Human Horizons HiPhi X review

And it 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 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.

These screens weren’t fully operational in our test car, which was in Chinese-market specification and so didn’t have a European data connection. But they should offer quite the digital overload once they do work.

The usability of the central infotainment console is complex, integrating the majority of secondary systems and adjustment functions just as a Tesla’s does. Want to move a door mirror or remotely open a rear door? You will need the right touchscreen menu. Ditto to move the steering column or adjust the ventilation settings. 

It’s quite imposing until you get used to it, and it could probably be distracting until you grow used to which functions can be adjusted on the move and which need to be set before departure.

The good news is that the front passenger’s TV-size display isn’t distracting from the driver’s seat (thanks to its directional pixels) and can be switched off when not in use.

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 and comfortable and adjustable, the driving position semi-recumbent rather than off-roader-upright.

Rearward visibility is the only serious bugbear: it’s alarmingly scant in the rear-view mirror unless you’re happy to use the rear-view camera, which most who go in for a car like this will surely be content to do.

Like the Z, the X feels impressively isolated, comfortable and refined on the road, although not especially large, heavy or unwieldy. It's lacking little 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. There's only as much lasting driver appeal as you might expect of a 2.6-tonne, high-rise EV, of course - as well as just a hint of excitability about our test car’s secondary ride on German back roads that might have been better dialled out by its adaptive air suspension. For the most part, however, the X hits its dynamic marks well. 

Considering that most of its owners will be drawn in by the car’s tech-packed interior, and to judge by what Tesla has achieved over the past decade especially, the 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.