Luxury automobile company Hongqi was launched in 1958, nine years after the revolution; it is China’s oldest passenger car manufacturer, and was founded specifically to provide status to the party elite. That apparent contradiction leads directly to the company’s new consumer offering, the L5.
Hongqi translates to ‘red flag.’ Originally, the company specialized in cars for party dignitaries—in other words, limousines—which would indicate the esteem in which they had been conveyed to their positions. As the cultural revolution developed, Hongqi remained, though increasingly at odds with the austere ideals of Maoism; the company was defunct by the early eighties.
Revived in the 1990’s, as China began to attempt the tricky balance of revolution and free market, the automaker has returned to its roots: imperialist cars built by the people. But this time for the people—at least a few of them.
The L5 is firmly nested in the tradition of the first Hongqi model, which was designed in the ‘fifties in the style of Chrysler, one of the most luxurious American car brands of the period, with the aristocratic overtones of the Bentley. It looks remarkably similar to that 1950’s model, but is styled even more in the blueblood British bulldog vein of the Bentley. The red-flag motif decorates both front and rear of the car, as if looking to both past and future through the present tense of a luxuriant vehicle, making the car an astute symbol of contemporary Chinese ideological equipoise.
Elsewhere, the desire to retain such a historical balance is just as clearly evoked: the cabin features rosewood appointments and a nostalgic ringed horn in chrome, as the dashboard sports a color infotainment screen, as do the backs of both headrests. The rear seat features a partition with a sliding wood panel that reveals a touchscreen control. It is, elliptically, a potent expression of history, and historical possibility.
A turbocharged 4L V8 offers more fuel efficiency than the Hongqi’s usual V12 (which is indicated in the photo below), which should be enough to propel the car’s 7,000 pounds. The Hongqi L5 will be offered at a base price of a little under $600,000.
