Daring to price it at 1.388 million yuan! Is it boldness or arrogance?

Last night, the Zunjie S800 Grand Design Collector’s Edition under AITO officially hit the market. With a starting price of 1.388 million yuan, it has pushed the price ceiling for domestic sedans to an all-new high. Officially positioned as an “Oriental Haute Couture Ultra-Luxury” vehicle, it is set to compete head-on with established ultra-luxury benchmarks such as the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class and Bentley Flying Spur, featuring handcrafted gold-thread waistlines, a starry sky roof embroidered with 510,000 stitches, and Huawei’s intelligent driving system. Yet behind this “cross-class challenge” lies a question: does it represent a genuine breakthrough for domestic luxury automobiles, or misplaced confidence out of touch with market realities?

Plunging Price Tags: Ostensible Sincerity Masked by Underlying Insecurity

The Zunjie S800 Standard Edition, priced at 708,000 yuan, already sits at the high end of domestic vehicle pricing. The new Grand Collector Edition nearly doubles that figure to 1.388 million yuan. Though the price marks a substantial cut from internal projections of 1.68 million to 1.88 million yuan that had circulated online and is billed as a “genuinely fair price”, it is in essence a concession to uncertain market acceptance.

The traditional ultra-luxury automotive segment has been cooling steadily. Sales of million-yuan luxury vehicles slumped more than 30% year-on-year in 2025, with brands including Bentley and Porsche logging consecutive sales declines in China. By launching an ultra-high-priced model at this juncture, Zunjie appears to seize an untapped niche among domestic luxury marques, yet it fundamentally misjudges the core demands of ultra-luxury clientele. Buyers in this elite circle never purchase vehicles defined merely by overloaded hardware; what they seek is century-old brand heritage and exclusive status recognition. It is overly optimistic for Zunjie to believe it can poach core customers loyal to marques like Maybach relying solely on “Huawei technology paired with handcrafted craftsmanship storytelling”.

The Luxury Rat Race: Piling Up Craftsmanship Does Not Equal Recognition of Premium Status

At the product launch event, Richard Yu repeatedly emphasized “handcraftsmanship” and “artisan dedication”: the 4.5-meter gold thread waistline polished by hand, each 21-inch wheel taking 16 hours to produce, and the starry ceiling embroidered with 510,000 stitches. Yet these detail-driven flourishes meant for ceremonial flair lay bare the core shortcoming of China’s ultra-luxury vehicle segment — a lack of irreplicable cultural moat.

The prestige of Maybach stems from Mercedes-Benz’s century-long technological accumulation and its historical endorsement by royal families and political dignitaries; Bentley’s luxury is rooted in British aristocratic handcraft heritage and racing pedigree. By contrast, Zunjie’s “Oriental Luxury” amounts to little more than a haphazard assembly of components: Chinese embroidery paired with Hongmeng Cockpit and LiDAR. Though it seems to cover all bases, it fails to forge a distinctive brand identity. Put plainly, when consumers spend 1.38 million yuan on a domestic vehicle, are they paying for prestige or technology? Zunjie appears to offer no clear answer to this question.

Lastly, while the Zunjie S800 deserves credit for its bold ambition, the rise of domestic ultra-luxury automotive brands can never be achieved merely through pricing to rival high-end foreign models. Rather than rushing blindly into the million-yuan price bracket, brands ought to focus on cultivating brand heritage and earning genuine customer recognition.

True automotive culture has never been defined by a single standard: some pursue the pinnacle of mass-produced luxury, while others are captivated by the ultimate individuality of custom modifications. At APAxpo, your custom-built dream car has no need to compete with million-yuan luxury vehicles—it only needs to embrace its own one-of-a-kind character.