Against the backdrop of the continued warming of the new energy vehicle market in 2025, GAC Group launched a new masterpiece of its high-end new energy brand Haobo - Haobo HL in Beijing on March 18.
This model, positioned as a "family smart new luxury SUV", entered the 300,000-level market with a pre-sale price starting from 279,800 yuan, targeting popular competitors such as Ideal L8 and Wenjie M8. At the same time, Feng Xingya, chairman of GAC Group, took the stage and simultaneously unveiled GAC Group's systematic strategic layout for the era of intelligent driving.
Haobo HL uses "land yacht" as its design language and was designed by GAC's Los Angeles forward-looking design center team. It integrates the flowing curves of California's top luxury yachts and the image of mountains and seas. The body is 5126mm long, the wheelbase is 3088mm, and the drag coefficient is as low as 0.268Cd. Its original "mountain and sea" headlights and the Wanqing Waves Intelligent Interactive Lighting System realize dynamic welcome and light show functions through 260 matrix diamond light-emitting units, and are matched with the same ultra-high temperature crystal diamond paint as Maybach, pushing the sense of ceremony and luxury to the extreme.
On the technical level, Haobo HL is equipped with GAC's NDA 4.0 city pilot advanced intelligent driving system for the first time. Based on the NVIDIA Orin-X chip (computing power 254 TOPS) and end-to-end architecture, it achieves full coverage of "parking space to parking space", including parking in extremely narrow parking spaces, passing through sandy construction sections, and other six complex scenarios. It does not rely on high-precision maps, and the system availability exceeds 99%.
It is worth mentioning that its industry-first "Dark Night Eyes" military-grade night vision system, through a pixel-level AI imaging engine and low-light reconstruction technology, improves nighttime visual perception capabilities to near daytime levels, significantly reducing the nighttime autonomous driving takeover rate.
In terms of power and range, Haobo HL provides both pure electric and extended-range versions. The pure electric model relies on the full-range 800V high-voltage platform and 5C ultra-fast charging technology, replenishing 265km in 5 minutes and a maximum range of 750km; the extended-range version refreshes the industry benchmark with 350km pure electric range (CLTC conditions) and 1,200km comprehensive range, and comes standard with air suspension and intelligent variable damping shock absorbers, taking into account both control and comfort.
This press conference is not only the debut of Haobo HL, but also the deepening implementation of GAC Group's "Smart Driving 2027 Action Plan".
Feng Xingya, General Manager of GAC, made it clear that "GAC must take the lead in the L3 and L4 (level autonomous driving) stages" and promised to "support the Haobo brand without setting an upper limit". According to the plan, GAC will mass-produce the first L3 level autonomous driving model in 2025 and deliver L4 level pre-installed mass-produced vehicles; in 2027, it will launch L4 level models for individual users, with the goal of entering the first camp of global intelligent driving.
The support point of this strategy lies in the "Star Spirit Intelligent Driving" technology matrix built by GAC. It is based on the AI big model platform, Star Spirit electronic and electrical architecture and intelligent network big data platform to promote the popularization of high-end intelligent driving to 150,000 yuan-class models. For example, the Haobo brand will be equipped with a top-level intelligent driving solution that integrates laser radar, while Trumpchi and Aion will cover urban NDA and high-speed NDA scenarios respectively, forming a differentiated technology sinking path.
At the same time, GAC plans to build a 10,000-card computing power cluster to achieve 99.9% scene coverage through the B-end Robotaxi and C-end vehicle data feedback algorithm iteration, and launch five intelligent driving platforms covering 70TOPS to 2000TOPS computing power, building a full-stack capability from pure vision to multi-sensor fusion. It is reported that its Robotaxi has achieved more than 40 million kilometers of operation in five major regions in China.
Faced with the reality that the sales volume of the Haobo brand in 2024 did not meet expectations, the HL model was given the important task of breaking the deadlock. Its strategy is relatively clear - to eliminate range anxiety with extended-range power, to enter the family scene with a six-seat layout and dual zero-gravity seats, and to strengthen the technology luxury label through configurations such as Qualcomm 8295 chip, six-screen interconnection, and Dolby Atmos sound. In the pre-sale stage, GAC started recruiting "Smart Driving Experience Officers" and drew 100 cars for free use for one year. In addition, it also launched a replacement subsidy of up to 20,000 yuan. These all highlight GAC's ambition to leverage its 30 million base users to leverage the high-end market.
In the second half of the competition of intelligence, the appearance of Haobo HL is not only an iteration of a product, but also a microcosm of the transformation of traditional car companies into technology companies. When the "land yacht" enters the red ocean market with the crystallization of GAC's technology, can GAC rewrite the high-end new energy landscape with its systematic technology layout and precise user insights? The answer may be hidden in Feng Xingya's speech - "The future of smart cars belongs to players who understand both manufacturing and ecology."
