► It’s not Porsche
► Joint project between GAC and Huawei
► No plans for the UK
The Porsche Panamera may not be the most popular model from Stuttgart, but it seems to have made a strong impression in Chinese design studios. This year’s Beijing Auto show was full of cars that bore a striking resemblance to Stuttgart’s Taycan and Panamera shooting brakes – but the most similar had to be the newly revealed Aistaland GT7.
Other cars riff off the Panamera and Taycan, such as the Denza Z9 GT, Xiaomi SU7 and others – but the Aistaland is a doppelgänger for either of Porsche’s shooting brakes.
It’s an Aistaland!
Short for an ‘AI Start New Land’ which may be one of the least imaginative names we’ve ever come across, it’s a new joint venture by tech giant Huawei and the Chinese GAC car manufacturer. It’ll be known as Qijing in China, which we think is a much better name.
It’s obviously Taycan– and Panamera-sized, so it has a wheelbase of 3000m, a length of 5050mm, a width of 1980mm and a height of 1470mm. For reference, Porsche’s take on its own Panamera model has a height of 1423mm, a wheelbase of 2950mm, a length of 5052mm and a width of 1937mm.
What else do we know?
The GT7 be available as a BEV and range extender as the latter is still particularly popular in China. Most reports say it’ll use a dual-motor all-wheel drive layout and cells from the Chinese CATL company. CAR also understands the engine will sit on above the front axle in the REX. The GT7 benefits from an 800-volt architecture as well as active suspension.
It’ll use two key bits of technology from Huawei: intelligent projection Xpixel headlights that allow it to project warnings on the road like Mercedes’ more advanced lighting systems, and a high-definition 896-line Lidar system.
Another component sourced from Huawei, the Lidar is a considerably more advanced unit than the 192-line systems commonly used by other brands, and its increased performance enables it to see objects as small as 14cm across from 122 metres in low light. This has safety benefits when using driving assistance features at night.
It’ll go on sale in around a month’s time, though there are few details about it selling outside of China.
CAR's Digital Editor, F1 and sim-racing enthusiast. Partial to clever tech and sports bikes
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