Hongqi, a premium car manufacturer and part of FAW Group, has officially started sales of its new crossover SUV named LS7. The model will be available with three seat rows and also as a luxury four-seater. The whale of an SUV comes in at nearly 5.7 meters long and just under 2.1 meters wide with more than 3.3 meters between the axles and 246 mm of ground clearance. With the liquids in, it tips the scales at 3.1 metric tons, or 6,835 lbs.
The car sports a body-on-frame design and
has dual-wishbone front suspension with a solid axle in the back. Air-ride
cushions and 22-inch wheels are included in the base spec.
Leather and wood dominate the inner space.
The four-seat version puts a console between the rear seats with power
adjustments, HVAC buttons and infotainment controls on it. Passengers get
personal 12.8-inch displays. The three-row version ditches the displays, but
has two separate seats in the second row instead of a solid bench.
Powering the luxobarge is a four-liter
turbocharged V8 working in tandem with a ZF 8AT for 360 PS and 500 Nm of torque. A coupling on the front axle grants on-demand
AWD functionality. Launching the SUV from zero to 100 km/h takes
somewhat sluggish 9.1 seconds, and the odometer maxes out at just 200 km/h. Hongqi promises to release a hybrid powertrain for the LS7 later on.
