs can motor outboard of their conventional positions to make entry easier, then inboard again and backwards on their bases so as to make for more reclining space. Those seats are accessed through motorised, rear-hinged ‘suicide’ rear doors, which open especially wide to admit you. Above them is a half-gullwing-style roof panel that hinges upwards along the roof’s spine, so you can literally step in and stand up in the back row and then sit down, as if in a train carriage.
Fully networked digital touchscreens dominate the HiPhi X’s interior. There’s a tablet-size one in the second row and two huge ones in the front – one landscape-orientated directly in front of the passenger, the other hung portrait-style as the more typical central infotainment display. A fully digital instrument screen completes the offering.
The HiPhi X’s driving experience is quite a bit better than it needs to be in order to provide a sound basis for success. It’s a car for a certain sort of buyer with a taste for the very latest consumer electronics and a willingness to spend big on an alternative premium brand that only those ‘in the know’ will recognise. It’s clearly not a car for anyone sceptical about the way that some brands seem intent on turning their latest cars into fully converged electronic mobility devices – the same transition that mobile phones went through two decades ago. A lot of cars, electric ones especially, seem headed that way, whether we like it or not.
The HiPhi X is not lacking in terms of up-to-date suspension and steering technology, so while it’s not an exciting drive, it manages and manipulates its mass cleverly and keeps its occupants comfortable while doing so. There’s a surfeit of performance here but fine drivability and contained body control too. The X hits its dynamic marks well.
Space is generous in rows one and two and just about adult-appropriate in row three, if only for those of average height and below, so pretty class-typical. Material quality isn’t quite a match for the likes of Audi or the latest Range Rover, but considering that this is Human Horizons’ very first production car, one designed, engineered and delivered to the road in only three-and-a-half years, it’s impressive. The front seats are comfortable and adjustable, with the driving position semi-recumbent rather than off-roader-upright.
The HiPhi X is clearly quite different from other luxury SUVs on the market, and it should please those who seek it out. While it’s that bit less conspicuous-looking than the HiPhi Z, that could play to the favour of the X, which is certainly smart, spacious, comfortable and still clearly quite different. It’s a car for a certain sort of buyer with a taste for the very latest consumer electronics and a willingness to spend big on an alternative premium brand that only those ‘in the know’ will recognise.
In conclusion, the HiPhi X is a luxury SUV that brings cutting-edge technology to Europe. It offers a genuinely luxurious ambience and level of passenger accommodation, with fully networked digital touchscreens dominating its interior. While it’s not an exciting drive, it manages and manipulates its mass cleverly and keeps its occupants comfortable while doing so. The HiPhi X is clearly quite different from other luxury SUVs on the market, and it should please those who seek it out.