Hongqi Guoya: luxury hybrid sedan ready to take on the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class

One of the most striking premieres of the Beijing Motor Show that opened today was the Guoya executive sedan from the premium brand Hongqi, owned by the state-owned auto concern FAW, it should arrive on sale this year.

In just over six years, Hongqi has transformed from a niche brand into a formidable competitor to the big German three (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz) in the Chinese market. Thanks to a very wide range of models, including a bus, and not focusing on any one type of powertrain, Hongqi sales have been growing steadily since retail sales began in 2018. In the first quarter of 2024, 99,147 Hongqi vehicles were sold in China, according to CAAM, which is 28.3% more than sales in January-March 2023. For comparison, let's say that sales of Mercedes-Benz in China in the first three months of this year amounted to 145,113 units. (-0.4%) — however, CAAM statistics take into account only locally assembled cars.

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The flagship of the Hongqi model range is the L5 executive sedan in retro style with an overall length of six meters, and in Russia the largest of the officially presented models of the Chinese brand is the H9 sedan with an overall length of 5137 mm and a wheelbase of 3060 mm.

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The Hongqi Guoya (in the original 红旗国雅, which can be translated into Russian as “Hongqi exquisite” or “Hongqi elegant”), which debuted today at the Beijing Auto Show, will take a place in the lineup exactly between the Hongqi H9 and Hongqi L5: the overall length of the Guoya is 5353 mm, width — 1998 mm, height — 1511 mm, wheelbase — 3260 mm.

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The Hongqi Guoya's front end design is borrowed from last year's Hongqi E-LS concept crossover, but the sedan has a less massive grill and overall looks sleeker than the concept. The interior is decorated strictly and modernly — only the chrome arch on the steering wheel shows the connection between Guoya and the distinctly old-fashioned Hongqi L5.

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The FAW concern has not yet published the technical characteristics of the Hongqi Guoya, but last week this sedan surfaced in the electronic database of the Chinese Ministry of Industry (there, by the way, it is designated as Hongqi L1, the commercial name Guoya was made public only today), from the certification dossier we learned that Guoya will be be equipped with hybrid power plants based on FAW's own supercharged gasoline engines — 3.0 l V6 (394 hp) and 4.0 V8 (490 hp). The characteristics of the hybrid add-on have not yet been disclosed.

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In China, Hongqi Guoya will compete with the first hybrid model from the Mercedes-Maybach luxury line — the S 580 e sedan, which was made specifically for China and celebrated its premiere in February of this year. Guoya has a good chance of appearing in Russia and becoming Hongqi's new flagship here; the junior Hongqi H9 sedan has already successfully replaced many worn-out executive Mercedes in corporate fleets that lack official service support.