About the History of Cars in China
Back in 2002 MG Rover and Brilliance Auto started talking about a possible joint venture to make the Rover 75 in China. MG Rover build a few 75’s with Brilliance badging and shipped them over to Chinese shores to inspire their potential partners. Sadly the deal didn’t happen and eventually MG Rover was sold in parts to SAIC and Nanjing Auto.
Read the whole story of the MG Rover Brilliance Auto tie-up on AROnline, a brilliant website about British cars with a focus on Austin Rover.
Mazda may have popularized the rotary engine but the first truck to be equipped with a rotary engine came from China. In the 1960’s China went a bit Wankel crazy with then Vice Premier Li Xiannian proclaiming that China would develop its own rotary Engine and use it in cars and trucks. Obviously this plan never really came to fruition but there was at least one rather fascinating result – that is the TJ140 we discuss today.
The TJ140 was first produced in 1969 by the Tianjin Truck Repair Shop. The truck was never put into full scale production and was really a testbed for this new engine.
Continue reading “The Tianjin TJ140 was the worlds first rotary engine powered truck”
Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Guangdong Guangtong Automobile, a company based in the great city of Zhuhai in Guangdong Province. They produced a series of small and medium sized buses under the Guangtong brand name, using the designation GTQ.
In addition to that they also ‘made’ at least two cars for the infamous Guangdong scheme in the 1990’s. Read all the details about it here. Under this scheme Guangdong Guangtong would be approached by a third-party company to ‘manufacture’ cars, using Guangdong Guangtong’s car-making license.
Continue reading “Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Guangdong Guangtong”
The list of exported Hongqis is growing. Today I counted 16 cars. Five of them in the USA, two in Japan. The other countries with each one are: France, Germany, Switzerland, San Marino, Rumania, Hong Kong and South Korea. There is (maybe) an unknown number in North Korea, but that is not confirmed.
I will show them to you, each with some words from their own story, in the order of their age.
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF™):Guangzhou Yunbao. Guangzhou Yunbao was a car manufacturer based in then Huadu city, now a part of Guangzhou, lying in the northern part of the city., Guangdong Province. They made several cars, all of them connected to Nissan in some way, for most of the 1990’s.
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Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Guangzhou Yancheng Automobile Factory, a company based in the great city of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province. They produced a series of small buses, vans, and pickup trucks under the Yancheng brand name, using the designation YC.
In addition to that they also ‘made’ at least two cars for the infamous Guangdong scheme. Read all the details about it here. Under this scheme Guangzhou Yancheng would be approached by a third-party company to ‘manufacture’ cars, using Yancheng’s car-making license.
Continue reading “Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Guangzhou Yancheng”
Geely wants a part of Daimler. After a public rejection in November the Chinese company is now buying Daimler stock on the open market. The Germans better watch out because Geely founder Li Shufu wants Daimler really bad, especially the Mercedes-Benz brand.
How bad is really bad? Very bad. As my colleague Erik explained earlier on in his brilliant article about Geely’s early history it has always been Li’s dream to build a “Chinese Benz”. Geely’s very first car was in fact a Mercedes-Benz lookalike. And we now have more information about this car.
Continue reading “The First Geely Was A Fake Mercedes-Benz E-Class Based On A Real Audi 100”
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF™): Fuzhou Automobile Works and Forta. Fuzhou Automobile Works (also known as FAW, unrelated to the First Auto Works) was formed out of the existing Fuzhou Car Repair Shop in 1956. In 1958 FAW started to produce copies of Dodge Trucks and Mazda three-wheeled vehicles. In the same year FAW produced just 8 trucks and 1 motorcycle (believed to be units not different model types, so 9 vehicles in total). FAW was also renamed as the State Owned Fuzhou Automotive Repair Shop.
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Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Datong Saibeijian Auto Works, a company based in the great city of Datong in Shanxi Province. They made a series of their own cars under the Saibeijian (SBJ) brand name.
In addition to that they also ‘made’ at least three different cars for the infamous Guangdong scheme. Read all the details about it here. In short: Datong Saibeijian would lease their production license to a Guangdong-based company that would use it to ‘manufacture’ cars in Guangdong.
Continue reading “Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Datong Saibeijian Auto Works”
Today on China Car History the first in a new series: Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™). In 1995 something new was happening in China’s southern Guangdong Province. To attract more investment the local government drastically eased the requirements for Sino-foreign car making joint ventures.
Many car maker wanted to make cars in China. Local production would allow them to avoid the heaven-high import taxes on cars, which ranged from 60 to 80%. But getting permission to do so wasn’t easy.
Continue reading “Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Introduction”