About the History of Cars in China
In an earlier post, I have written about the Shanghai Horse Bazaar & Motor Co. Ltd.(龙飞汽车马车行, SHB).
The SHB was one of the most important of the Shanghai body builders in the 1920s and 1930s, but there were many others. Thanks to the Oriental Motor magazines of 1920-1921 I could make an inventarisation.
This sporty beauty is the Hafei Saibao, a very cool Chinese concept car. The Saibao, meaning Leopard, debuted on the 2003 Shanghai Auto Show. It was designed by Pininfarina and partially based on the Lotus Elise.
Continue reading “China Concept Cars: The 2003 Hafei Saibao”
Nearly three years ago I showed you some photos of cars which were more or less unknown to me. I asked you to help me, since then I have made not much progress. I have found another picture of the Shanghai SH760A with the round headlamps, a picture which seems to suggest that it was a prototype made by the factory.
And, at the 70 years PRC exhibition in the Shanghai museum last year, the museum had replaced their ugly fake Shanghai SH761 parade car by a real one. I am happy with that one!
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Heibao. This was a brand owned by a company called Shandong Heibao, based in the great city of Weihai in Shandong Province.
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May 2013, 36 new Pyonghwa’s…
The history of Pyonghwa part 2 (after the end of the joint venture, 2012-today).
Of course we had to wait what was going to happen after the withdraw of the Moon section. A new partner was not obvious. It would also be hard for the North Koreans to continue without foreign money and technology.
At the 16th Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair, the DPRK surprised with 36 (!!!) new Pyonghwa models. A clearer study of the vehicles confirmed that they were all Chinese made vehicles, rebadged with Pyonghwa logos and names.
The history of Pyonghwa part 1 (the joint venture with mr. Moon, (1999-2012).
The urge to have an automotive car-making industry led at the end of the 1990s to an interesting joint-venture between the North Korean state, represented by the ‘Ryongbong company’ and the South Korean ‘Unification Church’ of referend Moon, represented by the Tongil Group.
Sun Myong Moon, born in North Korea in 1920, founded the ‘Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity’ in 1954. Moon visited Kim Il Sung in 1991.
Today in CBTTF: Shuguang Auto, a brand under the Shuguang Group. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s Shuguang Auto made a series of fairly typical five-door SUVs, but they also made one far more special 3-door variant.
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In the great year of 2003 BYD bought Qinchuan Auto, which got them a car-making license and the BYD Flyer, a popular mini car. BYD saw all kinds of possibilities with the Flyer platform. On the 2004 Beijing Auto Show BYD unveiled four concepts of new Flyer variants, designed and built in less than a year. No small feat for a then brand new auto maker!
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In the late 1990’s the Beijing-Jeep joint venture wanted a sedan to compete with the Audi 100. They choose the Chrysler LeBaron, and it came very close to production. But in the end, it just didn’t happen.
Continue reading “Beijing-Jeep Almost Made The Third-generation Chrysler LeBaron”
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF™): Jiuma, a brand under Shanghai Jinma Automobile Corporation. From the mid-1990’s until the mid 00’s the company made a series of interesting vehicles with lots of parts from the Volkswagen bin, some with Volvo design elements. Besides those, Shanghai Jinma also made a range of odd Suzuki Alto-copy cars.
Continue reading “Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot: Shanghai Jinma – Jiuma”