Hyptec HT Luxury review: A gull-winged SUV worth the hype

The Hyptec HT is a Chinese take on what a gull-winged SUV should look and drive like, and it looks and drives good.

The orange paint job is rather attention-grabbing, as if the gull-wing doors weren't grabbing enough attention as it is. Thankfully, both the colour and the doors are optional, and you can spring for a calmer-looking HT that loses out on none of the functionality.

The rear cabin is exceptionally roomy, with a perfectly flat floor, seats that recline, and more than enough leg and headroom, even if your name is Yao Ming.

The gull-wing doors come as part of the Luxury trim level, a hefty $30,000 increase over the base Premium spec. The only other differences between the variants are the Luxury's fixed brake callipers (floating callipers on the Premium) and the glass roof (a panoramic moonroof in the Premium).

The HT's bulbous, aerodynamic shape gives it a drag coefficient of just 0.245, no doubt going a long way to help the car achieve up to 520km of range on a full charge of its 83kWh battery.

The interior is comfortable, feature-filled, and super techy, exactly what you'd expect from a modern Chinese electric car.

The Hyptec HT has an incredibly large 672-litre boot, more than enough space for groceries, baby strollers, or indeed any other form of cargo.

While we discovered that you can drive with the gull-wing doors up, you really shouldn't, just in case they remember the birds after which they're named and take flight.

The 22-speaker Dolby Atmos system not only sounds great, but it even incorporates the speakers in the headrest for a truly unique aural experience.

What's Great

• The gull-wing doors are an excellent party trick, the look on people's faces when you pull up and pop the doors open is priceless.
• Incredibly spacious rear seats with crazy legroom. The rear seats can even recline fairly significantly for added comfort.
• The HT is fitted with automatic doors that only require one touch to open or close. Pressing the brake pedal will also automatically close the driver's door, which became second nature very quickly.

What's Good

• The properly bangin' 22-speaker Dolby Atmos sound system is very, very nice on the ears.
• The HT is pretty zippy, with 335hp, 430Nm of torque, and a 0 to 100km/h time of just 5.8 seconds, very impressive indeed.
• Capable of up to 280kW of DC fast charging, which can get the HT from 10 per cent to 70 per cent state-of-charge in only 15 minutes. 

What's Not Great

• The all-orange colour scheme is rather striking, though there are much calmer colours available.
• No wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto for now, though it is reported to be coming in the future via an over-the-air update
• The coloured dashboard reflects quite a bit in the windshield, which can be a little distracting and annoying.

This article was first published in Motorist.