The Seat cars made in China.

Imported Spanish cars were not for sale in China, the Seat was unknown .  This won’t say that Chinese couldn’t buy Chinese -made  Seats. Here an overview.

1. FAW-Volkswagen Citi Golf AS513 (Seat Cordoba 1993).

The Spanish Seat Cordoba was introduced at the Frankfurt 1993 Salon. At the Beijing 1994 Show, a made-in-China version named FAW-VW Citi Golf was shown.

Production started in Shunde City, Guangdong province, at the Shunde Auto Refit Works. This was an assembly factory, the Cordoba came shipped from Spain in skd-kits. Common name of the factory was FAW-Shunde. They also made long wheelbase Xiao Hongqi models: CA7226L,  CA7228L, CA7246L. End the Jiefang CA1046, CA1046L and CA6440.

Back to the Citi Golf. It was made from 1994-2001, only in small quantities. Total production was 6.783 cars. Top year was 1995 with 3.985 cars.

The designation was AS513, the car had no Chinese designation, though it is sometimes referred to as YSQ7130, which is strange, as the car as the car was made with a 1.4-litre or a 1.6-litre engine.
Technical details: wheelbase 2440mm, LxWxH 4109 x 1640 x 1428mm, engine 1598cc, 55 kW, curb weight 1010kg, max. speed 170km/h.

2. Nanya (Nanjing-Fiat) Eagle NJ6400 (Seat Ibiza 1984).

Nanjing Auto Works, a truck factory, before named Yuejin (Leap Forward) Auto Works was eager to build cars. There were some initiatives over the years, remember the Yuejin CN-750 and the Plymouth-copy in 1958/59.

In 1993 Nanjing Yuejin Auto Group Corporation Special Auto Works announced the Xiao Songshu small car. I must admit that I have never seen one.

In 1997 the Lion Group of Malaysia and Yuejin of Nanjing built together a factory to produce automobiles. The Lion Group had bought the complete production line of the first generation Spanish Seat Ibiza, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, introduced at the Paris Salon of 1984, of which the production was ended in 1993. The Ibiza was based on the Seat Ronda, which was on its turn based on the Fiat Ritmo. Though Fiat withdraw its interest in Seat in 1982, the Ibiza had in this way strong Fiat ties.

In 1999 the Malaysian company sold their part to Fiat of Italy.
Nanya Automobile Co. Ltd. was a 50/50 % joint venture between Fiat and the Yuejin Automobile Group Corp. Fiat bought the Lion shares with the strong idea in mind to replace the (Spanish) Ibiza by the (Italian) Fiat Palio world car, production of the Palio in Nanjing started in 2001.

The first Nanya’s were produced in June 1999. Two models were introduced: a four-door hatchback and a two-door box van, the latter of local Yuejin design. The Seat engine, developed with Porsche technology, was in production in a separate engine factory.

Specs: LxWxH 3746 x 1610 x 1394 mm, wheelbase 2443 mm, engine NJG415E, 1461cc, 60kW, curb weight 920kg, speed 130km/h.

3. Nanya (Nanjing-Fiat) Unique NJ1020 (Box van based on Seat Ibiza 1984).

The Unique (Younike) was a locally designed panel van based on the Ibiza. I suppose there was Seat help, as Seat made their own box van based on the Ibiza, named Seat Inca (which was also sold as Volkswagen Caddy ). There was a big difference in sizes between the two: the Inca was 4207mm long, the Nanya Unique was only 3862mm long. Other Chinese companies made box vans, like Dongfeng had made the box van on its Citroën ZX, and Shanghai Auto made a Chinese version of the Opel Combo, named SAIC Saibao SAC6420. In general these vans were not very popular cars and were not selling well.

The sizes of the Unique were: LxWxH 3862 x 1610 x 1720mm, wheelbase 2443mm, engine NJG415, 1461cc, 60kW, curb weight 970kg, speed 130km/h.

I tried to enter the Nanjing Fiat factory in 2000 when production just had started. I didn’t succeed.

A year later I came back and was allowed to see the assembly process. There were already developments to prepare the production of the Fiat Palio. The Palio came into production in November 2001.  Some workers were testing cars made by competitors. They didn’t want me to take pictures, only from the line.

