JAC Maextro S800: Huawei's Luxury Flagship Explained, From Launch to Grand Design

Maextro's debut car arrived in 2025 as a flagship offered in battery electric and range-extended forms. JAC Group builds it, and Huawei's HIMA alliance supplied much of its technology, which makes the tech content the main talking point.

What is the Maextro S800?

The S800 is the first model from Maextro, the luxury brand JAC Group created with Huawei's HIMA alliance, and it sits at the top of HIMA's range. Its fastback body carries a design language that Maextro calls Zhizun New Luxury, and the car is a showcase for Huawei's software, sensors and cabin technology.

Huawei and JAC Group worked on it together, and it was the first product of that partnership. JAC said it put its best resources behind Maextro and treated the car as the group's headline project,.

A Huawei-backed flagship that pairs 1,296 starry LEDs and a 43-speaker sound system with a range extender.

How did the S800 reach the market?

Huawei first launched the S800 on November 26, 2024, when pre-orders opened in China at a Huawei Mate brand ceremony. Official release followed on May 30, 2025, at Auto Shenzhen, with prices from 708,000 to 1,018,000 yuan. The first deliveries came in June 2025 under a limited Pioneer Plan.

The timeline ran through several reveals. A brand technology event on February 20, 2025 showcased the Huawei technologies built into the car, the interior was unveiled in late April 2025 at Auto Shanghai 2025, and mass production began on June 18, 2025.

The Pioneer Plan was limited to 599 units and specific configurations. General deliveries started in mid-August 2025.

What platform does the S800 use?

The S800 rides on a chassis called Tuling Longxing, the second generation of the Tuling family, which took five years to develop. The architecture is designed for sedans, SUVs and minivans whose gross weight sits between 3 and 3.8 tons, with two to four motors.

Across the platform, outputs run from 360-970 kW (490-1,320 PS), or 480-1,300 hp. That wide span reflects the range of motor layouts the architecture is meant to support.

How does the exterior look?

The S800 uses a fastback profile and a design language called Zhizun New Luxury, which Maextro says follows a Heaven, Earth and Human Harmony philosophy. Its starry lighting, power-opening doors and 20- or 21-inch wheels give it a distinctive look on the road.

The headlights, called Starry Splendour, contain 1,296 LEDs arranged in a starburst pattern. The flush door handles, known as Star-picking, use fibre-optic strands for a constellation effect, and the taillights, named Nebula Canvas, use layered elements to create a holographic nebula pattern.

Maextro claims the body follows the golden ratio, with a drag coefficient of 0.206 Cd on low-drag wheels and electronic mirrors. With standard wheels and conventional mirrors the figure rises to 0.219 Cd.

The doors open up to 77 degrees, and they use mmWave and LiDAR sensors to adjust their angle so they do not strike obstacles. Four two-tone paint finishes are offered, along with two solid colours.

What is the cabin like?

The cabin uses natural materials, including genuine leather, wood grain and crystal, and some of those materials are processed through over 100 steps. A continuous dashboard panel carries three screens, and a 76-inch head-up display sits in front of the driver.

The rear is where the S800 makes its strongest case. The two rear seats are split by a multifunction armrest holding folding tables with makeup mirrors, a refrigerated drinks compartment with complimentary stemware, and a fingerprint-secured safe.

Each rear seat can reach a zero-gravity recline of 148.5 degrees. A projector with a retracting screen sits in the rear, and an illuminated star pattern runs across the ceiling, with lighting that changes colour temperature with the surroundings.

The audio system is a HUAWEI Sound Ultimate unit rated at 2,920 watts, with 43 speakers, including 10 mounted on the ceiling. The boot holds 445 L (15.7 cu ft) of luggage and is lined with tufted carpet.

How does the driver assistance system work?

The S800 uses Huawei's ADS 4 system, which Huawei says is ready for L3 driver assistance standards. Its 32-sensor suite includes 192-line LiDAR units on each side of the car, along with radars, cameras and ultrasonic sensors.

Huawei says perception distance rises 60% in low visibility, and that system reaction time falls by 40%. Radar coverage comes from 3 forward-facing mmWave radars and 2 rear-corner units. The remaining sensors are 7 cameras with high definition, 4 surround view units and 12 ultrasonic sensors.

Training data is updated every five days, and cloud computing power is said to reach 7.5E FLOPS. Parking features include automatic parking, automatic summoning and customisable parking preferences.

When the system predicts a collision, the car can prepare itself by adjusting the seats and belts, closing the windows and unlocking the doors. Dual low-voltage batteries keep those functions running should one of the two batteries be hurt in an impact.

How does the S800 steer and handle?

