Here’s a Honda S7, seen at a Dongfeng-Honda dealer in China earlier this year, looking great in Platinum Blue with matte gray aero wheel covers. The S7 is a China-only fully electric mid-size SUV, developed by Honda’s local R&D team. Sadly, it hasn’t been a big success. Let’s find out more.
Honda in China
In the 2000s and 2010s, Honda was one of the best-selling car brands in China, with popular models like the Honda Accord and Honda Fit. But, like many non-Chinese automakers, Honda has fallen on hard times, outgunned by the competition from booming local brands. In 2017, Honda was the second-best-selling brand in China, with sales of 1.4 million cars and a 5.7% market share. It sounds almost unbelievable now. In 2025, Honda had dropped to 8th, selling 641.247 cars with a 2.68% market share. That’s a big drop!
Honda has two joint ventures in China: Dongfeng-Honda, founded in 2003, and GAC-Honda, founded in 1998. Each JV sells about 10 different models, with a lot of overlap in price and size. In 2025, each JV was good for an almost-equal part of Honda’s total sales (50.4% vs 49.6%). The manufacturer of the Honda S7 is Dongfeng-Honda.
Not Ye
Originally, Honda planned the Dongfeng-Honda S7 as a model under the Ye (烨) sub-brand, alongside the GAC-Honda P7 (the S7’s twin sister) and the GT, a sporty sedan. Its full name was to be the Honda Ye S7. Honda launched Ye in 2024, targeting a young audience, with the aim of regaining some market share it had lost. It wasn’t an easy project, as both joint ventures had to agree on the concept and develop a similar marketing strategy. Normally, Dongfeng-Honda and GAC-Honda operate as competitors. Still, Honda seemed to make it work. Early production cars even had Ye badges on the back. But just before launch, Honda quietly abandoned the entire Ye plan. Strangely, it never officially explained why. At launch in March 2025, the Honda Ye S7 became the Honda S7, the Honda Ye P7 became the Honda P7, and the Ye GT never materialized under any name.
The Honda S7
The Honda S7 is a mid-size SUV with sporty, angular looks. The S7 looks remarkably unlike any other Honda. That was intentional: Honda’s local R&D team designed it in China, using a new design language aimed specifically at Chinese consumers. Honda describes the S7’s styling theme as “Blade of Light and Shadow”. It has sharp lines everywhere; even the wheel arches are are angled rather than rounded! The car in the photos is the top-spec Honda S7 AWD Navigator model.
The sticker is essentially advertising that the car received a five-star safety rating and was selected as one of China’s Top 10 Car Bodies.
China’s Top 10 Car Bodies (中国十佳车身) is an annual Chinese automotive industry award for vehicle body engineering. Cars are evaluated on things such as structural safety, lightweight construction, materials, manufacturing technology, body rigidity, and design/engineering innovation. Each year, ten vehicle bodies are selected as winners. The award’s organizer is the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC).
The rear looks especially futuristic, with a thin light bar and protruding, fin-like taillight sections that extend beyond the bodywork on either side. The Honda S7, and the P7, were rge first Honda cars to feature the new part-lowercase part-capital spelling of the Honda brand name.
Camera mirrors
The Honda S7 was one of the first cars in China to come standard with camera mirrors. Many Chinese brands offer them as an option, but on the S7, they are standard equipment across the range. The Honda name on the black trim piece looks pretty cool.
Honda designed a totally new interior for the S7, tailored for Chinese tastes, with a very tech and minimalist look. The cabin is airy too, thanks to the large panoramic sunroof and a light color scheme.
But Honda didn’t go far enough. The old-fashioned drive-selector buttons were the subject of much ridicule by the press and social media. They looked terrible and took up valuable space on the center console. The main screen is a properly sized unit! However, it isn’t a single screen, but two separate ones: 12.8-inch on top and 10.25-inch at the bottom. The instrument panel measures 9.9 inches, and there’s a 41.9-inch HUD as well. The screens for the camera mirrors were tiny, almost hidden between the steering wheel and the door. The screens are so oddly positioned that they are invisible in my photos.
I borrowed this photo from Honda China, showing the screen’s weird position and angle. Chinese consumers generally aren’t very fond of camera mirrors, so selling the Honda S7 without the option of conventional mirrors was a big mistake.
A long-wheelbase electric car equals shiploads of legroom. The S7 is probably the roomiest Honda ever. Other standard equipment includes: a 20-watt wireless charger, a Bose sound system with 16 speakers, and an in-car fragrance system.
Specifications of the Honda S7
The S7 stands on Honda’s Architecture W, a dedicated EV platform developed in China specifically for the Chinese market. Dimensions of the Honda S7: 4750/1930/1625, 2930, with a 2305 kg curb weight. The Honda S7 AWD Navigator model has a dual-motor AWD powertrain. Output is 350 kW and 770 Nm (150 kW/350 Nm front and 200 kW 420 Nm rear). Honda claims a 0-100 accelaration in 4.6 seconds. The top speed is limited to 180 km/h.
The Honda S7 features a CATL-supplied 89.8 kWh NMC battery pack. The electricity consumption is a pretty impressive 15.5 kWh per 100 kilometers, and the range is 620 kilometers. The S7 has a 400V architecture and a large battery, so charging is slow: 30-80% in 36 minutes. That’s not good.
The ADAS package is impressive for Honda. The S7 is equipped with Honda SENSING 360+ with 9 external cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic radars.
Price of the Honda S7 in China
The Honda S7 AWD Navigator costs 249.900 yuan, or $37K. However, that is the list price. Honda dealers offer huge discounts, so the average dealer price is only $29.7K. But even that doesn’t help; Honda sells only 200-220 units per month. Its main problems are the odd dashboard, the camera mirrors, and the low charging speed. Designing a car especially for the Chinese market is, generally speaking, a good idea, but Honda just didn’t take it far enough. The lack of updates isn’t a good sign either; the S7 hasn’t seen a single improvement since launch. If it were a real Chinese car, it would have been updated at least twice in the same timeframe.
