The Hi4 version of the second generation Great Wall Motor’s Haval Dargo will be officially unveiled on March 25. In China the Haval Dargo is known as the Haval Big Dog, Dargo is essentially a transliteration of the Chinese name 大狗 (dagou). There is already a PHEV version of the second generation Dargo which launched last year the Hi4 is a more extreme all-wheel drive version.
Visually the car is much the same as the existing DHT-PHEV model and has the same trapezoidal front grille, with rounded rectangular dot matrix chrome decoration inside, and the blue Haval brand logo – remember in China blue equals green and so this is to let everyone you roll the new energy vehicle way. Although there are classic round headlight clusters on each side of the grille inside them are actually LED light sources.
Powering the new model is the Hi4 plug-in hybrid four-wheel drive system. It is a series parallel hybrid system which means that the 1.5T engine can both power the wheels directly and act as an electricity generator, typically the engine is used under heavy acceleration and at high speeds. Along with the engine the Hi4 system consists of a font wheel drive module and rear wheel drive module. Combined power of the system is 278 kW and maximum torque is 750 Nm, the system has an electric motor on each axle. Fuel consumption is rated at 1.83 l/100 km under the WLTC testing cycle. The Haval Dargo Hi4 also benefits from 33 kW fast charging.
When driving in town the Dargo Hi4 can intelligently switch between different working modes by accurately identifying real-time road conditions. Modes include pure electric two-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, series connection, and parallel, which greatly reduces the energy consumption under urban working conditions and makes daily commuting more economical.
In addition to how the car’s hybrid system can work there are seven actual driving modes that can be selected. These include Snow where the power between the front and rear axle is intelligently switched to make driving more stable in colder areas.
The Haval Dargo Hi4 is best seen as a light off-roader and the Hi4 technology is fully exploited when the car goes off-road. When climbing hills the Haval Dargo Hi4 can make full use of the adhesion between the front and rear wheels by adjusting the torque output of the front and rear axles, and so can tackle steep slopes. On muddy and slippery roads, the four-wheel drive system is automatically selected, and the iTVC intelligent torque vectoring control system suppresses slippage to improve driving safety. The three-power source four-wheel drive can provide stronger torque output, and with the intelligent torque vectoring control system, it can realize the rapid transfer of slipping torque, combined with sensitive response, bringing stronger off-road ability to get drivers out of trouble.
Inside the Haval Dargo Hi4 has an LCD instrument cluster and large floating central control screen. Notably the car retains a row of physical buttons under the control screen to improve ease of operation.
The Haval Dargo Hi4 comes with an L2+ intelligent driving system which works in conjunction with the NOH intelligent navigation assistance system. It gives functions such as adaptive cruise control according to conditions and regulations, lane keeping and lane changing through use of indictors. In addition the system can undertake intelligent entry and exit of ramps, intelligent lane change protection, intelligent avoidance of large vehicles, intelligent avoidance of intersection entrances, and intelligent identification of easily confused forks on highway sections covered by high-precision maps.
Editor’s note:
The Haval Dargo is one of Haval’s most successful cars and one with some genuine off-road ability. So far more than 400,000 have been sold since the car first went on sale in 2020. The second generation began sales last year and despite being based on the same platform as the first generation is a new car. Haval is still by far Great Wall Motor’s best selling brand and getting in early on the SUV trend has done the company well.
Sources: Autohome, Dazhong Newspaper Group