Active suspension and rear-wheel steering are both fitted, and the rear wheels turn up to 12 degrees. A special mode cuts the turning radius to 3.8 m (12 ft) from the standard 5.05 m (16.6 ft), and the car can crab sideways at 16 degrees.

Xmotion, Huawei's body control system, lets the suspension react to bumps before they arrive. It works with the rear steering to control roll, lift and dive.

The road perception system reads slippery and bumpy surfaces ahead, then adjusts steering, suspension and torque distribution. The adaptive headlights highlight the lane path and pick out pedestrians, while blocking light aimed at oncoming drivers to avoid dazzling them.

Which powertrains are offered?

Buyers pick a dual-motor or triple-motor drivetrain, using battery power alone or with a petrol range extender. The battery cells use NMC chemistry and are supplied by CATL, and Huawei supplies all of the motors.

The range extender is a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol unit codenamed M8000PHD, with no mechanical link to the driven wheels. It works with a 63.25 kWh battery on an 800V architecture, with charging peaking at 390 kW (6C DC), and it takes the pack from 10-80% in 10.5 minutes.

The electric-only range is 340-400 km (210-250 mi) on the CLTC cycle, while the combined range reaches 1,200-1,333 km (746-828 mi) with a 50 L petrol tank. The 80 kW (107 hp; 109 PS) generator can hold 150 km/h even when the battery is flat.

The front motor produces 160 kW (215 hp; 218 PS) in every configuration. On the dual-motor range extender, a 230 kW (308 hp; 313 PS) motor drives the rear axle. Triple-motor cars carry an extra motor for each rear wheel, each rated 237.5 kW (318 hp; 323 PS).

Battery electric versions are triple-motor only. They use 5C charging, which takes the pack from 10-80% in 12 minutes, and their range runs 650-670 km (404-416 mi).

What changed for 2026?

For 2026 the range extender battery was reduced to 63.3 kWh, and the generator became the M8100PHD, rated 164 horsepower (122 kW; 166 PS). The electric motors kept their earlier outputs.

A version with 896-line dual-beam LiDAR arrived in March 2026. That unit uses a dual-beam-path architecture for a wider perception range, and it is better at spotting smaller obstacles and objects with low reflectivity. The suggested retail price for that version starts at 728,000 yuan.

What is the Grand Design edition?

The Grand Design is a premium edition of the S800, with images released on May 18, 2026 and a launch on June 25, 2026. Deliveries begin on August 31, 2026. Its pure electric version carries a larger 120 kWh battery, which Maextro quotes at 780 km (485 mi) of range.

The exterior gains gold badging, gold pinstriping along the two-tone paint border and 21-inch forged wheels with a gold edge. Inside, semi-aniline leather carries hand-stitched embroidery, with wool carpeting and genuine wood inlays finishing the cabin.

Colours include Distant Mountain Indigo and Golden Radiance-Mysterious Ink, plus a gold option called Rising Sunlight Gold. HIMA also announced a colour called Yuanshan Qingdai when it released the first images.

What was the launch controversy about?

A February 2025 comparison test pitted the S800 against a Mercedes-Maybach S680 in extreme cold, at minus 20 degrees Celsius. The video showed the Maybach losing control while the S800 stayed stable, and the Maybach's owner later accused Maextro of unauthorised testing on his car.

The owner posted a video on February 24 that showed GPS tracking, photos of front-end damage and deformed wheel hubs, and he asked for compensation. JAC Group replied on the 25th that the test data was authentic, that the car was rented through formal third-party channels and that it regretted the disruption.

On the 28th, Maextro's legal department said that many online accounts were fabricating rumours, and it offered a reward of up to 5 million yuan for clues about smear campaigns against the brand.

The dispute then moved to court. On March 11, the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance sued a social media influencer over claims about its products. On March 12, Maextro sued another influencer, seeking 1 million yuan, and that influencer countersued for 2.5 million yuan.

How well did the S800 sell?

Pre-orders reached 2,108 in the first two days after the November 26, 2024 opening. After its May 30, 2025 launch it passed 1,000 orders within an hour, and more than 5,000 orders had arrived after 19 days.

Early demand leaned towards the top configuration, which accounted for 70% of orders. Of the 599 Pioneer Plan slots, 319 were taken early. The running total hit 1,600 by the end of day one, 2,100 by day two, 2,600 by day three and 3,600 after a week.

On March 4, 2026, Yu Chengdong, the Huawei executive also known as Richard Yu, told the HIMA launch conference that the S800 had been the top-selling luxury car from September 2025 to January 2026. He claimed its deliveries in that period matched what Porsche Panamera and Mercedes-Benz S-Class managed together in China, with cumulative deliveries of 15,000 units.

Specifications at a glance