Hongqi

Hongqi is China’s state-limousine marque and the closest thing the country has to Rolls-Royce. The name means “Red Flag,” and since 1958 the brand has carried the nation’s highest-ranking officials through parades, ceremonies, and motorcades. It is the luxury flagship of FAW, the state-owned automaker known as First Automobile Works, and a marque of that company rather than a standalone business.

Behind the brand

Hongqi arrived in 1958, the oldest Chinese passenger-car brand. It is built by FAW in Changchun, in Jilin province, a city tied to China’s early car industry. The name draws on Communist Party symbolism, and the brand launched during the Great Leap Forward, when national identity shaped what it made.

From the start Hongqi built cars for high-ranking officials rather than for the showroom. Its cars appeared in state ceremonies and parades, carrying party leaders through the moments that defined the country’s public image. For years Western buyers could rarely see one, and the marque stayed largely unknown outside China.

The state limousines

The first Hongqi was the CA72, introduced in 1958, and it set the visual language of a ceremonial official car. Its successor, the CA770, carried the same duty through the following decades. Party leaders rode in these cars, and that role gave the badge a national weight no rival in China could match. Rolls-Royce does similar work in the West as the ceremonial car of heads of state; Hongqi answers the same question in China, in a different market.

The modern lineup

Hongqi now sells a far wider range. The H9 is a ceremonial-style sedan for buyers who want formal presence. The L5, also marketed as Guoli, is the ultra-luxury flagship limousine. The E-HS9 is the brand’s electric flagship SUV, in production since 2020 and sold in some export markets as part of Hongqi’s push beyond China.

The L5 leads the range. It is reportedly the most expensive Chinese-built car, though sources disagree widely on the figure, with some configurations placed well into seven figures. Availability is limited, and it stays largely reserved for state and ultra-wealthy use.

Where Hongqi sits

No other Chinese marque can claim an unbroken state-limousine heritage reaching back to 1958, and that is what sets Hongqi apart. FAW sits among the largest car companies in the world, a scale that supports Hongqi in ways a standalone luxury newcomer could not, and the marque appears on our list of the best Chinese car brands. The L5 marks its position at the top of homegrown luxury, a status symbol for affluent Chinese travelers who favor ceremonial cars. Hongqi once served the party elite alone. It now offers Chinese buyers and a few export markets a ceremonial car with electric ambitions.