GOODWOOD, England -- China’s Hongqi premium brand aims to launch 12 models in five years in Europe as part of a wider expansion in the region into markets such as France and Germany.
Hongqi is part of the state-owned FAW Group. It currently sells the E-HS9 large electric SUV in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Benelux countries.
The brand will start selling the EH7 midsize electric sedan and EHS7 midsize SUV later this year in Europe, the company said. The plan is also to sell plug-in hybrids, Yang Dayong, general manager of FAW's overseas business division, told Automotive News Europe at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last week.
Hongqi, which started production in 1958, is targeting annual sales of 30,000-50,000 a year in Europe within the next five years, Yang said. The brand sold 207 of the E-HS9 in the first five months, figures from market analyst Dataforce show. The E-HS9 starts at about €60,000 but goes up to more than €100,000 depending on version.
Hongqi used the Festival of Speed event to showcase its current range of sedans and SUVs, which in China are pitched against premium brands including Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
Hongqi will win over premium customers in Europe on a "price, quality and design equation," Giles Taylor, Hongqi’s head of design, told Automotive News Europe at the Goodwood event.
Taylor has overseen design at the brand since 2018, when he moved from Rolls-Royce, where he was also head of design.
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Taylor’s mission at Hongqi was to update a brand best known for out-moded luxury limousines traditionally used by China’s political elite. (A Reuters article in 2021 called it "Chairman Mao Zedong's favored car brand.")
He said Hongqi’s new models are as good any those offered by more established European rivals. "China is now in the ascendancy," he said. "The copyist era is over, the disruptive era is over and we’re now in a global era where China has arrived."
Taylor said it would take about two years for Hongqi to establish itself in Europe.
The new models will compete with better technology and specifications, Hongqi said. The EH7 sedan launching in autumn comes with a maximum of 619 hp in the all-wheel-drive version with two electric motors, giving a 0-100 kph (0-62 mph) time of 3.5 seconds. Range is quoted at 700 km (434 miles) ahead of official WLTP figures. It comes with a 250-kilowatt fast-charging system.
Hongqi’s mission to increase EV sales in Europe has been made harder by the EU’s recent decision to impose additional tariffs on imported Chinese EVs. FAW brands are now subject to 31 percent tariffs on the wholesale cost of imported EVs after an additional 21 percent was imposed. The tariffs are provisional until early November.
The brand is deciding whether to absorb the extra tariffs or pass them onto the customer. "If the tax is implemented without any changes then the price of the E-HS9 will increase by about €20,000," Alexander Bachmann, head of product at Danish Hongqi importer KW Bruun, told Automotive News Europe at the Goodwood event.
Even so, the imposition of the tariffs won’t deter the brand’s expansion, he said. "It doesn't change our plans because the strategy is quite clear," Bachmann said.
