Huawei's electric full-size saloon is ready to debut

It is called the Maextro S800, has three electric motors, is 5.48 m long and costs £166,000

Photo by: Huawei

By: Eleonora Lilli

Jan 24, 2025 at 4:47am ET

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A new electric saloon is about to debut in China. It is called the Maextro S800 (Maextro is a premium brand resulting from a joint venture between Huawei and JAC) and is 5.48 metres long, outperforming competitors such as the NIO ET9 (5.32 m) and the Maybach S-Class (5.46 m).

Huawei has just released some pictures and, although it has not disclosed the price (which is expected to be between 1 and 1.5 million yuan, about £166,000), it has opened pre-orders. The S800 will be available as a BEV but also as an EREV (extended-range electric vehicle), a type of PHEV in which the ICE motor is not directly connected to the drivetrain, but only to the powertrain battery or e-motor.

What it looks like

The Maextro S800 is 5.48 metres long, 2 metres wide, 1.53 metres high and the wheelbase measures 3.37 metres. The unladen weight of the BEV version is 2,731 kg and that of the three-engine EREV version is 2,859 kg.

Maextro S800

Photo by: Huawei

Prior to today's images, Huawei released a video in which the S800 autonomously finds an electric vehicle charger and parks itself next to it, while the robotic arm automatically connects and disconnects once charging is complete.

It's also ICE

The BEV version is equipped with three electric motors: a 218 PS motor on the front axle and a 323 PS motor on each rear axle, for a total maximum power output of 863 PS.

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The EREV version uses a 1.5 T engine as a range extender with a peak power of 156 PS. The wheels are driven exclusively by electric motors and there are two configurations: dual-motor and tri-motor. The former has a 218 PS electric motor at the front and a 313 PS motor at the rear; the latter has the same configuration as the BEV, so with the ICE it has a combined power output of 1,020 PS.

Both versions use a ternary NMC battery from CATL, but the battery capacity for the BEV has not yet been revealed. What is known instead is that the EREV has a 63.262 kWh pack and promises an all-electric range of 170-230 miles.