Mao’s Old Limo Brand Is Now Outselling Rolls-Royce In China Two To One

For decades, the look for displaying automotive occurrence successful China was reasonably simple. Buy a VW if you could spend a basal car, a Mercedes if you were doing well, a Bentley if you were doing precise well, and a Rolls-Royce if you wanted everyone to cognize it. Now, a increasing fig of affluent buyers are seemingly choosing thing with its roots overmuch person to home.

That thing is Hongqi, the luxury part of state-owned automaker FAW. Best known for gathering limousines utilized by Chinese governmental leaders from Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping, the marque has spent the past respective years reinventing itself arsenic a superior subordinate successful the premium, luxury and ultra-luxury segments.

Also: Mao’s Favorite Brand Wants A European Factory, And Stellantis Has The Keys

Its latest flagship, the Golden Sunflower Guoli, leaves nary uncertainty astir those ambitions. The range-topping cold-war-chic sedan unveiled successful April astatine the Beijing Auto Show carries a terms tag equivalent to astir $1.6 million, putting it firmly into territory usually occupied by the astir exclusive bespoke machines from Europe.

More: Hongqi Built A G-Class Rival With Three Diff Locks And Way Too Much Power

And Hongqi isn’t trying to bushed luxury rivals connected horsepower figures oregon Nurburgring thigh times. Instead, it’s leveraging Chinese culture, craftsmanship, and nationalist identity. At the Beijing show, FAW president Qiu Xiandong described the Golden Sunflower Guoli arsenic “a enactment of creation that embodies taste confidence,” according to Nikkei Asia.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom Regatta

The details are elaborate, adjacent by Rolls-Royce standards. While the British marque is celebrated for its illuminated headliners, Hongqi says 1 of its maestro artisans spends much than 1,200 hours creating intricate embroidery for the peculiar variation model. One 100 antithetic colored silk threads, each thinner than a quality hairsbreadth is utilized to make the illusion of clouds supra passengers’ heads.

Buyers Are Lapping It Up

The strategy of tapping into Chinese pride, practice and craftsmanship appears to beryllium working. According to FAW, Hongqi’s ultra-luxury Golden Sunflower line launched successful 2024 recovered 1,400 buyers the pursuing year. While Rolls Royce doesn’t interruption retired its China figures, manufacture analysts MarkLines reckons lone astir 700 of the posh BMW brand’s 5,664 planetary registrations successful 2025 happened successful the country.

Also: Someone Just Dropped $1.5 Million For A Used Chinese Sedan

Now Hongqi wants to spot whether that entreaty tin travel. The institution is preparing to participate Malaysia and is expanding successful Russia, wherever sanctions enactment successful spot aft the commencement of the Ukraine warfare that forestall authoritative BMW and Mercedes income person created opportunities for alternate luxury brands.

FAW/Hongqi