Shields on wheels: the luxury (and bulletproof) cars that will carry Xi Jinping and his entourage around Hong Kong
Top-of-the-line model also favoured by city’s tycoons
The BMW 7 Series is the prestige offering from the German car maker.
Other buyers in the four-wheeled fortress market include Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing and the Kwok brothers of Sun Hung Kai Properties, all of whom also favour BMWs.
Large barricades ringed a security zone at the Wan Chai waterfront, with building work nearby halted for the duration of the trip.
The reason for the slight step down in opulence was that the Renaissance’s layout allowed the president to get into his car under cover of a roof. And when he does he’ll be climbing into a vehicle made to undisclosed custom specifications and which can withstand close-range gunfire, according to a former senior official for counterterrorism at Hong Kong Police, Clement Lai Ka-chi, who also worked in the G4 unit which protects VIPs.
“These cars meet international standards and have bulletproof windows and a strengthened chassis among their protection facilities,” Lai said on a radio programme. “Because the cars look like ordinary cars rather than armoured vehicles, it is impossible to see from the outside the exact security measures of each car.”
What specific features the BMW is fitted with is a state secret, and BMW declined to comment about them. But according to the carmaker’s website, there are three safety levels for the cars. The top level, which the 7 Series boasts, is used against potential attacks with bombs or armour-piercing weapons.
The passenger cell has security glass and a “steel armour sheath lining the interior”, according to the manufacturer’s website.
Accompanying Xi’s 7 Series in the motorcade are BMW X5 cars, which – though they carry a lower security grade – BMW claims can repel attacks which use “blunt instruments or handguns of calibres up to .44 Magnum.”
