China Concept Cars: The Chery A6cc Coupe Came So Close To Production We Could Almost Smell It

Today in China Concept Cars the beautiful Chery A6cc, a coupe that came so close to production we could almost smell it. Here is the car’s ultimately sad story:

The story of the Chery A6cc starts with a concept car initially called Lei. The Lei was one of two concept cars designed for Chery by Italy’s Torino Design. The other car was an SUV concept called Lui. The names may sound Chinese but they are actually Italian, Lui means he and Lei mans she.

The Chery Lui.

The concepts were announced in early 2006. The Lei was an attractive small coupe, about the size of an Opel Tigra. It had a sporty stance, big wheels, a short roof, and sharply cut lines.

Taillights were a work of art, ‘pointing’ to the crease line over the side.

The Lui and Lei debuted on the Beijing Auto Show in April 2006. But the wuzzy Italian names were gone. The Lei was renamed Fengyun II Coupe, and the Lui was renamed Tiggo 5.

The English name of the Fengyun II Coupe was Fulwin II. Chery used the Fulwin name for various cars in various export markets. Confusingly, Chery would later use the Fengyun II/Fulwin II name for a totally different production car.

The Fengyun II was well-received by audience and media, but nobody took it very seriously. Chery did not announce any real-world specifications of the vehicle, so everybody assumed it was just another nice-looking concept.

But everybody was wrong…

Almost exactly one year later Chery debuted the A6cc concept on the 2007 Shanghai Auto Show. CC stood for concept coupe. Design was clearly a further development of the Fengyun II, a bit larger and a lot more production-ready. Interestingly, Chery had switched design-studios; as the Chery A6cc was designed by Bertone.

The A6cc was painted in a dark orange shade, with shiny five spoke wheels. It looked sporty and strong, with frame less doors, a short rear end, and chromed exhaust pipe tips.

Chery didn’t let the media see the car up close, but one photographer managed to take this shot from the interior. It looks unfinished for sure, but design wise definitely more production car than concept car.

Chery boldy claimed the A6cc would see production at the end of 2007. The program was code named A23. They also announced the engines: a 2.0 turbocharged four-cylinder ‘TCI’ petrol with 170 hp and 235 Nm, and another 2.0 turbo petrol ‘TGDI’ with 195 hp and 290 Nm. Chery said price would start at 150.000 and end at 180.000 yuan.

Later on, or so Chery claimed, the company would also launch tw0 V6 engines for the A6cc, asmall 2.4 liter unit and a larger 3.0. The four-cylinder engines were to be mated to a 6-speed manual, the six-cylinders to a 4-speed automatic.

Was production really going to happen..? The media was skeptical. Just a few years earlier Chery had announced the M14 roadster, but that car still hadn’t been launched.

But things looked very promising indeed when various test cars appeared on public roads soon after the show. Some were camouflaged, and some were totally naked. Design was largely the same as on the concept car, just details differed; like the bars in the grille that were shiny on the concept and black on the test car.

Interior was very similar to the concept too, and we got a first look at the gear lever for the six-speed manual.

Some changes at the rear, most notably at the low part of the bumper, the pipe tips. The piece below the pipes was painted in body color now, making it far more visible than on the concept.

Around that time Chery also released an image and information on the new six-speed manual for the A6cc. It was code named QR631MHA and could handle max 310 Nm. Chinese media also reported about a 1.9 turbo diesel engine for the A6cc, but Chery didn’t confirm this.

A very dusty example.

One on the move.

Everything looked very promising! But… After a while the sightings of the yellow test car ended and nothing seemed to happen. Late 2007 came and went, 2008 came and went, and everybody started to forget  about the A6cc.

But everybody was too early. In late 2009 (!) pictures started to appear of various red test cars. Three units were seen on a parking lot near a Chery factory (third car far right).

The cars appeared fresh from the production line, with protective stickers on the windows and plastic covers over the seats. Chery was apparently still working on the B23. Launch seemed very close…

Seat moved in forward position.

Then things started to change. A few months later a new test car was spotted. Most notable changes were the new headlights and the new wheels.

Somebody even managed to take a picture of the instrument panel! Rev meter to 7000, max speed at 260 km/h.

No big changes at the back. Reverse-sensors are very visible.

But a really big change was yet to come…

In 2009 Chery had launched the Riich-brand, with a range of slightly more upmarket cars mostly based on existing Chery platforms. The top model of the Riich brand was the Riich G6, launched in 2010, available with a 158 hp 2.0 turbo and a 194 hp 3.0 V6.

