Haval (长城哈弗) teases boxy new flagship; chairman asks public to pick a name

Design tease: cube-like, rugged, and a mysterious "small blue light"

Haval (长城哈弗) has released a side-view teaser of its next flagship SUV, and the silhouette is unmistakably boxy — a cube-like, hard-edged off-roader that echoes the current retro-utility trend in China. According to IT Home (IT之家), the preview shows rectangular front lamps, a nearly vertical rear glass, an externally mounted full-size spare wheel and what appears to be a roof-mounted sensor cluster. It has been reported that a roof lidar may be present and that a small blue light has been confirmed onboard, features that suggest the car could carry advanced sensing or connectivity hardware.

Platform, pricing and what it signals

The new model is said to ride on Great Wall Motor’s latest vehicle platform, "Guiyuan" (归元), and is reportedly targeted at the higher end of Haval’s lineup — roughly the ¥300,000 level (about US$40,000–45,000). That positions the car above mainstream mass-market SUVs and into a more premium, tech-forward segment where lidar and over-the-air systems are increasingly used as differentiators. Will the combination of retro toughness and high-tech kit be enough to sway buyers? The teaser certainly aims to provoke that question.

Name game and marketing move

Great Wall Motor chairman Wei Jianjun (魏建军) has taken the unusual step of inviting the public into the naming process, posting a video asking whether the model should be called "Haval HX" or "Haval H10." It has been reported that internal opinion was split, so the chairman opened the debate to netizens — a reminder of how Chinese OEMs increasingly use social platforms to crowdsource marketing and build hype.

Context: competition, export ambitions and geopolitical backdrop

Haval is Great Wall’s flagship SUV brand, long known in China for models such as the H6. The new teaser reflects broader industry moves toward rugged, boxy SUVs with advanced driver-assistance packages as manufacturers chase higher margins and export markets. Reportedly, the inclusion of lidar and other advanced hardware also comes amid growing international scrutiny of Chinese tech exports and tighter trade and security policies in some Western markets — hurdles many Chinese automakers must navigate as they expand overseas.