Today in China Concept Cars the Haima H12, a concept of an electric sedan for the Chinese car market. The Haima H12 was unveiled in 2006 at the Guangzhou Auto Show. It was one of the first mass-market EV-concept cars in China. It was painted in white with fancy green ‘ Electric Vehicle’ stickers on the bonnet and doors.
Before the show, Haima released this image of the H12, showing the vehicle on a blue road with a blue sky and a solar panel in the background.
Haima said the H12 was a “Concept of clean, environmentally friendly, high-efficiency and energy-saving and [an] exploration of future car-making technology and new automotive energy.”
Haima is a brand owned by Haima Auto. The Haima H12 was based on the Haima 3, a compact petrol-powered sedan that was in turn based on the ninth generation Mazda 323, which was produced at the Hainan-Mazda joint venture. The 2006 Haima 3 was powered by a 1.8 liter engine with an output of 122 hp and 160 Nm. The motor was mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. Price started at 103.800 yuan.
When First Auto Works (FAW) took over Hainan Auto in 2006, it took away the joint venture, and renamed it FAW-Mazda. Haima, now under FAW ownership, continued to produce older Mazda-based cars under its own name, including the Haima 3.
In the early and mid 2000’s the Chinese government wanted to promote the development of electric cars. It was in a way the ‘first wave’ of EV-development in China. It was too early. The tech and the market simply weren’t ready yet. The second wave started in the early 2010’s, with lots of subsides and state-sponsored development. This time time was right and China has since become the largest EV-maker and EV-market in the world.
In 2006, the Chinese government had launched a “Pure Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Key Technology Research”(纯电动汽车制造关键技术研究) project, and Haima was one of the participants. This EV research project was part of the larger 863 Program (863计划), known in English as the State High-Tech Development Plan. This was a wide-ranging government-led program to develop advanced technologies. The 863 Program started in 1983 and ended in 2016.
Several Chinese car makers joined the Pure Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Key Technology Research project, getting government support in the process. At the same time, China also established several research institutes including the National Electric Vehicle Experimental & Demonstration Area (NEVEDA). However, the project didn’t lead to many actual cars, except a lot of concept and prototypes.
The drive selector was located on the steering column and it had a foot-operated parking brake (!) instead of a traditional lever-operated unit. Haima claimed the H12 was equipped with lots of advanced stuff, like a “intelligent instrument cluster”, and a “high-performance on-board computer platform”. The latter was able to display information such as battery voltage, current and state of charge, vehicle speed, driving range, and energy management. How much of this was real and how much was not is not entirely clear…
For comparison: the dashboard of the Haima 3.
Haima also said the H12 was very cost-effective, costing only 1/5 of the fuel cost of a gasoline engine car of the same size. A full charge on 220V took 6 to 8 hours, good for a range of 200 kilometers. The electricity to do all that came from a “high-power, high-energy lithium polymer power battery pack”, mated to a “high-power three-phase AC induction motor drive”.
The H12 had a sporty wing on the back.
Badges: On the left: Haima EV. Haima logo in the middle. On the right and on the license plate: 海马汽车, Haima Auto.
Shortly after the H12 was unveiled on the show, photos of the production version appeared in the catalogue of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). It looked very basic with steel wheels and painted in a drab shade of gray.
Designation was HMC7000CS0BEV, with BEV standing for Battery Electric Vehicle. The ‘EM1136’ electric motor had an output of only 27 hp. Top speed was 100 km/h, not helped by a curb weight of a heavy 1460 kilo.
The battery pack was developed by the Wanxiang Group, a large Chinese automotive parts maker that became somewhat famous in 2014 when it bought the assets from bankrupt Fisker Automotive, the company behind the Fisker Karma hybrid. The company was renamed Karma Automotive and the car was renamed Revero. It is still available today.
In the end, the HMC7000CS0BEV never made it to the market. It was simply too early for a mass-market electric sedan. But Haima didn’t give up on electrification.
Hybrid version
In 2010, perhaps more sensible for the time, the company unveiled a hybrid version of the Haima 3, simply called the Haima 3 HEV. Design remained largely unchanged compared to the Haima 3 and the Haima H12, although the HEV had to do without the fancy wing the H12 had.
The Haima 3 HEV was powered by a 1.5 four-cylinder petrol engine mated to an electric motor and a battery. Gearbox was a 5-speed manual sending horses to the front wheels. System output was 103 hp and 140 Nm. Haima claimed a cruising range of 500 kilometers, a top speed of 160 km/hm and a fuel consumption of 7 liters per 100 km.
The Haima 3 HEV was equipped with a start-stop system, which was quite rare back in 2010. It was supposed to be the first car of Haima’s new “Blue Engine Strategy”(蓝色引擎战略目标), which focused on hybrid vehicles. In 2010, Haima said production of the HEV would start in 2011. But, once again, like with the F12 EV, the H3 HEV didn’t make it to the market.
Zhengzhou Haima takes on the EV
Zhengzhou Haima, officially known as Haima (Zhengzhou) Automobile, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Haima Automobile, based in the city of Zhengzhou in Henan Province. They made small commercial vehicles and mini cars. The company had its own distinctive logo:
In 2010, Haima decided to produce its planned electric cars at Zhengzhou Haima. Those cars were the Haima F12/F3 EV and the Fushida Me, a tiny city EV. Fushida (福仕达), or FStar in English, was also the name of a popular microvan made by Zhengzhou Haima.
