Chinese car marque Haima has been suffering major losses lately. With only around 67,000 cars sold in 2018, the sales plummeted down 50%. To make matters worse, only 3,312 vehicles found their owners in the period from January through May 2019. Another company would have given up – but not Haima, who has just debuted its all-new crossover SUV dubbed the 8S.
Well, perhaps our choice of the word ‘all-new’ was quite liberal. After all, we are talking about a car that looks unmistakably like the Hyundai Santa Fe from its front end and has a Peugeot 3008-like rear. It rides on the HMGA chassis of the second-gen Haima S5, which features multi-link rear suspension.
Unlike the exterior, the cabin of the car actually makes an effort to look unique. Noteworthy features include a multimedia system with a quasi-hovering touchscreen panel and a digital dashboard. Options include 360-degree cameras, panoramic glass roof, adaptive cruise control, hands-free trunk opening, automatic emergency brake, lane control, and blind spot monitor.
For the time being, the new Haima 8S will ship with a 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gas engine rated at 194 hp (145 kW) and 293 Nm (216 lb-ft) of torque. The transmission has six gears, but you may choose between manual and automatic. Given the low popularity of AWD cars in China, it comes as no surprise that the 8S is a pure FWD vehicle.
Accelerating from nothing to 100 km/h (62 mph) takes 7.8 seconds. A hybrid version of the car will be added to the lineup in the future, but the manufacturer provides no estimates.
In its most basic version, the new crossover costs 79,900 Chinese Yuan, which is 2.5 times cheaper than the Hyundai Santa Fe it aspires to be. The top trim version will set you back 125,900 Yuan.