Maextro S800 sedan from Huawei & JAC crab walks between Maybachs [video]
Huawei and JAC shared a video of their joint product, the Maextro S800 luxury sedan, which has a price of 1 million yuan (136K USD) crab walks between Maybachs in China. This vehicle will enter the market soon with a length of 5.5 meters, three electric motors, an EREV variant, and an unmanned charging function.
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Maextro is the fourth Huawei car brand, created with state-owned Chinese automakers. Previously, the Chinese IT giant launched Aito with Seres, Luxeed with Chery, and Stelato with BAIC. These vehicles are being sold in Huawei’s HIMA (Harmony Intelligent Mobility Auto) stores across China. Maextro is positioned as the top-notch brand in the HIMA lineup. Its first vehicle is the S800 full-size luxury sedan. It applied for a sales license on December 9. Now, this car revealed a crab walk feature.
Maextro S800 crab walks in China
The official video shows the Maextro S800 sedan impressively maneuvering around seven Mercedes-Benz Maybach S-Classes, thanks to the crab walk feature. The four-wheel steering function allows the S800’s rear wheels to mimic the angle of the front wheels.
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According to the automaker, the maximum turning angle of the Maextro S800’s rear wheels reaches 16 degrees. For comparison, the rear wheels of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class can turn up to 10 degrees, and the Rolls-Royce Ghost has a rear-wheel turning angle of 5 degrees. So, the Maextro S800 boasts one of the best rear-wheel steering systems in the industry.
This impressive technology helped a car to drive around seven other cars at a reasonable speed. The crab walk feature will help the Maextro S800 to drive on narrow roads. It is an important feature since the length of this vehicle reaches 5,480 mm.
More about Maextro S800
The Maextro S800 is a new energy luxury sedan from Huawei and JAC. Its exterior styling adopts two-color body paint, 20-inch wheels with self-aligning wheel caps, and a LiDAR sensor on the roof. The Maextro S800 is a large sedan with dimensions of 5480/2000/1536 mm (length, width, height), and a wheelbase of 3370 mm. There are dimensions of some of the S800’s rivals:
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- Maybach S-Class: 5462/1899/1498 mm
- Nio ET9: 5325/2017/1621 mm
- Rolls-Royce Ghost: 5627/1948/1552 mm
- Yangwang U7: 5265/1998/1517 mm
- Hongqi Guoya (L1): 5353/1998/1511 mm
The Maextro S800 adopts BEV (battery electric vehicle) and EREV (extended-range electric vehicle) powertrain variants. Their specs are as follows:
- Maextro S800 BEV tri-motor: a 160 kW (215 hp) e-motor in the front axle & dual 237.5 kW (318 hp) electric motors in the rear axle. The total power output is 635 kW (852 hp).
- Maextro S800 EREV dual-motor: a 160 kW e-motor in the front axle & a 230 kW (308 hp) e-motor in the rear axle. The total power output reaches 390 kW (523 hp). The range extender is a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine for 115 kW (154 hp).
- Maextro S800 EREV tri-motor: a 160 kW (215 hp) e-motor in the front axle & dual 237.5 kW (318 hp) electric motors in the rear axle. The total power output is 635 kW (852 hp). The range extender is a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine for 115 kW (154 hp)
There is no information about the battery pack of the electric Maextro S800. However, its EREV variants adopt ternary NMC packs from CATL with a capacity of 63.252 kWh. The S800’s electric range is 272 or 371 km CLTC, depending on the powertrain variant.
Previously, the Maextro S800 revealed the unmanned charging feature. The car can autonomously find an EV charger and park next to it while a robotic arm automatically plugs in and out once charging is finished.
Editor’s comment
The Maextro S800 will enter the Chinese market this year with a price range of 1 – 1.5 million yuan (136K – 205K USD). The Maextro factory was completed on December 16 in Hefei, where Nio’s ex-contract manufacturer JAC is headquartered.
This so-called Maextro Super Factory plant has a planned production volume of 100 billion yuan (13.7 billion USD) per year. Considering that the Maextro S800 price will start at 1 million yuan, the company will have to sell 100,000 units to reach the planned figure. It seems that even the giant Chinese market will struggle to “swallow” such a quantity.
However, Huawei and JAC are quite confident with this project as two parties confirmed they started working on two more new models for the Maextro brand.
