In a sea of big, long, technologically-advanced cars full of screens and AI and LiDAR and self-driving tech, one car stood out. With brown matte paint, this car was wedge-shaped and stylistically chic. Sure, there are plenty of classy, well-finished, and well-styled manufacturers from China’s domestic manufacturers, but this felt new. It felt fresh, and most importantly, it wasn’t a time-wasting concept meant to gauge opinion or preview a new model, but an actual production car with specifications and plans to enter China’s market within the next few weeks.
Imagine my suprise for me to walk to the front of the stand and saw a round grey “H” on the front of the car. It was a Hyundai, the new Ioniq V. “It’s a striking car, that’s for damn sure,” I said to myself, walking from Xiaomi’s stand to Geely’s stand at this year’s Beijing Auto Show. For once, I didn’t feel so pessimistic when it came to non-Chinese automakers in China. Based on vibes alone, it felt like at least one non-Chinese automaker understood where it went wrong and wanted to right the ship, so to speak.
