During the 1990’s the Tianjin Automotive Research Co. Ltd. made several proposals for a Xiali Station Wagon. In the end none was taken into production.
In 1984 the Tianjin Automobile Industry Co. started cooperation with Daihatsu of Japan, to built mini vans and cars.
Car production started with ckd-production of the Daihatsu Charade G11 (2nd gen.) hatchback in 1986.
In 1988 started production of a Chinese copy of the Charade (3rd gen.) G100 hatchback, based on a license agreement between Tianjin and Daihatsu.
The Xiali, together with the Shanghai-VW Santana and the Dongfeng-Citroën Fukang, became a very popular car in China.
Over the years, new versions appeared: a three-volume sedan named TJ7130U (1990), long wheelbase versions of the sedan and the hatchback (1999).
But no station car.
This week I received a used book from China, sent by my dear friend Marieke Reichwein. Marieke handles and posts my used books in Beijing, books which I order from Chinese book-websites, in big boxes, they take 3-5 months to arrive in Europe!
This book is named: Journal of Tianjin Automobile Research Institute Co. Ltd. and China FAW Tianjin Technology Development Branch (1978-2019). It describes the work of the automobile development institute of Tianjin (TARIC).
In this book a lot of projects, prototypes made for the Tianjin car industry.
Including some Xiali station cars.
Here are some drawings from 1997. The differences between the cars are not very big, mostly is the third side window different .
A first model was made in 1998.
Tests were performed in 1999. See also the picture in the heading of this article.
It never came to production. In 2006, when my friend Chang Bing visited the Institute, he photographed some of the abandoned prototypes, outside of the building.
Including a station wagon and a pickup.
Tianin Xiali Pickup, photo Chang Bing, Tianjin 2006.
My dear friend Tycho has written about the Geely pickups and vans, also based on the Daihatsu Charade G100. Even two times.