In 2010, Haima had a plan to morph the Fushida name into a brand name, making small affordable passenger cars, both ICE and EV. The Fushida Me EV was to be the first ‘new’ Fushida car.
Zhengzhou Haima had seriously reworked the design of the F12. It was renamed to ‘Haima EV’, without any numbers in the name, but in Chinese media it was generally referred to as Haima 3 EV.
The car got an aerodynamic body kit, a closed grille with a blue Zhengzhou-Haima logo, a set of sporty alloys, and a new light green paint job. Note the Fushida Me on the right side.
The car was shown at a media presentation in September 2010, with the Fushida Me and several other Zhengzhou Haima cars. At the time, Haima said the EV would launch on the Chinese car market in the second half of 2011.
The interior was slightly reworked too, with Zhengzhou badge on the steering wheel, a new panel at the low end of the center stack, and the trim on doors and dash is in a new color.
The rear spoiler was a bit lower and featured an integrated brake light. There was a black strip around the lights and logo.
Output of the Haima EV was 88 hp and 191 Nm. The motor was mated to a 32 kWh battery. Zhengzhou Haima claimed a top speed of 120 km/h, a 0-100 in 16 seconds, an energy consumption of 15 kWh/100 km and a range of 200 kilometers. Curb weight was 1390 kg, only 100 kg more than the petrol powered Haima H3, at least, according to Haima.
Sadly, once again, the Haima EV never made it to the market, and neither did the Fushida Me. The Fushida brand never became reality. More on the Fushida Me, and some more interesting Haima EVs, in an upcoming post.
However, Haima kept trying:
From Haima 3 to Haima Family
In 2012 the Haima 3 received an update, with a shiny new grille, and it was renamed to Haima Family, sometimes called Haima 3 Family. Confusingly, the Family name was also used for the predecessor of the Haima 3, which was based on the eight generation Mazda 323, which was produced by Hainan-Mazda as well.
Timeline: Haima Family (8th gen Mazda 323) > Haima 3 (9th gen Mazda 323) > Haima Family (updated Haima 3, 9th gen Mazda 323).
The updated Haima 3 was powered by a 1.6 liter four-cylinder petrol engine, good for 120 hp and 158 Nm. The motor was mated to a 5-speed manual or a CVT. Price started at 76.800 yuan.
The EV version
In 2012 an EV version appeared in Chinese media, complete with the fancy new front. The image looked like a typical photo for the catalogue of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), but it was never listed there.
The new car was called the Haima 3 EV, no matter that it should have been called the Haima Family EV. It was designated HMC7000CS0BEV., the very same designation as the earlier Haima F12 got when it was listed in the catalogue. So probably it was a continuous listing of some sort, and not a new one. The electric motor had an output of only 27 hp, much less than the earlier Zhengzhou Haima EV! Top speed was 100 km/h and curb weight a heavy 1460 kilo. But, as before, the car remained just an announcement and was never mass-produced.
In the mid and late 2000’s it was common for Chinese car makers to announce electric vehicles they never really intended to produce. They did so to impress the central government, which really wanted electric cars, and to earn all sorts of subsidies for developing EVs from the same central government and from local governments. One may say there was a lot of money wasted in those days. On the other hand, the hand-out policies did eventually lay the foundations for the EV-boom China experiences today.
Haima is a fine example. Things stayed quiet on the electric front for a long while, until… 2016. After many few model changes, renaming operations, and a few experimental cars in between, Haima finally launched a real electric passenger car:
This is the 2016 Haima @3, a somewhat odd name that didn’t really catch on, and only one year later Haima renamed it to E3. The @3 was based on the Familia and powered by a single electric motor with an output of 84 hp and 220 Nm, very decent numbers for the time. The motor was mated to a 26.6 kWh battery, good for an NEDC range of 200 kilometers. Price started at 209.800 yuan.
And one year later, in 2017, Zhengzhou Haima finally launched its long-overdue electric minicar. The Aishang EV was based on the petrol powered Aishang minicar, and powered by an electric motor with 37 hp and 140 Nm. The motor was mated to a 18.2 kWh battery for a 173 km NEDC range. It was very cheap with a base price of 49.800. The Aishang EV, with many updates, still in production today.
XPeng comes around, and leaves
The 2010’s saw the arrival of lots of new Chinese ‘EV startups’, car makers with big dreams but without production licenses or factories. Many of these startups therefore outsourced actual production at existing automakers. XPeng was one of those. The company was founded in 2015.
In 2017 XPeng and Haima signed an agreement to produce the XPeng G3 SUV at Zhengzhou Haima. Production started in 2018. The excerpt from the MIIT catalogue shows the Haima designation: HMA7000S68BEV. Manufacturer is Haima Auto and factory address is at Zhengzhou Haima. In December 2021 the agreement ended as intended, as XPeng now operates its own factories.
And that was the story of the Haima H12 concept car, an early electric sedan that in the end led to a real EV and a trendy startup car. China’s automotive history is loaded with this kind of long and twisty tales. More concept cars soon!
Sources, other than the ones linked in the text: 163, 163, Sina, Autohome, Tieba, Baike.
Happy belated New Year!
[…] the Haima H12 EV concept we discussed earlier, the Dongfeng EQ7200HEV was born in large part thanks to a government-funded […]