Today in China Concept Cars (CCC) the Changfeng Liebao C1, an extreme SUV concept that debuted on the 2005 Shanghai Auto Show. And amazingly, this concept actually made it into production!
Changfeng Motor is a Chinese automaker originally founded in 1954 as an automotive repair shop, owned by the army. In 1988 the company started to produce its own cars, based on the BAW Beijing BJ212. In 1995 Mitsubishi bought a 15% stake in Changfeng Motor, and Changfeng started making several Mitsubishi models for the Chinese market.
This lead to Changfeng’s best know car: the second generation Mitsubishi Pajero (V20). The Pajero was sold under the Mitsubishi name and under the Changfeng Liebao name. Liebao means leopard. Changfeng developed dozens of new variants of the Pajero/Liebao, including many military versions and even some parade cars. By far the most Liebao’s produced were sold to various government departments.
In 2011 Changfeng Motor became part of Guangzhou Auto Corporation (GAC), and the ties with Mitsubishi morphed into the new GAC-Mitsubishi joint venture, which makes the ASX, Outlander, and Eclipse Cross. At the same time, Changfeng continues to build its own Pajero V20 variants under the Leopaard name, with a double A. In China, the V20 will never die…
Now we take a step back in time again, to 2005, when the company started to manufacture the Mitsubishi Pinin in China, powered by a 2.0 liter petrol engine.
As with the Pajero, Changfeng also launched their own variant of the Pinin. It was called the Changfeng Feiteng, best translated as ‘Flying Gallop’. The Feiteng used the same engine and was totally the same car, except for the badges. Check the cool ‘CFA 6400’ factory designation on the front fender, next to the indicator light.
Changfeng, however, was not content to build just a rebadged Pinin. They wanted more. With permission from Mitsubishi they decided to develop a new car, still based on the Pinin, but with its own distinctive design.
This idea became the Changfeng Liebao C1 concept car:
In early 2005 Changfeng released a set of images showing the Liebao C1 for the first time. The images showed a rather extreme design, with an odd-shaped grille and a very angled lower-window line. The line goes down from the mirror and somewhere in the middle of the front door the line suddenly knacks and goes up over the rear door to the D-pillar.
Most interesting consequence of this design is the location of the door handles. The rear door handle sits at least 30 centimeters higher than the front door handle! The hood looked almost ‘chopped’, very low and racy.
The tiny blue lights give the Liebao C1 an almost-mean look, and the five-spoke alloys inject a healthy dose of bling.
The interior looked futuristic albeit somewhat unfinished. The center stack starts at dash top and flows into the center tunnel.
The steering wheel goes without the top. The instrument panel is digital and it looks very high tech. The central screen looks tiny and old fashioned in comparison.
There was a lever for the automatic gearbox and another lever to engage the 4WD system. Seats are partly leather and partly fabric. Design is very clean, almost minimalist, but very cool.
A large panoramic sunroof and mean-looking blue lights. A month or so later, it was time for the…
… 2005 Shanghai Auto Show where the Changfeng Liebao C1 debuted in all its redness, with big black bumpers and black cladding on the sides. The 19 inch wheels are wider than the body, making for a very low and sporty stance. Tiny mirrors are located at the base of the A-pillar.
Design-wise, the Liebao was made to look like a leopard, according to Changfeng. The big black grille was the hungry mouth, the lights the eyes, and the mirrors the ears. The side-window line was the hunched-back of a leopard just before it attacks. The rear lights had to convene a sense of power and danger.
When it comes to concept cars, manufacturers are always free to claim whatever they want. So at the show, Changfeng said the Liebao C1 concept was equipped with “three major technical highlights“. These were:
1. An autonomous driving system. Changfeng said their system had “passed several road tests”, but that GPS and road-sensing technology wasn’t far enough yet for production. As of 2020, Changfeng still doesn’t offer any autonomous tech in their vehicles.
2. A “vehicle information and entertainment interactive integration platform”. This appears to be what we call today an infotainment system. It had the following functions: vehicle information, driving information, audio and video programs, and video games. The system was operated by voice, touch, or buttons.
3. An “upgrade technology package”. This was a bit of a weird one, a combination of several technologies that had been upgraded compared to existing stuff. Changfeng named the following: intelligent four-wheel drive, built-in winch, panoramic sunroof, reversing camera, hidden driving attitude image tracking, multi-mode gearbox, and car glass with infrared thermal insulation for heat preservation.
None of these new technologies were demonstrated on the show. Even worse: the doors remained closed at all times, so nobody could have a good look at that fancy interior, and the built-in winch was nowhere to be seen…
There were two exhaust pipes on the right side. There is square-shaped closed cut-out on the left, seemingly the same size as the cut-out for the pipes. Apparently, for some reasons, Changfeng decided two pipes were enough.
