China's flagship Hongqi H9 to enter Japan, is this a joke?
Jerrica · Jan 30, 2021 09:55 AM
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Recently, an account known as “Hongqi Japan” has surfaced on Chinese social media site Weibo with the picture of a Hongqi H9 captioned “launching in Japan on February 2021”. This has caught the attention of many who started wondering if the Chinese car brand Hongqi is planning to join the Japanese market to compete with cars like Toyota, Nissan, and Honda?
Many of you probably have never heard of the brand Hongqi, but if you’re savvier with Chinese manufacturers, you would know that Hongqi is China’s premium car brand under FAW Group - think Genesis of China.
Hongqi is the first car manufacturer established in China. The company launched its first car in 1958 when the country was still under by communist rule. It was one of the first companies established as part of China’s “First Five-Year Plan” (roughly translated) to promote the industrialisation in the country.
The looks of the cars that first rolled out of the factory were much favoured by executives of the Chinese Communist Party and presidents of large corporations allowing the brand to establish itself as a symbolism of wealth.
The Hongqi H9 is the brand’s flagship sedan that measures 5,137 x 1,904 x 1,493 mm in length, width, and height while the wheelbase measures 3,060 mm. In China, the full-size sedan is sold at RMB 309,800 (RM 194,091) and RMB 539,800 (RM 338,294).
To give it a little context, Toyota doesn’t have a car as large as the H9 on sale in Japan. The largest sedan Toyota has in its arsenal is the Toyota Avalon (length 4,980 mm), which is not on sale in Japan.
The next largest car from Toyota is the Toyota Crown though it is smaller than the H9, measuring at 4,910 x 1,800 x 1,455 mm in length, width, and height.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, we’re talking if the Hongqi is really making it into the market. Kuruma News claims that they did some digging and was told that this is a “complete hoax” and to refrain from spreading the word.
It could be that the Hongqi H9 is available in Japan’s grey market car. Save to say that the Hongqi H9 wouldn’t look out of place in Japan, since the country does have their fair share of rebuilt classic cars. Does the name Mitsuoka not come to mind?
There isn’t a time in memory that doesn’t involve staring at cars. After discovering the excitement of watching Schumacher vs Hakkinen, Formula 1 became a major part of life. The love for cars and F1 ultimately led to a job with CAR Magazine. The untimely death of the magazine meant a hiatus from cars at lifestyle women’s magazine Marie Claire before another opportunity came knocking again.