The new Hongqi H9 wants to sell well, in addition to changing the gearbox, what is missing?

In August 2020, the Hongqi H9 was officially launched in the expectation of countless Chinese people with a front-rear-wheel drive layout, equipped with a 3.0L V6 supercharged engine + 7DCT gearbox, and replaced with a brand's new style and exterior design.

At that time, with the vehicle shape that resembles a Rolls-Royce and integrates Chinese elements, as well as the unique attributes of the Hongqi brand, the Hongqi H9 became an instant hit, with a sales volume of 13,800 units in only four months after its launch, and a sales volume of 41,000 units in 2021, which is not easy for a medium and large sedan.

However, with the further involution of China's auto market, since the beginning of this year, Hongqi H9's attention and sales have gradually declined, and the monthly sales have dropped from the initial 4000 to about 1000 units.

Recently, the new Hongqi H9 road test car spy photos were exposed on the Internet, so what are the upgrades of the new car, and can it be as "popular" as it was when it was first listed? Let's take a look.

According to the spy photos leaked this time, the new Hongqi H9 retains the most iconic large-size waterfall grille of the current model in terms of appearance, and the Hongqi design that runs through the middle of the grille to the front hood has also been retained, supplemented by a new daytime running light group with a sharper shape, and the recognition of the front face has been improved a lot.

At the rear, the general design of the new car has also remained largely unchanged, with the taillight clusters and the bilateral twin tailpipes underneath being the design elements used in the current model.

Compared with the design of the current model, the interior of the new Hongqi H9 has been changed a lot.

According to the spy photos, it can be seen that the new car has canceled the embedded central control screen design on the current model, and instead uses a floating central control screen. At the same time, the new car's central control screen is also designed with a row of similar physical buttons, which is likely to be the adjustment button of the air conditioner.

In terms of power, the new Hongqi H9 is likely to continue the current model's 2.0T+48V mild hybrid system and 3.0T V6 supercharged dual power layout, of which the 2.0T version has a maximum power of 185kW and a peak torque of 380N·m, and the 3.0T version has a maximum power of 208kW and a peak torque of 400N·m.

In terms of the more important drivetrain, the new car is likely to be replaced with an 8AT gearbox.

Since its launch in 2020, after three years of market testing, Hongqi H9 has received a lot of user feedback.

On the whole, the vast majority of Hongqi H9 users are most satisfied with this car mainly because of its atmospheric appearance, while the less satisfactory places are mainly focused on the interior style, the intelligent performance of the vehicle, the gearbox frustration and the suspension system, which are also consistent with the experience of the previous Xiaobian test drive Hongqi H9.

And the Hongqi H9 after the facelift upgrade, there is a high probability that the original 7-speed dual-clutch will be replaced with an 8AT gearbox, so at the hardware level, the gearbox performance of this car will have a more obvious improvement, of course, the follow-up hopes that the relevant engineers can put more effort into the program matching.

In addition to the gearbox, the author believes that after the Hongqi H9 facelift, in order to gain more recognition and higher sales, it also needs to work hard in suspension tuning, after all, the chassis quality of the current model is compared with competing products of the same level, there is indeed a certain gap, blindly soft, resulting in poor support of the vehicle in high-speed cornering.

Write at the end

To put it bluntly, the current Hongqi H9 on sale is like a "vase", with an atmospheric shape, but whether it is intelligent performance or its driving performance, it is actually lagging behind the same level/price of fuel competitors, so if the Hongqi brand wants to continue to gain a firm foothold in the C-class luxury car market, it must be upgraded for the problems existing in the current model, and here we are also looking forward to the new Hongqi H9 after the new car machine system and 8AT gearbox, after the official launch, it can give our consumers some surprises.