The company also got their marketeers involved. They wanted the C1 to be a “super cool”experience for the car’s occupants. They called the C1 the “soundmate” of the driver. ‘Sound’ because of the aforementioned infotainment system. The Liebao C1 was explicitly aimed at young car buyers, a segment where Changfeng wasn’t very strong at the time.
The rear lights are probably the weakest point of the design. They are too large and seem unfinished.
In any way, the Liebao C1 made quite an impression on the Shanghai Auto Show, with lots of largely positive stories in the media.
After the show, the concept was packed up and never seen again. However, just one year later, Changfeng brought an updated version of the Liebao C1 to the…
… 2006 Beijing Auto Show. It was renamed to Changfeng Liebao CS7. It was officially still a concept car but obviously it was much closer to production than the C1.
The CS7 had a normal side-window line with other door handles, it had new gray bumpers, indicators in the bumper, new and much larger headlights, standard black mirrors, better looking rear lights, a much more finished overall design at the rear, and a single exhaust pipe under the bumper on the right side.
The alloys had the same basic design but design was more detailed.
Factory image of the grille, which remained unchanged.
It looked like the Changfeng Liebao CS7 was almost-production ready. But after the show, nothing was heard from it for a long time.
In mid-2008 various test cars were seen on the streets, including this neat white example.
Finally, in late 2008, Changfeng released images of the Liebao CS7. But it wasn’t just one car, the CS7 came in a pair! The red car on the left is based on the C1’s design but the gray car on the right has a far more conventional front design. They had different names; the crazy one was called the CS7 Art (艺术) and the boring one the CS7 Sports (运动).
Changfeng marketing speak to explain the difference: “The Art version is distinctive with a unique temperament, whereas the Sport version was smooth and dynamic, showing a professional spirit like racing.
The production car differed on details with the 2006 Beijing car. The light units were redesigned again. The mirrors were larger and colored body-black. The bumpers were painted in gray instead of black. And finally, the tires were much smaller and fitted with new alloys. Still, it looks quite a lot like the original C1 Liebao.
The Changfeng Liebao CS7 officially debuted on the November 2008 Guangzhou Auto Show. Here we see the Art standing on a stage with hip looking young folk around.
And this is the Sport, with classy looking folk. That doesn’t make too much sense; one would have expect sporty people there. The marketing slogan for the CS7 was: “My City My CS7”.
At the time, Changfeng was the first Chinese automaker to launch two differently-designed cars under the same name. Many other brands would follow Changfeng’s example, most notably Great Wall’s Haval brand, which still sells up to four different variants of one car: Red Label, Black Label, Sport, Coupe, etc, etc.
At the show, Changfeng once more lauded the CS7 as a car for the young and happy, and they also claimed more rear legroom than the competition. But most they talked about the digital instrument panel, which was indeed quite impressive for its day. Changfeng said the display was a Fully Integrated Vacuum Fluorescent Display (FIVFD), extra sharp and “multi color”.
Press photo of the dashboard. The display does look cool. Design is quite different from the concept car but the center stack still somewhat resembles the 2005 car. The screen atop the center stack is gone, under the cover sits just a storage space. Overall, the design is very clean and uncluttered, especially compared to other contemporary Chinese cars, where buttons and switches were splattered around all over the place.
In January 2009 the Changfeng Liebao CS7 Art launched on the Chinese car market. The Sport launched at the same time but I ignore it from now on, as it has too little to do with our concept car.
The Art was priced from 99.800 yuan to 108.600 yuan. The only engine available was again the Mitsubishi 2.0. Output was 121 hp and 168 Nm. Only gearbox was a five speed manual. Base versions had rear-wheel drive and the top-end versions had four-wheel drive. Fuel consumption of the RWD car was 9 liter/100 kilometer, the 4WD car needed 9.4 liters for 100.
The car on the pictures is a factory fresh example at a Changfeng dealer, with cool decals on the doors.
Sadly, the Liebao CS7 never became a big success. This was caused mainly by a lack of dealers, which had also hurt sales of the Changfeng Feiteng. When Guangzhou Auto bought Changfeng in 2011 they almost immediately cancelled the Liebao CS7, after only two years of production.
The button arrangement is very clean. I also like the vertical ‘portrait mode’ air vents. The CS7 was equipped with a radio-CD player that had a USB-plug and Bluetooth connectivity, both very special for a car of that price in that time.
A closer look at that FIVFD. The graphics are sure nice but there don’t seem to be that many colors.
The side we admire most.
On the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2009 Changfeng showed a hybrid version of the Liebao CS7 Art and an electric version of the Sport, both concepts. The hybrid had a totally new power train consisting of a 87 hp 1.3 liter petrol engine and a 40 hp electric motor, mated to a CVT. Changfeng was ahead of the pack again, but in the end neither the PHEV nor the EV ever made it into production.
The Changfeng Liebao CS7 Art PHEV with a lady in red.
Some other colors! Black: so so.
Blue: great.
White: probably the best.
Except for red, of course.
Sources (other than linked in text): Autohome, MZche, Sina, Sina, Sina, Sohu.