With Series 4 (season 4) of Forza Horizon 5 starting later this week, the Forza series will see the very first introduction of cars by manufacturers from China.
This have been revealed last week by Xbox over in China, but now it’s been properly revealed to the rest of the world in the latest Forza Monthly and Forza Horizon “Let’s ¡GO!” livestreams today.
The big halo car of the lot is the NIO EP9 electric supercar. You may recognise the NIO name as a team competing in Formula E, in which some of the tech from the electric open-wheel series has trickled down to develop the EP9.
On the other end of the scale is what is considered one of the most popular cars in China, the Wuling Sunshine. The econobox has only 86hp in this variant coming to Forza Horizon 5 (that’s a D Class car, the lowest rung of the car classes) and can’t go more than 100 mph (160kph) stock. But it should be fun to make ridiculous tunes and engine swaps with this. It does have a widebody kit too.
The other two cars are technically by a British marque, MG, but they are under ownership by Chinese company SAIC Motor Corporation Limited. While MG already has one car in the game, two more will join the ever-growing car list in Series 4.
The MG XPower SV is the one and only supercar by the manufacturer that you can mistakenly see as an American muscle car (in fact, it does share a lot of parts with the Ford Mustang). However, it didn’t do well sales-wise, which led to MG being acquired.
The MG MG3 is the more reasonable and affordable hatchback, and the first new model to emerge after the acquisition. Initial runs of this model were made in China, but the 2015 model year featured in Forza Horizon 5 is the generation where these cars are made in the UK.
The NIO EP9, Wuling Sunshine and MG G3 are part of the Festival Playlist rewards for Series 4 and can be earned by all players. The MG XPower SV is part of the Car Pass, which requires an additional purchase.
According to games industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, the Forza series has been seeing large sales in China. This should explain the Lunar New Year-themed seasonal event this year, and these four cars being added next week, there’s a big fanbase of Chinese players which is fascinating to see.
Series 4 for Forza Horizon 5 will also bring in a new community event, the Horizon World Cup, where players can earn points for the six different competing nations by using the nation’s cars to complete Festival Playlist events.