About the History of Cars in China
In my last article I promised you to write more about the Dutch Globe B.V. initiative.
It was a brave Dutchman, Peter de Koster, who bought about 6 BJ212s when making a sales trip to Beijing in 1987. He started a company named Globe B.V., established in Loon op Zand in the south of the Netherlands, where he was a local Chrysler, Jeep and Mercedes dealer. Later De Koster imported more BJ212s.
Continue reading “Globe B.V., European import of the Beijing BJ212 in the late 1980s.”
The first 4×4’s used in the People’s Republic China were of Russian origin. After the GAZ 67 followed the GAZ 69.
When it was time for a replacement, the Soviet Union and China worked together to design a successor; the Soviet Union got the UAZ 469, China the Beijing BJ212.
Continue reading “Export of the Beijing BJ212 in the 1970s and 1980s.”
After my article about the Whale JZK1010S last week, we received a lot of comments. (Super! Continue sending!) Some were about the different versions of the Changjian sedan made in Meng county, Henan province.
Continue reading “So many sedans made by the Jiaozhuo Bus Works.”
During my studies of all the small cars of the 1990’s, those made outside the regular car producing industry, I encountered this car on the web: the Whale JZK1010S.
Continue reading “A case of double identity: the Whale JZK1010S.”
Our history begins in late 1999, where Li Shutong, younger brother of the renown Li Shufu who has founded Geely, decided to take a different path and ends up founding his own company JM Star (Shanghai Jieshida Group – 上海杰士达集团). An issue arised, that many of our long-time readers might expected – nation-wide licence to produce cars. Without it, you run into the issue of not being to sell cars outside of the home province, which is obviously very limiting.
Continue reading “Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot: Shanghai Maple”
One of the most desirable cars is the Rolls-Royce. It is not strange that over the years many copies, look-a-likes, or Rolls-Royce-inspired cars, appeared in China.
At the Shanghai Show of 2009, Geely introduced a whole range of concept cars, small and big. They were designed by Nova Design of Taiwan.
Continue reading “The Geely GE was a Chinese Rolls Royce with a single rear seat.”
Today in China Concept Cars: the Hongqi C601 sedan. In the early 2000s, Hongqi was looking for a new mid-size luxury sedan. To get there, they developed four concept cars under the C601 code name. These were:
Continue reading “China Concept Cars: The Story Of The Hongqi C601 Sedan”
Today we take a deep dive into the Chinese Hummer program. Like so many other countries, China got interested in an HMMWV-like vehicle after the first Gulf War. We take a look at four Chinese Hummer programs. China being China, each of these programs has a base model + dozens and dozens of derivative military and civilian variants.
Continue reading “Chinese Hummers Part 1: The Dongfeng Warrior & The Shenfei Falcon”
At the end of the 1990’s it was clear that the Chinese state limousine, the Hongqi CA770, designed in 1965, was old fashioned and needed replacement. A last revival was the Jiang Zemin version of 1999, called the “9910 Model”. In fact, five old CA772 armoured cars were rebuilt to make a last appearance during the celebrations of the 50 years existence of the People’s Republic.
Time for new blood.
This is a drawing of the Hongqi HQD concept. The drawing is made by the designer Chang Bing.
Continue reading “The Hongqi HQD was a state-limousine that was too wild for China.”
Today in China Concept Cars (CCC): the Chery Fulwin II Coupe, a sporty two-door concept car that debuted at the 2006 Beijing Auto Show. It was an important car for Chery as it marked the debut of a new design language and the debut of the new Fulwin 2 series.
Continue reading “China Concept Cars: The 2006 Fulwin 2 Coupe”