HawtaiBolgheri

01

Origins

Hawtai's Bolgheri of 2011 borrowed its name from a Tuscan wine village — the era's Chinese manufacturers shopping freely in European romance — for a compact crossover with the company's diesel option and value positioning. Production from the company's inland plants served budget SUV demand through the mid-2010s as the segment exploded around it. The Bolgheri competed on price against increasingly sophisticated domestic rivals, its specification honest and its refinement approximate. Like much of Hawtai's catalogue it left little trace beyond its curiosity: a wine-country name, an Ordos address, and a snapshot of the years when China's SUV gold rush had room for every prospector. The wine village, presumably, never learned of the tribute.