About the History of Cars in China
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.
Continue reading “China’s Zotye Auto Almost Made The Lancia Lybra And The Fiat Strada”
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF™): Ling Kong, a brand under the People’s Liberation Army No. 5408 Factory. The company was based in the great city of Luoyang in Henan Province. In the late 1980’s and 1990’s they made a series of wagons, pickup trucks, and mini cars, using the designation KJ.
Welcome to a brand new series on ChinaCarHistory.com: Chinese Concept Cars (CCC). We start with the red hot Haima S1 coupe; it debuted on the April 2006 Beijing Auto Show, painted in fiery red and looking perfectly sporty.
Continue reading “Chinese Concept Cars: The 2006 Haima S1 Coupe”
Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Guangdong Wanli Automobile, a company that was based in the great city of Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province.
Guangdong Wanli was heavily involved in the infamous Guangdong scheme in the 1990’s. Read all the details about it here. Wanli was a company similar to Sanxing, making all sorts of deals and running all sorts of operations.
Continue reading “Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Guangdong Wanli”
In 2002 China Brilliance and MG Rover started talks about a joint venture to make the Rover 75 in China.
During the negotiations MG Rover shipped two dozen 75’s with Brilliance badges to China, with the aim of showing the Chinese side how a ‘Brilliance-Rover 75’ would look like. All these cars were powered by the 2.5 liter V6.
What MG Rover probably didn’t expect was that some of these cars were actually sold and ended up on Chinese roads with valid license plates. Most, but not all, of these cars were labelled as Zhonghua B8.
Back in 2002 MG Rover and Brilliance Auto started talking about a possible joint venture to make the Rover 75 in China. MG Rover build a few 75’s with Brilliance badging and shipped them over to Chinese shores to inspire their potential partners. Sadly the deal didn’t happen and eventually MG Rover was sold in parts to SAIC and Nanjing Auto.
Read the whole story of the MG Rover Brilliance Auto tie-up on AROnline, a brilliant website about British cars with a focus on Austin Rover.
Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Guangdong Guangtong Automobile, a company based in the great city of Zhuhai in Guangdong Province. They produced a series of small and medium sized buses under the Guangtong brand name, using the designation GTQ.
In addition to that they also ‘made’ at least two cars for the infamous Guangdong scheme in the 1990’s. Read all the details about it here. Under this scheme Guangdong Guangtong would be approached by a third-party company to ‘manufacture’ cars, using Guangdong Guangtong’s car-making license.
Continue reading “Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Guangdong Guangtong”
Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Guangzhou Yancheng Automobile Factory, a company based in the great city of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province. They produced a series of small buses, vans, and pickup trucks under the Yancheng brand name, using the designation YC.
In addition to that they also ‘made’ at least two cars for the infamous Guangdong scheme. Read all the details about it here. Under this scheme Guangzhou Yancheng would be approached by a third-party company to ‘manufacture’ cars, using Yancheng’s car-making license.
Continue reading “Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Guangzhou Yancheng”
Geely wants a part of Daimler. After a public rejection in November the Chinese company is now buying Daimler stock on the open market. The Germans better watch out because Geely founder Li Shufu wants Daimler really bad, especially the Mercedes-Benz brand.
How bad is really bad? Very bad. As my colleague Erik explained earlier on in his brilliant article about Geely’s early history it has always been Li’s dream to build a “Chinese Benz”. Geely’s very first car was in fact a Mercedes-Benz lookalike. And we now have more information about this car.
Continue reading “The First Geely Was A Fake Mercedes-Benz E-Class Based On A Real Audi 100”
Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Datong Saibeijian Auto Works, a company based in the great city of Datong in Shanxi Province. They made a series of their own cars under the Saibeijian (SBJ) brand name.
In addition to that they also ‘made’ at least three different cars for the infamous Guangdong scheme. Read all the details about it here. In short: Datong Saibeijian would lease their production license to a Guangdong-based company that would use it to ‘manufacture’ cars in Guangdong.
Continue reading “Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Datong Saibeijian Auto Works”