FAW's Hongqi reboot took a 4,398-car state limo brand to 300,000 sales a year

Hongqi ('Red Flag') was the car China's leaders rode in — the brand carried Richard Nixon in 1972 — but by the 2010s it was a marginal state-limousine label. Insurance statistics put Hongqi sales at 4,398 cars in 2016 and just 3,612 in the first eleven months of 2017, while BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi together sold over 1.5 million cars in China. FAW's listed unit had even blamed a first-half loss on poor Hongqi sales and handed the brand back to the parent group in 2016.

In August 2017 Xu Liuping, a turnaround executive recruited from Changan, took over FAW Group and within weeks reorganized the sprawling group around the brand. In January 2018 he unveiled the plan: four product lines (L, S, H and Q) with 17 models, 15 of them electric, and a target of 100,000 sales a year by 2020 — more than a twentyfold increase — en route to 500,000 by 2035.

The bet landed early. Mass-market models like the H5 sedan gave the brand volume; the E-HS9 electric SUV pushed it upmarket. Sales passed 100,000 in 2019, ran at 178,100 in the first eleven months of 2020 (November alone doubled year on year), and reached 300,000 in 2021 — fifth in China's premium market behind BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Tesla. FAW then aimed for 450,000-500,000 in 2022 and 600,000 by 2025.

Sales rose from 4,398 (2016) past 100,000 in 2019 and 300,000 in 2021 — roughly 68x — making Hongqi China's No. 5 premium brand behind BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Tesla.

Seventy years of state-ceremony cachet gave the brand a moat, but it had no product a private buyer would choose; new volume models let it sell the flag without the flag looking cheap.

A single public volume target forced FAW to build an entire dealer network, financing arm and product pipeline to match it, instead of treating Hongqi as a loss-making prestige sideline.

Committing 15 of 17 planned models to electric power made Hongqi the group's EV flagship, aligning the revival with where Chinese premium demand and policy were heading.

The chairman personally reorganized group R&D and headquarters around the brand, ending the internal competition between FAW units for the same components and capital.

A legacy brand can be rebooted, but not by nostalgia: it takes a new product architecture tied to a hard volume target, and a parent willing to reorganize around the brand.

Hongqi kept growing after 2021 and FAW organized the group's listing plans around the brand's value. Xu Liuping left FAW in 2023 for a national trade-union post and later chaired China South Industries Group; in May 2026 he was placed under investigation by the party's disciplinary body. Hongqi's next test is whether it can hold its premium niche as China's auto market turns to electric price wars.