On the 2004 Beijing Auto Show, Changan Auto unveiled two concept cars. The first was was the Chinese Dragon roadster, and the second one was this Changan Chinese Sturgeon sports sedan.
The Chinese name is 长江鲟, Changjiang Xun, and that means Yangtze River Sturgeon. This is a critically endangered species of fish, and also a kind of a national animal of China, although on a much lower love-level than the panda or the dragon.
For many years, China has been trying to save the species by releasing examples bred in captivity into the river (pictured), but so far without much success. The main problem: when in the wild, the ex-captives just don’t breed. China faces a similar problem with panda’s.
Back to our concept car! Changan likely considered Yangtze River Sturgeon a tad too complicated for an English name, so they simply called it Chinese Sturgeon.
Like the Chinese Dragon, the Chinese Sturgeon was developed by Changan Auchan. This company, also known as Oushang (欧尚), is a subsidiary of Changan Auto. Abroad, they used the Chana name. At the time, they mostly made commercial vehicles and mini-MPV’s. Today, Auchan is responsible for the new COS-brand, aimed at young car buyers.
In early 2004 Changan released two images of the Chinese Sturgeon to the media, showing the vehicle 3/4 front and 3/4 rear. The images showed a sporty sedan with suicide doors, pillar-less windows, 9-pod LED lights, ultra wide wheel arches, …
… giant tires with shiny 6-twin spoke alloys, and a twin-exhaust pipe in the middle below the bumper. Design was a mix of sedan and sedan-coupe elements. With the big wheels and wide arches, it made for a very strong and sporty stance. Interestingly, the rear-image shows a tiny part of the interior; a white headrest and white trim on the inside of the the C-pillar.
And then the Beijing Auto Show began:
I was actually at the show myself that year. At that time, I hadn’t started CarNewsChina.com yet, so I didn’t take much photos ):. This is my only shot of the Chinese Sturgeon, with the Chinese Dragon on the left.
The Chinese Sturgeon looked even better in real life than on the images. The LED lights and the huge logo were especially eye catching.
At the show, Changan called it a sportscar, and they also said production would start in 2020, for a price of 150.000 yuan! In those good old days carmakers could claim whatever they wanted.
Changan furthermore said that the Chinese Sturgeon had automatic doors, working with sensors in the door handle. When you walked up to the door with the key in your pocket, the doors would open without a touch. But the company didn’t demonstrate this feature.
Even worse, they didn’t open the doors at all during the entire show. This is not uncommon for concept cars even today, and the interior of our Sturgeon was likely just a very basic affair.
From a picture, taken from the other side, we can see a tiny little bit of the inside, with the steering wheel and front-seats visible. Also remember the media picture above, showing part of a rear seat.
The rear lights were very interesting too, with nine LED’s on a shiny panel sitting on a black panel. Design is otherwise stylish and simple, with two air ventss under the lights and a large Changan Auchan logo in the center. Exhaust pipes are sitting far under the body.
Look at those tires! Very wide for such a compact car.
Changan never said anything about a power train or even en engine, so the Chinese Sturgeon was likely powerless. But those pipes looked promising!
Somewhat sadly, not much of the car’s design made it into future production cars. But, as it is only December 2019 now, Changan still has an entire year and and a month to keep their 2020 production-date promise.
During the show, Changan handed out a nice brochure printed on blue paper.
Chongqing Chana Automobile Co., LTD. was the full English name of Chana.
The brochure included two images of the Chinese Surgeon. They are the same pictures as handed out to the media but photo-shopped in front of a modernistic building and…
… a sea shore at sunset.
And here we end this article with a pretty lady wearing red fishing gloves, catching our fine and rare Changan Chinese Sturgeon.
More concept cars soon!
One of those designs that manages to be both exciting and crappy at the same time.