Mao’s favorite ride Hongqi to build electric sports car with investor Silk

Silk EV Honqui Chariman Mao favourite car

Would you buy a car brand that was associated with a famous world leader? David Brown suggest it might it depend on the ideology or the life style of the leader

A U.S. firm, Silk EV, plans to invest the equivalent of over $2 billion Australian dollars to make sports cars with China’s FAW Group.

The brand name will be “Hongqi” which was the preferred make of the late leader Chairman Mao.

Hongqi the oldest Chinese passenger car marque was launched in 1958, and the name means red flag, which is clearly a symbol of Communist China.

But the first models were clearly not for the proletariat.  They were for dignitaries and party leaders.  Later models went down market but the last generation of vehicles in 2013 again tried to be cars for ministerial level bureaucrats.

Today, party officials are said to prefer Audis.

Motoring Minutes are heard around Australia every day on over 50 radio channels through the Torque Radio networkMotoring Minutes have an average daily audience of over 150,000 listeners. Motoring Minutes are also broadcast as part of Overdrive Radio Program, which is broadcast through the Community Radio Network across Australia and has a weekly audience of over 430,000. 

About David Brown 607 Articles
David’s boyhood passion for motor cars did not immediately lead to a professional role in the motor industry. A qualified Civil Engineer he specialised in traffic engineering and transport planning. What followed were various positions including being seconded to a government think-tank for the planning of transport firstly in Sydney and then for the whole of NSW. After working with the NRMA and as a consultant he moved to being an independent writer and commentator on the broader areas of transport and the more specific areas of the cars we drive. His half hour motoring program “Overdrive” has been described as an “informed, humorous and irreverent look at motoring and transport from Australia and overseas”. It is heard on 22 stations across Australia. He does weekly interviews with several ABC radio stations and is also heard on commercial radio in Sydney. David has written for metropolitan and regional newspapers and has presented regular segments on metropolitan and regional television stations. David is also a contributor for AnyAuto