Today in China Concept Cars (CCC): the Haima Me and MPe electric minicars. The Me debuted at the 2008 Beijing Auto Show and the MPe debuted one year later at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show.
About Haima
Haima is a Chinese car maker based in Haikou, the capital of Hainan Province. It was founded in 1992 as a joint venture called ‘Hainan Mazda’. The partners were Hainan Auto, owned by the Hainan provincial government, and Mazda. The joint venture made about a dozen models under two brands: Haima (from Hainan Mazda) and Mazda. This kind of double-brand strategy was common for joint ventures at the time.
In 2006, the much larger automaker First Auto Works (FAW) bought a controlling stake in Hainan Auto and Hainan Auto’s share of the joint venture. The JV was subsequently renamed FAW-Mazda, but Hainan Auto kept the rights to the old Mazda platforms.
One year later, in 2007, Hainan Auto bought the Zhengzhou Light Vehicle Manufacturing Plant, a company making all sorts of minivans and small trucks. It was then renamed Zhengzhou Haima Automobile. Both Haima Auto and Zhengzhou Haima sold cars under the Haima brand, but Zhengzhou Haima used a different logo.
The newly combined company hatched a business plan: the original Hainan Auto would continue to make passenger cars based on Mazda platforms. Zhengzhou Haima got some extra work. Besides the existing vans and trucks, it was tasked with developing ICE minicars, and with setting up an electric vehicle program.
Zhengzhou Haima in 2008
The year 2008 was busy for Zhengzhou Haima. They launched a new sub-brand called Fushida (福仕达), with the English name Fstar. So the naming sequence was Haima Fstar xxx (海马 福仕达 xxx). In 2008, Zhengzhou Haima unveiled two Fstar production cars: the Fstar 1 hatchback and the Fstar 2 minivan.
The Haima Fstar 1 was aimed at the popular Chery QQ. It was a 5-door hatchback powered by a 1.0-liter engine. Production was delayed many times. Eventually, it was launched on the Chinese car market in 2011, then renamed Haima Prince (海马王子).
The Haima Fstar 2 was a brand-new minivan with a modern design. The most notable design feature was the ‘bubble’ in the roof above the cabin. Power came from 1.0 and 1.2-liter engines. Production started in 2011 as well.
To top it off, Haima also unveiled a concept of an EV version of the Fstar 1, called the Fstar e. There was no production.
Haina Fstar Me
The Haima Fstar Me minicar was developed to showcase the new Fstar sub-brand and to get attention for Haima’s EV program. It was unveiled at the 2008 Beijing Auto Show, painted in bright orange with bubbly stickers on the doors. The headlight design was similar to the Fstar 1.
The Haima Fstar Me was a tiny 3-door hatchback with 2+1 seats and sporty five-spoke alloys. The wheels were pushed as far to the corners as possible.
The interior looked very real for a concept car. Only the steering wheel seemed a little oddly shaped. There was an orange-white color scheme, four big round air vents, and a center stack with the audio unit and 3 rotary dials. The drive selector looks like a gear lever for an automatic gearbox, and it has a mechanic handbrake between the seats.
The audio unit had FSTAR branding, a CD player, and a radio. Check out the old-school slider for air ventilation.
The rear lights have a cool spaced-out design. At the show, Haima said the Me was meant for “urban working conditions”. Haima claimed a top speed of 80 kilometers per hour and a driving range of 160 kilometers.
Unlike most concept cars, the Haima Me was fully functional. The batteries were located at the rear, under the floor. Haima said the batteries were fully swappable! Haima developed various technologies for battery swapping in the 2000s, they were far ahead of time with that. See my article about battery swapping in China, and scroll down to about one-third for Haima.
The permanent magnet brushless motor was located in the front.
Like I said, the Haima Me was a 2+1. There was a third seat in the rear compartment. It was a tiny jump-seat just large enough for a small kid.
Folded up and folded down. Sadly, the Haima Me never saw production. But, one year later, Haima did unveil a largely similar but slightly larger concept car, the MPe.
Haima MPe
The Haima MPe debuted at the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show. It was like a grown-up variant of the Me. One important difference: by 2009, Haima had decided not to use the Fstar name for passenger cars anyway, so the new naming was simply Haima MPe, without Fstar in between.
The sticker on the door says MPE, with a capital E. But that’s wrong. The car was called MPe. This sort of odd mistake was typical for the time. But no matter all that, the MPe was a cool-looking little car. It had sporty wide wheel arches and a small spoiler above the rear window. The most notable design feature was the wildly-shaped rear-side window. Great for visibility from the inside out.
The interior was very similar to the Me, with a new set of colors. The MPe was a two-seat car, the extra seat in the back had been deleted. Probably for the better.
There was a brake light integrated into the spoiler and a fog light on the left side of the bumper. The rear lights are located high up the C-pillar.
Haima didn’t show the battery or motor of the MPe, so I can’t be sure if it had a powertrain. Haima claimed it could home-charge on 220V in six to eight hours. The company also said that running costs were one-fifth of a comparable gasoline-powered car.
The Haima MPe wasn’t produced either, but the design was later ‘borrowed’ by several LSEV companies. Haima, however, did produce several other EVs, long before the EV boom in China truly started. In a follow-up article, I will discuss these early Haima electric vehicles in more detail.
that resembles the byd f0, doesn’t it? and I’m sure that byd would have suied
I would honestly love to see an article about the Zhengzhou Light Vehicle Manufacturing Plant cars. I was never able to find anything about any of the vehicles they did before the Haima takeover. I dont know if the plant is still active today either, now that Haima is struggling to stay afloat…