Someone at Chery must have been thinking: “If we launch an upmarket Riich brand, would it not make sense to turn the A6cc into a Riich too?” After all, the A6cc was an upmarket car for Chery.

And turning it they did:

In late 2010 pictures starting to appear of a yellow test car with Riich Z5 badging. The headlight visors were darkened, the Chery badge was deleted from the grille, and in came a Riich badge on the bonnet.

Red seats, the manual gearbox, and a Riich logo on the wheel.

Chery was hiding nothing: a Chery Auto badge on the left, and a Riich Z5 badge on the right.

A red car was seen as well, with Riich badging, and, oddly, the shiny bars where back in the grille!

Then it was time for the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show, exactly four (04) years after the debut of the original A6CC on the 2007 edition of the same show. What did Chery bring..? This they did:

A fiery red Chery Riich Z5 2.0T, and yes, it had the shiny bars.

It looked completely production ready. There were a few changes compared to the earlier variants. There were red brake calipers, and the…

… decorations on the sides of the bumper had been redesigned.

There was a new badge in the grille: TCi sports, with the T and the C in red.  This indicated the 2.0 turbo with 170 hp and 235 Nm, and this was confirmed by Chery at the show. The more powerful 2.0 turbo was still on the cards, but Chery had gone silent about the V6 variants. There was some gearbox news too: the 2.0 turbo would be mated to either a 6-speed manual or to a five-speed automatic.

This time, media was allowed to crawl all over the car. The interior looked great, but quite different from the 2007 concept. The large screen had gone, there were more buttons on the steering wheel and center stack, the center tunnel had a new design, especially around the gear lever, and there was this ultra cool handbrake.

Just enough space for two kids in the back.

Chery said the Riich Z5 would finally launch on the Chinese car market later that year. Just like they said in 2007! But this time, if was for real. Right..? I guess you know where this is going to end… But you guessed wrong!

In China, every car maker that wants to launch a new car has to get permission from the government. Not just for any car, but for every type of a car. When approved, the government grants each car an official designation.

To apply for approval car makers need to disclose all specifications plus at least three images of the car in question. This somewhat crazy system is still in place, and the images are available to all, if you know where to find them (:.

Chery duly applied, and was granted permission to go ahead with production. The official designation was SQR7200B23T7. Chery applied for just one engine variant: the 170 hp 2.0 turbo as introduced on the 2011 Shanghai show. Top speed was claimed to be 200 km/h. Size: 4615/1821/1394, wheelbase 2700 and curb weight 1550 kilo.

These last three pictures are the actual images Chery used for the application. Even after four years the Bertone design still looked great. There seem to be two different grille designs. The red car has an all-black grille, whereas the yellow car has the shiny bars. Perhaps Chery was planning to offer both.

And that, crazily as this might sound, was the end of it. The fact that the Riich Z5 had gotten government approval was widely reported in Chinese media. But after that… Nothing. Just nothing. The Z5 never made it to the market. It was never launched. No more test cars were spotted. The Chery A6CC Riich Z5 was dead.

Why it was cancelled exactly has never become fully clear. It likely had to do with Chery’s failing brand strategy. At the same time the Riich brand was launched, Chery also launched the Rely brand, the Cowin line (recently re-launched as a brand), the Karry brand, and they were busy launching Qoros.

The Riich brand was not a success. Customers didn’t see why they had to pay extra for a dressed up Chery, and sales were very slow. Rely suffered even more, with an odd lineup of minivans and SUVs.

Chery had to clean up the mess, and it was likely somewhere in this timeframe that the company decided to kill the Riich Z5. The entire Riich and Rely brands were killed off too,by 2013 they were dead and gone. Karry made mainly commercial vehicles and is still alive today. Qoros has been sold off.

A sad end for a great car with great potential. The Riich Z5 was never going to be a big seller, but it could have done a great good to the Riich brand as a cool halo-model. It was not to be.

But that is not the final end of this story, because in late 2012 somebody saw a camouflaged yellow test car near one of Chery’s factories, with bushes ready to attack it from all sides. Looking at the wheels it appears to be an early A6cc test car, from before the name change.

They didn’t even close the windows…

Nature will get it eventually. Ashes to ashes, and the greatness of what could have been. Rest well Chery A6cc, rest well and be safe.

Sources: CNHubei, Sohu, xKer, Sina, Sina, Sohu, BitAuto, 163, 769car, Baidu, 58che, cntv, archives.