The end of the Nanya Eagle/Encore and Unique production was in 2003, Nanjing got involved in the MG production. The license to produce the Ibiza also expired. Not the end of the story, a new chapter!

4. Soyat (Xinyatu) Hatchback NJ7150 (Seat Ibiza 1984).

Ningbo Bird (Boadao) Co. Ltd, belongong to the Bird Science and Technology Co., one of the biggest Chinese mobile phone makers in 2004, wanted to enter the lucrative automotive business. The made a deal with Nanjing Yuejin, and production of the update Encore and Unique was prepared in the Wuxi Auto Body Co., a facility belonging to Nanjing. In this way Bird avoided the license barrier, using the NJ designation.

The cars were named Soyat (Xinyatu), which was a sort of Chinese for Seat. Not much change, the technical specs: LxWxH 3825x1610x1394mm, wheelbase 2443mm, engine NJG415E2, 1461cc, 62.5kW, speed 175km/h.

In 2006 the car was refreshed again.

One year after the production finally stopped. In a competitive Chinese automotive world a 1984 design had no chance in 2008.

5. Soyat (Xinyatu) Unique NJ6400 (Box van based on Seat Ibiza 1984).

The Soyat version of the Unique was not very different from the Nanya version. Specs: LxWxH 3912x1610x1720mm, wheelbase 2443mm, engine NJG415E2, 1461cc, 62.5kW, speed 175km/h.

Soyat made other cars too, like the NJ1010/NJ1013 mini pickups and the  big Junda NJ6471 SUV’s and NJ1022 pickups.

I don’t think there have been made many copies of the second (refreshed) version, as pictures are rare.

An then this: prototype of an attempt to make a sedan based on the hatchback.

Production of the Soyat models stopped in 2008, Bird tried their luck with Changfeng. The Wuxi  factory was sold to SAIC.

6. Chery (Qirui) A11 CAC6430 (Seat Toledo 1991).

The first Chery, still named Cheery, was a rebadged Seat Toledo with an ex- Ford engine. Chery got the tooling to produce the car from Seat. The first car came of the line in December 1999.

I tried to know more about this vehicle so I visited Wuhu in 2001. I met the first Chery’s, in use as the local taxi’s.

It was not strange that the first Chery’s were taxis, Chery had no license to sell cars. In 2001 Chery managed to sell 20% of their ownership to SAIC. They could use now a new designation: SQR (Shanghai Qirui). In September 2004 the cooperation stopped and SAIC stepped out of Chery. Chery kept the SQR designation.

The car was now named Fengyun (Windcloud). Specs of the A11: LxWxH 4335 x 1682 x 1424mm, wheelbase 2468mm, engine SQR480, 1596cc, 65kW, speed 168km/h. In 2006 the production ended.

In 2003 a long wheelbase version was developed. The car was 18cm longer due to a wheelbase of 2648mm.

7. Chery (Qirui) A15 Cowin (Qiyun) SQR7150 (Seat Toledo 1991).

The update of the A11 was the A15, introduced in 2003. The car was slightly longer: 4393mm. The curb weight was 1140kg. The A15 had a BMW Tritec engine.

There was a simple update in 2010. The car was now named Qiyun 2.

The car was again refreshed in 2011. It ended its career in 2016.

Technical details: LxWxH 4393 x  1682 x 1424mm, wheelbase 2468mm, engine SQR477F, 1497cc, 80kW, curb weight 1100kg, speed 160km/h.

Here ends the story. At this moment, Volkswagen is still regarding the possibility to produce Seat cars in China.

Of course, as always, please please react, complete, comment etc.

Further reading:

https://www.coolcarsinchina.com/2020/03/05/volkswagen-citi-golf-is-wine-red-in-china/

https://www.carnewschina.com/2012/01/24/spotted-in-china-volkswagen-citi-golf/

https://www.carnewschina.com/2012/02/11/spotted-in-china-nanjing-nj6400-encore/

https://www.carnewschina.com/2015/11/27/spotted-in-china-nanjing-nj6400-encore-nj7150-soyat/

https://carnewschina.com/2011/10/11/official-new-chery-cowin-2/

https://chinacarhistory.com/2018/01/22/all-the-stretched-cherys/