A used Hongqi Golden Sunflower Guoli Lanting Yayun vehicle has been exported from Erdos, China, for a staggering 1.5 million USD, setting a new record for a Chinese luxury car’s highest single-unit export price. The vehicle, with a domestic sale price of 11 million yuan (1.5 million USD), was shipped to the United Arab Emirates.

The buyer is reportedly Stanislav Semenov, founder of the Dubai-based Quantitative Trading Equal Fund, who pre-ordered this top-tier Chinese luxury car at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this year.

The Golden Sunflower Guoli Lanting Yayun is positioned as a million-dollar custom-built model. It measures 5980mm in length, 2090mm in width, and 1710mm in height, with a wheelbase of 3730mm. The design continues the Hongqi L5 style, featuring a classic combination of a waterfall-style chrome grille and traditional round headlamps. The vertical lines of the grille are reminiscent of bamboo slips, evoking a calligraphic rhythm.

A distinctive feature is the 23.5° rising and tilting standard, which precisely replicates the Earth’s axial tilt. Upon ignition, the Golden Sunflower emblem at the top of the metal flagpole slowly ascends, pointing towards the North Star, symbolising Chinese civilisation’s eternal exploration of the cosmos.

The centre console and door panel trim are crafted using the Fuzhou bodiless lacquerware technique. 28 layers of natural lacquer are hand-applied, then air-dried and polished for 60 days to achieve a warm, jade-like texture. The surface is inlaid with mother-of-pearl depicting excerpts from the “Preface to the Orchid Pavilion” (Lan Ting Ji Xu or 兰亭集序 in Chinese), creating flowing calligraphic light and shadow effects when light reflects off it.

The 14.2-inch OLED central control screen features a scroll-like rising design, unfolding like a slowly unfurling painting. Coupled with AR-HUD, it can dynamically project navigation information and text from the “Preface to the Orchid Pavilion” onto the front windshield.

The central armrest box lid uses a 0.15mm ultra-thin gold foil base and employs the Beijing chasing technique to reproduce the Eight Scenes of Lanting, with a pattern precision of 0.03mm. Each square centimetre requires over 2,000 strikes.

The rear seat backrests are embroidered with scenes from the “Preface to the Orchid Pavilion” using the “gold-nail embroidery” technique, boasting a silk thread density of 300 stitches per square centimetre. The figures’ expressions and landscape textures are meticulously detailed, with each embroidery piece requiring two embroiderers 600 hours to complete.

The vehicle is equipped with 32 Dynaudio Confidence series speakers and active noise cancellation technology, creating an immersive “silk and bamboo music” auditory experience within the 19.8 cubic meter cabin.

The body features a hybrid structure of 2000MPa hot-formed steel and aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, achieving a torsional rigidity of 28600N·m/deg. It includes 9 airbags (including a rear far-side airbag) and 6-second-long pressure side curtain airbags. Combined with 23 high-precision sensors, it forms a dual “physical + information” safety protection system.

Powering the vehicle is a domestically developed 4.0T V8 twin-turbocharged engine, delivering a maximum power of 285 kW (388 hp) and a peak torque of 530N·m. It is paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission and an intelligent four-wheel-drive system, allowing for a 0-100 kph acceleration in just 5.1 seconds.

The Hongqi Golden Sunflower is part of the new sub-brands launched by FAW Hongqi in 2023, alongside Hongqi New Energy and Hongqi Energy-Saving Vehicles. At the 2024 Beijing International Auto Show, the Hongqi Golden Sunflower brand showcased three models: Guoya, Guoyao, and Guoli.

Editor’s comment

Judging by its price and market launch time, although nominally a used car, this is a “zero-mileage used car,” used to avoid the high certification thresholds for new car exports.”