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Red Flag cars have always been shouldering the mission of high-end manufacturing of Chinese brands, and Red Flag L5 has an irreplaceable position in the field of political and commercial cars. It is reported that FAW Red Flag plans to spend 572 million yuan to build a brand new flagship car codenamed N701, which will go into production by the end of next year and assemble only five units a year.

According to information released by the Changchun Municipal Bureau of Ecological Environment, the N701 project of China first Automobile Co., Ltd. has been approved to carry out renovation and expansion in the Hongqi factory building based on L platform, with a total investment of 572 million yuan. The expected production date is December 2020.

At the same time, according to the product plan, the workshop mainly undertakes the tasks of vehicle assembly, assembly sub-assembly, inspection and repair, and the project production scale is to assemble 50 N701 models in 10 years, with an average annual assembly of 5 vehicles.

It means that the Red Flag N701 flagship car is planned to be assembled in 10 years, with a limited assembly of 50 units, and its scarcity means that the car will be used to meet the needs of national and government car orders.

As the Red Flag L5 has been sold to individuals nationwide and limited to 100 units, it may be possible to launch a civilian version of the Red Flag N701 in the future.

At present, the design and styling of the Red Flag N701 has not been announced, but due to the appearance of Giles Taylor, a former Rolls-Royce designer and now FAW Group's vice president and chief creative officer for global design, perhaps the model styling project was created by Giles Taylor.

Hongqi L platform series models have been developed and completed as early as 2006, the platform mainly produces small quantities, high-end national and government-specific Red Flag cars, which are made by hand. The 572 million yuan investment project is also a further transformation and upgrade of the platform.

At present, FAW Hongqi brand has L5, H7, H5 three car products, as well as HS7, HS5, E-HS3 three SUV products. FAW Red Flag also announced that it will launch its new Red Flag H9 car in Beijing in January and August 2020.

Thanks to the rich product system, Hongqi new product positioning, its sales are also showing positive growth. According to the data, Hongqi brand sold 88046 vehicles from January to November 2019, an increase of 211% over the same period last year. Under the leadership of Xu Liuping, the Red Flag brand has also changed greatly in terms of image, and the former "official car" image has gradually changed into a more people-friendly and younger brand.

In addition to the growth in private consumer purchases, FAW Group has also set up its travel platform Qimiao Travel, which locates high-end political and business travel service platforms. Its main business includes online car hailing, car rental, auto finance and new energy vehicle operation, etc., and will purchase a large number of Red Flag H7, H5 and E-HS3 models as the main operating models.

The appearance of the Red Flag N701 will be another flagship work after the L5 and may make its public debut at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show, which is worth looking forward to.

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