Saic H5 Unveiled in China as Huawei’s Most Affordable EV to Date

The all-new Saic H5 breaks cover in China as the most affordable EV to date by Huawei’s HIMA.

Huawei’s Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA) has welcomed yet another new brand under its vast arms, simply known as Saic, with the debut of its first-ever model, the Saic H5. This sleek crossover now stood as the most affordable model to date, with prices starting from CNY 159,800 (RM94,401) for the range-extender (REEV) version and CNY 165,800 (RM97,946) for the battery electric (BEV) variant.

Also known as Shangjie in Chinese, the Saic brand is borne out of Huawei’s partnership with Chinese automotive giant SAIC Motor, making it the fifth marque under the HIMA group after Aito, Luxeed, Maextro, and Stelato.

Positioned as a midsize crossover, the H5 gets a pretty typical Chinese EV SUV design, spanning 4,780 mm long, 1,910 mm wide, and 1,664 mm tall with a wheelbase of 2,840 mm. Some key design highlights include oval LED headlights, a clean front grille, active air intakes, a sleek side profile, full-width LED taillights, conventional door handles, multi-spoke alloy wheels, and many more.

Thanks to its long wheelbase, the H5 comes with a pretty spacious cabin, featuring a similar interior setup as seen on other HIMA EVs. Up front, the minimalist front dash is dominated by the large 15.6-inch floating touch screen powered by Huawei’s Harmony OS, a smaller digital metre cluster, a flat-bottomed steering wheel with a column-mounted gear selector, and almost no physical buttons.

Other key amenities primed here include a 50-watt wireless charger, a large panoramic glass roof, ambient lights, powered front seats, reclinable rear seats, dedicated A/C vents, and more. Thanks to its strictly two-row, five-seater layout, the H5 gets a pretty sizable boot space measuring 601 litres as standard, and there’s also a large 142-litre frunk in case you need more space.

As mentioned earlier, the Saic H5 comes in both REEV and BEV configurations, with the former featuring a 1.5-litre petrol engine rated at 97 hp as its core, which is then mated to a 201 hp-rated electric motor and a 32.6 kWh battery pack. This setup is enough for up to 235 km of EV-only range (CLTC), plus a comprehensive range of 1,360 km (CLTC), Huawei claims.

Meanwhile, the BEV version is powered by either a 201 hp or a peppier 241 hp-rated single-motor setup, which is matched with either a 64.6 kWh or an 80 kWh battery pack, depending on the trim. Huawei claims the smaller battery unit can supply the H5 with up to 535 km of CLTC range, while the larger unit ups the ante at 655 km (CLTC).

Depending on trim levels, Chinese customers can get the H5 with a roof-mounted LiDAR unit, which works in-tandem with three 4D millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and 11 high-definition cameras to support the Huawei Qiankun ADS 4.0 system. With this, Huawei claims that the H5 has "the only end-to-end navigation assistance system in its class and also provides forward, rear, and side collision avoidance."