The all-new Hongqi H7, the second-generation of the brand's C-segment luxury sedan, has been launched in China with a focus on verifiable performance and a Guinness World Record for range. The model, which carries over the name of the original H7 from 2013, was unveiled on September 16, 2026, in an unconventional launch event that combined track testing, city driving, a teardown, and a long-distance challenge, according to Chinese outlet 电动邦 (Dian Dong Bang).
The new H7 is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) that pairs a turbocharged engine with an electric motor, part of Hongqi's Honghu hybrid system. The company claims a 0-100 km/h time of 3.84 seconds, achieved in media testing at the Golden Port circuit in Beijing. The car also features an intelligent suspension system that can pre-scan the road 15 meters ahead and adjust damping independently at each wheel, helping it handle high-speed lane changes and rough surfaces without losing composure.
Range and efficiency
The most striking claim is the range. Hongqi says the H7 set a Guinness World Record for the longest distance traveled by a production PHEV sedan on a full tank and battery, covering 2,916.171 kilometers (about 1,812 miles) across Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guangdong provinces. The car weighs 200 kg more than the previous record holder and is a size class larger, yet it beat the old mark by 308 km.
In official CLTC testing, the H7's pure-electric range is rated at 249.4 km (about 155 miles), which Hongqi says was achieved at a 103.9% rate, meaning the car exceeded its official figure. The company also reports a combined energy consumption of 11.53 kWh per 100 km and a depleted-battery fuel consumption of 4.05 L/100 km. For context, CLTC figures tend to be more optimistic than the WLTP standard, so a rough WLTP estimate would be around 200-210 km (est.). Hongqi says the car retains 6-8% of battery capacity as a reserve even after the display shows zero, a practice it calls 'reverse range inflation.'
Safety and build quality
At the launch, Hongqi engineers tore down a body-in-white to showcase the safety structure. The H7 uses 84% high-strength steel and aluminum, including 32% hot-formed steel with strengths up to 2000 MPa. The body is designed to meet 2024 C-NCAP five-star standards, and the battery pack has passed a 15.3-tonne crush test, 1.5 times the national requirement. The car comes with nine airbags, including a 40-liter front center airbag and rear side airbags.
The H7 also features a standard suite of driver assistance systems, including a 10V1R12U sensor array with 23 high-performance sensors and a triple-camera setup that generates dense 3D point clouds. The system supports urban navigation assistance (urban NOA) nationwide without high-definition maps, with perception range for traffic lights extended to 200 meters. In a city test in Beijing, the car completed a 12-km route covering various scenarios without human intervention.
The H7 is priced from 168,800 yuan (about $23,800) as a limited-time trade-in price, though the regular guide price is higher. The launch also includes lifetime free warranty for the vehicle and its three-electric system, free roadside assistance, and complimentary software upgrades for the driver assistance package.
Hongqi says the H7 underwent a development cycle of over 36 months, including two winters and two summers of testing, with 836,000 km of road testing equivalent to 3.666 million km for an average user. The car has been tested at altitudes up to 5,400 meters and in temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius, and its chassis components have passed 1,008 hours of neutral salt spray testing.
