Chinese company “Great Wall” working on a retro sedan.

I guess this is the weirdest car news I’ve heard in years. The “Great Wall” Chinese car company is apparently actively working on a brand new retro car, pictured above. Which seems as retro as you can be. It sounds like an April Fool’s joke in December…

Usually, a retro design means something like the VW New Beetle, Mini Cooper, or Chrysler PT Cruiser. These were modern cars with retro design cues. The car pictured above seems to be straight from the 1940s. Not just a few retro design cues, but the whole car. And it really seems unreal.

However, a Great Wall Motor engineer is quoted as saying, “Great Wall Motor’s 6th brand is coming”. Great Wall already produces cars under its name, as well as the Haval, Ora, Wey, Tank, and Souo brands. They have produced over 1,2 million vehicles in 2024.

“Not a simple addition to a product line, but a new product in a completely new product series.”

I know it sounds crazy, but I am pretty sure there is a market for this. The “they don’t make them like they used to” crowd would eat that up. I recently watched a bunch of(and I mean a lot…) of old black & white movies on TCM. (Recovering from surgery was my excuse). Many of the cars in these films looked fantastic. Making you wonder if anyone could make something like this again. Then reality sets in, and you realize that so many regulations would not allow these designs on the road again. As well as horrible aerodynamic numbers. However, with battery tech improving so fast, especially in China, that might not be a problem very soon. If the car can still get around 250/300 miles and look like a 1940 replica, why not? Safety also depends more on the structure of the whole thing.

I think this would be a fantastic idea. Just imagine driving something like this around. I really hope this is real and that we’ll see more very soon.