HafeiSaibao V

01

Origins

The Saibao V of 2006 continued Hafei's saloon campaign: an evolution of the Pininfarina-styled line with updated equipment and the company's fours, contesting China's compact-sedan heartland as competition compounded annually. The Harbin marque's resources were stretching thin; microvans funded the passenger dream, and the dream kept requiring more. Within three years Changan's state-orchestrated absorption ended Hafei's independent car-making, redirecting the plants toward the acquirer's products. The Saibao V thus closes the catalogue — the final expression of an aircraft factory's two-decade attempt to become a car company, competent to the end and outgunned by the consolidation the state itself had decreed. The aircraft, at least, are still being built in Harbin. Consolidation was the industry's plan all along; the products it retired were rarely this dignified.