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Chairman Mao’s Favoured Carmaker Enters Europe With EVs in Norway

China is exporting hundreds of modern electric sports utility vehicles from the Hongqi, or Red Flag, brand to Norway, as Chinese car companies expand globally


Italian authorities to discuss manufacturing plant proposed by Silk EV and China's FAW.
One of FAW's new Hongqi sports utility models. The company says it has continued to develop the two models it wants to produce in Italy, the S9 hybrid 'hypercar' and the S7 electric sports car under FAW's Hongqi brand. File photo: FAW.

 

Chairman Mao Zedong’s favoured car brand, Hongqi, or Red Flag, is exporting China-made electric sport-utility vehicles to Norway, as Chinese car companies expand globally.

In a statement late on Thursday, Hongqi said it had received 500 orders for its cars in Norway, where it said there were environmentally friendly policies and good infrastructure for electric vehicles.

In China, the world’s biggest car market, Hongqi’s sales have grown in recent years thanks to the launch of more models and an expanded sales network.

Regarded as a cultural symbol of China‘s ruling Communist Party, Hongqi in 2018 hired former Rolls-Royce designer Giles Taylor, whose works include Rolls-Royce’s Phantom VIII limousine and the brand’s first sport-utility vehicle model, the Cullinan, to head its design team in Munich.

China‘s electric carmakers, including Nio Inc, Xpeng Inc and BYD, are looking to capture European market share as the continent transitions to greener energy.

 

Chairman Mao’s much-loved Hongqi is seen at the Shanghai Auto Museum. AFP file photo.

 

Hongqi in 2018 hired former Rolls-Royce designer Giles Taylor to head its design team in Munich. The H9 is one of its new sedans. Photo: Hongqi-auto website.

 

• Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard

 

ALSO SEE:

China’s Electric Carmakers Start Making Moves On Europe

Hongqi car sales climb in first half

 

Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd papers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before travelling through SE Asia in the late 90s. He was a senior editor at The Nation for 17+ years.