This is the Hongqi HS7, a large Chinese SUV. The HS7 is an impressive car, with an enormous grille with a lot of shine. The typical Hongqi hood ornament runs over the hood and into the center slat of the grille. The car that I met was painted in Hongqi black, with dark windows and gray wheels.
Hongqi (Red Flag), is a brand under First Auto Works, a large automotive conglomerate based in the great city of Changchun in Jilin Province. Hongqi is most famous for its stately state limousines and weird Audi-based parade cars, but in recent years they have been expanding their lineup at a dazzling pace. One SUV after the other, sedans, EVs, PHEVs, ICEs, everything! And it works. Hongqi is a proper high-middle segment car brand now, selling over 37.000 cars in October, which was good enough for the 17th spot on the sales charts.
The HS7 is Hongqi’s second-largest petrol-powered SUV. It was launched on the Chinese car market in 2019 and received a major upgrade in 2023. The car that I met is a pre-update example. It is a big car: 5035/1989/1756, with a 3008 wheelbase. It has seven seats in a 2/3/2 setup.
The interior is luxurious, as with any Hongqi. It has wide comfy seats, a wide center tunnel, and classy trim, like the wood panels on the dashboard. It has a 12.3-inch touch-screen in the middle. This car has light-green leather/Alcantara seats. Hmm. A black body with green seats is an interesting choice of spec.
Character time! On the left: 中国一汽, Zhongguo Yiqi, short for China First Auto Works. Characters in the middle: 红旗, Hongqi. On the left side is the HS7 badge, and below that 45TD. That stands for Turbo Direct injection. The number 45 stands for the torque. Many Chinese car makers use a vehicle’s torque number for trim-level names.
The 2019-2022 Hongqi HS7 45TD was a four-wheel drive car. Power came from a 3.0 turbocharged V6 with an output of 337 hp and 445 Nm. The top speed is 230 km/h, 0-100 takes 7.8 seconds, and fuel consumption is a steep 7.8 liters per 100 km. The price in 2022 started at 369.800 yuan.
Blue 京A license plates are not the same as black 京A license plates. The blue ones were issued to the first batches of privately registered cars in Beijing, as opposed to cars registered to companies or the government. Most blue 京A plates were issued in the early 1990s. In the 2000s, the blue plates became status symbols, showing that the owner was an early car buyer, and thus wealthy. This led to a peculiar phenomenon where the original plate-carrying car was scrapped so that the plate could be used on newer cars. This is what happened with the plate on this Hongqi. Happily, some of the original blue 京A license plates are still attached to the original cars.
This car, has some political meanings in China, many Civil servants will buy this to show their loyal and passion to the country and try to avoid the risk of being accused by those stupid people(some brainless people will think that if you don’t buy our own country cars, you don’t love our country), and it is alsoa purchased by some high level politicans, for the safety concern.
and BTW, HONGQI H9 is a really a nice car, recommend you guys to see it, very good, but may not easy for you guys to buy it, why? of course for its political meaning haha.
Hello Watson Mao. Thank you very much for your comments! Where do you live in China? I lived in Beijing from 2003 until 2019. I will visit again this summer. Let me know. Greetings!
Thank you for your reply, I live in ShangHai.
Wow, you stayed a long time in China, hope you had fun, and welcome you to China again.