Remember when we reported earlier this year that Huawei is planning to make its own electric cars? Well, it’s happened faster than we thought it would, but also not in the way we thought it to be. It’s called Seres SF5, and it’s a range-extender – not a pure EV – built by Chinese-owned, California-based (but still built in China by Chongqing Sokon) EV start-up, Seres.
Well… actually – it’s called the Seres Huawei Selection SF5, and the car itself is pretty much identical to the Seres SF5 shown off at the Auto Guangzhou motor show back in 2019. So no, Huawei did not technically design a car, or at least not any more so than using an existing template.
But what Huawei did have a hand in is the powertrain underneath. The Chinese tech giant calls it the Huawei DriveONE, which is supposedly a “three-in-one” powertrain consisting of the motor, a motor controller, and something that Google translates as “reducer” – whatever that is.
As mentioned above, the Seres SF5 is actually a range-extender EV rather than a pure fully-electric model, of which it makes use of a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine as a generator to extend its range up to 1,000 km. Just on battery-power alone, the SF5 is capable of driving 180 km without a single drop of fuel.
The SF5 will be available in two powertrain options, with either front-wheel or all-wheel drive. No technical specifications were shared on the former, but on the latter, the dual-motor set-up is capable of generating up to 405 kW (551 hp) and 820 Nm of torque.
Century sprint is completed in a very specific 4.68 seconds, but Huawei is also particularly happy about its 0 – 50 km/h acceleration figure, with 1.99 seconds proudly displayed on its website.
Inside, the large portrait-styled centre infotainment display runs Huawei’s own HiCar software, which promises various connectivity solutions including V2X inter-car connectivity, and even smart home controls with various IoT devices, all directly from the touchscreen within your car.
Other interior highlights include the Huawei Sound sound system, which uses 11 speakers to achieve a supposedly “theatre-grade” experience. Although, according to Huawei, it’s not just the loudspeakers doing the work.
The Seres SF5 supposedly boasts a 38 dB noise floor within the cabin – which according to Huawei is similar to that of a library – thanks to the various noise dampening techniques found within the SUV.
As for safety, the Huawei Seres SF5 is equipped with two radars (millimetre-wave and ultrasonic), along with a surround-view camera system to enable “L2+” autonomous driving features, including a “traffic jam assist” (or as we understand it, adaptive cruise control with stop-go functionality), autonomous emergency braking, and lane centering assist, among others.
The Huawei Seres SF5 is now available for in the Chinese market, priced at RMB216,800 (~RM137k) for the single-motor variant, and RMB246,800 (~RM156k) for the dual-motor, all-wheel drive variant.
Interested customers can make a booking via Huawei’s own Vmall e-commerce platform with a fee of RMB1,000 (~RM630). The Seres SF5 will also be available for test drives at Huawei Experience Stores in China starting today.
GALLERY
