Hongqi — the Red Flag limousines of FAW, from 1958 to today

Hongqi at a glance

FAW and the first Hongqi

FAW was founded on 15 July 1953 in Changchun, Jilin province, and broke ground on its first factory that year. Its first product, the Jiefang CA-10 truck, appeared in 1956. In 1958 the company began building passenger cars. FAW describes Hongqi as the first domestically produced Chinese car marque.

The CA72 was introduced on 1 August 1958. Its design was based on a 1955 Chrysler, and the first prototype was a re-skinned Chrysler Imperial. It had a 5,655 cc V8, rated at 147 kW in the Hongqi article. A convertible appeared in September 1958 for dignitaries at the National Day parades. In the 1959 parade for the tenth anniversary of the People's Republic, Mao Zedong rode in a CA72. The CA72 article gives production as 1959 to 1965, and the model was then renamed CA770.

The CA770 and the parade cars

The CA770 was first shown in 1963; the Hongqi article's production table gives 1966 to 1981. It was a large limousine with a V8, and a three-row long-wheelbase version came in 1965. An armoured CA772 followed in 1969. Hongqi built these cars in small numbers, about 1,600 V8 cars in all, and in 1981 production stopped.

The parade cars kept the name alive. Deng Xiaoping used a CA770TJ in the 1984 parade, Jiang Zemin a CA772TJ in 1999 and Hu Jintao a CA7600J in 2009, when the V12-powered HQE also took part. A CA7601J appeared in 2019, and in 2022 the N701 became the presidential car.

Licensed cars: Audi, Lincoln and Toyota

From 1995 to 2006 Hongqi sold cars developed from foreign models. Audi 100-based saloons, the CA7200 and CA7220, were built from 1996 to 2004. A long Lincoln Town Car-based limousine, the CA7460, followed from 1998 to 2005. FAW was by then a partner of Volkswagen: the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture dates from 1991, and FAW-Toyota from 2003.

In 2006 FAW launched the HQ3, based on the Toyota Crown Majesta. First-year sales were near 500. In the first half of 2007 only 788 were sold, all from stock, and in October 2007 the price was cut sharply and the car was renamed Shengshi ("Days of Prosperity").

A new luxury brand: H7, L5 and the 2018 relaunch

In the early 2010s Hongqi tried again with its own designs. The L5 and L7 limousines were developed from the CA7600J parade car. In 2013 an L5 carried France's President François Hollande, and in November 2014 Xi Jinping took his own L5 on a state visit to New Zealand. A mid-size saloon, the H7, was launched in 2013. The company had expected 30,000 sales, but a year after launch fewer than 5,000 had been sold. In 2014 the People's Liberation Army bought at least 1,000 H7s. The whole brand sold only 2,534 cars in 2013 and 2,774 in 2014.

On 8 January 2018 FAW held the "Hongqi Brand Strategy Conference" and introduced a new design and logo. In September 2018 the British designer Giles Taylor joined FAW as global vice president of design and chief creative officer for Hongqi. The new range of saloons and SUVs sold quickly:

The flagship H9 saloon was presented in January 2020 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and went on sale in August 2020. It is 5,137 mm long; the stretched H9+ is 5,337 mm.

Electric cars and exports

The E-HS9 electric SUV was previewed by the E115 concept at the 2019 Frankfurt motor show and shown in production form at the 2020 Beijing show. It is 5,209 mm long with seven seats, 321 to 405 kW (436 to 551 PS) and batteries of 84 to 120 kWh from CATL. The WLTP range is up to 548 km.

In 2023 Hongqi added two more lines, the ultra-luxury Golden Sunflower and the New Energy electric range, and on 8 January 2023 it published its global new-energy strategy. Exports had started earlier. Hongqi entered Dubai with 20 H5 and H7 cars in December 2018 and sent 400 cars, including the H9, H5, HS7 and HS5, to Jeddah on 30 December 2020. It launched in Norway in September 2021, in Vietnam and Israel in 2022, in Denmark in December 2022 and in Sweden in January 2023. Sales in Sweden were weak, and the price there was cut by about 300,000 SEK half a year later. The facelifted E-HS9 reached right-hand-drive markets such as Singapore and Thailand in 2026.

The Hongqi models listed on 1cars are in the Hongqi catalogue, and the flagship has its own page on the Hongqi H9 luxury saloon, engines and prices. The parent company is covered in the history of FAW, and the maker of the 1990s Hongqi base model in the history of Audi. For rival large SUVs, see the best luxury SUVs.

Hongqi timeline

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