China’s Zotye Auto Almost Made The Lancia Lybra And The Fiat Strada

In the mid 200’s Fiat was in big trouble, so they went to China. Not to sell cars but to offload entire production lines to Chinese car makers.

In 2007 they sold the platform for the Alfa Romeo 166 to Guangzhou Auto, and then the Italians went to Zotye for a more complicated deal that included cars of Fiat, Fiat do Brasil, and Lancia.

Just one year earlier Fiat had pulled the plug at the loss making Nanjing-Fiat joint venture. This joint venture made the Palio, the Siena, the Palio Weekend, and the Perla. The joint venture was furthermore planning to make the Doblo MPV, the Linea sedan, and the Strada pickup truck.

The Linea and Strada came from Fiat do Brasil, and this company had also done much of the development work to get these cars ready for the Chinese market. However, after Fiat killed the entire joint venture the Linea and Strada, and the Doblo, never made it into production at Nanjing-Fiat.

But the tooling was already in China, letting it rot would be a waste, so Fiat went looking for another buyer. They found Zotye.

Under a deal agreed in 2007 Zotye would get the tooling for and the rights to the Nanjing-Fiat Palio and Siena. They would also get the not-in-production Strada. But that was not all. Fiat also sold Zotye the second generation Multipla and the Lancia Lybra sedan and wagon. Yes, the unsuccessful Lybra was set for a second life in China.

The deal included the design, platform design, engine design, and tooling. The deal stipulated that Fiat would initially sell CKD sets for the Multipla, Strada, and Lybra to Zotye, and that Zotye would eventually fully produce these cars, using local parts. This wasn’t necessary for the Palio and Siena, which were already fully localized.

All the cars that Zotye bought from Fiat were to be manufactured by Hunan Jiangnan Automobile, a Zotye subsidiary most famous for the Jiangnan Alto, and today they also make all the cars of the new Traum brand.

Eventually Zotye would produce the Palio as the Zotye Z200, the Siena as the Zotye Z200HB, and the Multipla as the Zotye Multiplan, later Zotye M300. Sadly however, the Lancia Lybra and the Fiat Strada never saw production, but they came very close:

After the deal with Fiat was agreed Zotye brought out all their ‘new’ cars for a media event in early 2008. These cars were shipped in from elsewhere, without any input of Zotye. They even had their original badges on.

From bottom to top: Lancia Lybra sedan, Lancia Lybra wagon, Fiat Multipla times 3, Fiat Strada times 2, and Zotye 2008 times 3. The latter had nothing to do with Fiat, it was based on the Daihatsu Terios and at that moment the only car Zotye actually manufactured, so I guess that’s why they put ‘m in the line.

Visitors checking the new Italians.

In China every car maker needs to get government permission for every new car they want to built. When permission is granted the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) publishes this on their website.

This publication usually includes a photo of the vehicle, the designation, and the technical data. So when a car is ‘published’ you can be pretty sure it will be produced and launch on the market in the near future. But that does not always happen.

These are the MIIT photos of the Lybra sedan, It’s Chinese designation was JNJ7166A. You can clearly see it still has Lancia badges, so this was probably the very same car they had lined-up earlier on.

The publication listed a Chinese 1.6 liter engine for the Lybra: the RN416TF4, manufactured by Yiyang Power Powertrain, an engine maker based in Changchun, Jilin Province.

The engine was based on the Fiat 1.6 Torque., which had an output of 103 horses. The Chinese engine lost one horse and was officially rated at 102 hp.

Not long after the MIIT publication spy shots appeared of the Lybra testing in China, heavily camouflaged but with…

… a Zotye badge (the old logo) on the steering wheel.

The appearance of the test car was a clear indication that Zotye was getting the Lybra ready for the market.

Some time later again Zotye invited media to have a look at their new Lancia Lybra based cars. They showed a silver sedan and wagon (more on the wagon below). The cars had Zotye badges and a new name.

The original Chinese name for the Lancia Lybra was Lipula (力普拉), but Zotye couldn’t use that name because it belonged to Fiat, and it wasn’t part of the deal. So Zotye had to come up with a new name for the Lybra, and they went for Zotye Libolang (利博朗).

These are the MIIT photos of the Lybra wagon. Its Chinese designation was JNJ7166V1. The license plate reads Zotye Auto and it has Lancia badges. Engine was the same as in the sedan.

The rear end with the Lancia badge clearly visible.

The wagon on the media event, with Zotye badges and with the new Libolang name on the license plate.

The sedan can be seen on the right.

An undated photo of a wagon on a parking lot, most likely the same car as on the event. There is a Zotye Qiche badge on the left, a Zotye logo on the middle, and another badge on the right. I can’t make out the characters but I bet they say Libolang.

The Fiat Strada was, and is, a small pickup truck manufactured by Fiat do Brasil. The platform was called Project 178, and closely related to the platform that underpinned the Palio and Siena.

Fiat had high hopes for the Strada in China, a country that loves cheap pickup trucks. But as described above production at Nanjing-Fiat never happened because the entire joint venture ceased to exists.

Fiat then sold the tooling and design to Zotye. There were two variants; one with a standard short cabin and one with a slightly longer cabin; the latter was also a bit more upmarket and luxurious.

Zotye duly applied for, and was granted,  government permission to built the Strada. The MIIT photos show the Strada with Fiat badges and the Fiat name on the rear hatch.

The short-cabin variant’s Chinese designation was JNJ1020. Once again the engine came from Yiyang Power Powertrain. It was a 1.3 liter four-cylinder with an output of 87 hp. This engine was based on the Fiat 1.3 Fiasa.

The long-cabin variant got the Chinese designation JNJ1020A. It looked very sporty with its gray details and roof rack. This could have been a stellar seller in China. The JNJ1020A had the same engine as the JNJ1020. The bliue car of the MIIT photos has Fiat badges and…

… the Fiat name on the hatch.

There are no other known photos of the Strada; no spy shots and no media events, so it seems Zotye ended development of the Strada pretty soon.

The Librolang-Lybra never saw production either. Why Zotye decided against making these cars is a mystery. Perhaps they didn’t have the money to set up another production line, or perhaps they figured there wouldn’t be enough demand.

What happened to the few cars they had is unknown as well. The Chiense way would be to scrap them without any further ado. But perhaps somewhere in a Zotye warehouse…

Sources: 58che, 163, Sohu, Ucheke, Autohome.

More on Nanjing-Fiat and more on the Fiats that Zotye did make in later articles.