Maextro, the fourth brand in the Huawei HIMA alliance, opened pre-sales on its first model, the S800, during the Huawei Mate brand ceremony on November 26. At the ceremony, pre-sales prices were announced as 1 – 1.5 million yuan (137,950 – 206,950 USD), with buyers needing to put down a deposit of 20,000 yuan (2750 USD) to show interest.
The Maextro S800, as expected, measures 5480 mm in length, 2000 mm in width, and 1536 mm in height. Its wheelbase is a massive 3370 mm. According to Richard Yu (Yu Chengdong), chairman of Huawei’s smart car unit, this makes the car larger than 99.99% of models on the road. It is positioned as a D+ class executive sedan. Currently, nothing is known about the powertrain, although it is assumed that the car is all-electric.
The new car targets luxury competitors such as the Maybach version of the S class and models from producers such as Rolls Royce. When it goes on sale, the card will be one of the most expensive Chinese cards produced to date.
Current information suggests that the car will only be available in two color schemes: the purple-silver scheme as displayed today and an all-black version. The new design has many distinctive features, but perhaps the most eye-catching at first glance are the wheels. Chinese media refer to these as flat bread or pie rings, and they’re certainly different from the usual multi-spoke variety seen on cars.
While the S800 is certainly large there is less of a boxy feeling about the look than with many of the other luxury competitors. Perhaps where the rounding is most obvious is at the front where although there is a relatively upright middle grille for an EV it is far more rounded than one would expect on a luxury car. The S800 really tries to carve a niche for itself with its use of lighting.
On each side of the front, there are two LED light bars split by the main headlight clusters. Surrounding these clusters are what looks like a Milky Way of little light sources. This Milky Way look is reflected in many parts of the car, perhaps most noticeably initially with the rear through-light tail cluster. However, it can also be seen with the rather unique door handle design.
The look even extends to the interior, with a starry sky roof. That, along with two individual rear seats, is all we know about the interior, which will be fully revealed when the car is officially released. Spy shots, however, have shown that the front should have a three-screen design.
Notably, the S800 has a very thick B pillar. It should also be noted that the car has the brand name Maextro written in Latin letters on each side of the car. It was widely expected that the logo at the front would come out from the hood, as with many luxury cars. However, it is, in fact, flush with the front, possibly to help with pedestrian safety. At the rear, once again, Maextro is written rather than using the logo.
Little concrete is known about the car’s actual features; however, according to a slide, the word of the day is super, with the car featuring: Super Cruise, Super Maneuverability, Super Awareness, Super Privacy, Super Communication, Super AI, Super Protection, and Super Reliability.
However, it is claimed that the new car will have L3 self-driving capability – it has a roof-mounted Lidar unit. Plus it is claimed that it will integrate three intelligences: intelligent driving intelligent cockpit and intelligent domain control. Furthermore, the S800 will use the second-generation version of the Turing platform.
Sources: Autohome, Fast Technology
