Archive for China

According to a report by Automotive World, CKD assembly of the Europestar Lotus RCR at Youngman’s plant in Jinan, China is set to begin in August 2008 this year. The Europestar RCR is a badge engineered left hand drive pre-facelift version of the Proton GEN2 we have here on our local shores. A total of 150,000 CKD kits have been ordered for the next 6 years – which is about 25,000 units a year.

The Europestar RCR was initially launched by Youngman in early January this year, and sales began with a batch of 30,000 CBU imported units of the left-hand drive car from Proton’s plant in Malaysia. Before launch date, the car had already received 1,500 bookings. The RCR is being pushed in China by an initial appointment of 40 dealers which will provide a sales, service and spare parts network.

Here’s something interesting: the rebadging deal includes royalty payments for legal usage of the Proton GEN2 design. So legally, Youngman – the company behind the Europestar brand – holds the rights for the Proton GEN2 designs in China.

If another Chinese company decides to rip the GEN2 off, it won’t be Proton against a Chinese company in the Chinese courts. It will be a Chinese company against another Chinese company, which could lead to more favorable results than the precedents we have seen previously where a Chinese company who has ripped off a Japanese or western design can get away with it easily.

There will be more cars from Europestar in the Chinese market in the future. While there will likely continue to be some form of platform and parts sharing with Proton, future Europestars will be engineered by Lotus engineering consultants and will be be much further differentiated from the Protons it may share parts with – something like how a Seat Ibiza is a Volkswagen Polo but does not look like one.

Picture above snapped in China courtesy of Astley Ho, find more photos after the jump.

Source

Click here to read the rest of Europestar RCR CKD assembly to begin in August

The Volkswagen Lavida is a Chinese market sedan developed entirely by Shanghai Volkswagen outside of Germany. The interior and exterior does not look very much Volkswagen at all, but the good news is you will find modern Volkswagen engines and 6-speed automatic gearboxes under its hood.

The Lavida measures 4,608mm long, 1,743mm wide, and 1,465mm tall with a wheelbase of 2,610mm. It’s sedan boot stores 472 liters. This makes it longer, sider and taller than the Volkswagen Jetta, but smaller than the Volkswagen Passat. It’s wheelbase is also longer than the Jetta’s 2,578mm.

Continue reading after the jump for more photos including one of the Volkswagne Lavida’s interior.

Related Older Posts:
Volkswagen Lavida for the Chinese domestic market

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Lavida – more details and photos

Honda’s joint venture company in China Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. has announced a new car brand called Li Nian, which is positioned much alike to what Toyota is doing with its Scion brand in the United States. A rough translation or meaning to Li Nian is “idea”, according to Guangzhou Honda.

The company displayed the Li Nian Concept at the 2008 Beijing International Automobile Exhibition, which is set to be one of the Li Nian brand’s first cars. The Li Nian Concept is a compact SUV-like vehicle based on the Honda Jazz / Honda Fit platform.

Unlike the Jazz/Fit’s L-series engines, the Li Nian Concept is powered by a 1.8 liter engine, most likely the R18A1 SOHC i-VTEC engine. It’s styling is decidedly European, with obvious cues taken from the Volkswagen iroc Concept and Ford’s new Kinetic design Fiesta and Kuga SUV.

Li Nian’s first production car will be based on this concept design, and will make its debut in 2010. The Li Nian Concept was designed entirely by Guangzhou Honda Automobile R&D, and while Honda Japan will support the company, most R&D, marketing and sales efforts will be initiated by the Chinese company.

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Chery Alado Holdings Sdn Bhd will assemble 5,000 Chery vehicles at Oriental Assembler Sdn Bhd’s assembly plant in Johor in the next 12 months beginning July 2008, with 60% intended for ASEAN export and the remainder for the local market. Chery Alado Holdings Sdn Bhd is a 50:50 joint venture between Alado Corp Sdn Bhd and China’s Chery Automobile Co Ltd.

Chery intends to make Malaysia its right hand drive production hub for the ASEAN market, and this first stage investment includes a total amount of US$12 million (RM38.5 million). According to Alado president Tan Sri Cam Soh Thiam Hong, the second phase is for export to Commonwealth countries and European right hand drive countries.

Oriental Assemblers Sdn Bhd also assembles CKD Hyundai vehicles in Malaysia. Chery vehicles to be assembled are 2 variants of the Chery B14 MPV (B200 2.0 liter and B240 2.4 liter), as well as the 2.0 liter Chery Tiggo T11 SUV (shown above). The Chery B240 and Chery Tiggo launched in Malaysia last year priced at RM132,972.20 and RM80,292 respectively are CBU units, so the new CKD units will most probably be cheaper.

Related Posts
Chery B240 7-seater MPV in Malaysia
Chery T11 Tiggo SUV on sale in Malaysia

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The car above is the Volkswagen Lavida, a Chinese domestic market model that has been developed and set to be sold only in the China market as it was developed for domestic tastes. I’m not sure how the name was chosen, but it could be taken from the Spanish phrase La Vida which means “the life”, as Ricky Martin has propagated.

It is built on the Volkswagen PQ34 platform with an increased wheelbase of 2,610mm, the base platform for the Mk4 Volkswagen Golf and Mk1 Skoda Octavia. This puts it in the region of a C-segment sedan in terms of wheelbase, with the Lavida having a wheelbase 10mm longer than the current Toyota Corolla Altis. Under the hood is a choice of engines from 1.6 liters to 2.0 liters.

You will find that various press around the internet has called the car an A-segment sedan, but Chinese model size segmentation is different from the rest of the world, with even the big Volkswagen Passat classified as a B+ sedan.

Other dimensions include a length of 4608mm, a width of 1743mm and a height of 1465mm. The car weighs 1245kg for the 1.6 liter and 1323kg for the 2.0 liter.

A silver ChangAn CV6 Ben Ben has been sighted at the JPJ Putrajaya building last week, most likely brought in by Changan Berjaya Auto Sdn Bhd. This would be the second ChangAn model spotted in Malaysia so far. The first was the Changan CM8 MPV, spotted with light disguise around the Klang Valley sometime last year.

The CV6 Ben Ben is a 5-door hatchback that seats 5. It also looks like it has some decent crash test safety, according to these photos. ChangAn has even displayed a sporty version with a bodykit in the past. It is powered by a 1.3 liter engine, but I have no horsepower and torque information at the moment. It is priced at under 50,000 RMB in China, which converts to about RM22,200.

If you remember, ChangAn was also the first Chinese company to develop its own hybrid car using a 1.5 liter gasoline engine combined with an electric motor. It also recently announced China’s first independently-developed hydrogen engine.

UPDATE: Looks like the ChangAn CV6 Ben Ben’s crash test results don’t look so good, click here. Thanks to reader Niceguy for the pointer in the comments.

Changan Berjaya Auto Sdn Bhd’s website says it plans to launch its first model before the end of 2007, so I guess there has been some delay. It has two models on display on its web page, the CM8 and the CV6 Ben Ben.

For more pictures of the silver CV6 Ben Ben, read the post after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of ChangAn CV6 Ben Ben spotted in Putrajaya!

Singapore is a place where both the original Hafei Lobo and the Naza Forza are sold in the same market, but Hafei in Singapore exists with a 2 model line-up. Other than the Lobo, there is also a little 7-seater van called the Hafei Minz.

Powering the Hafei Minz is a 1.1 liter engine that is different from the one found in the Forza/Lobo (1,051cc versus the Lobo/Forza’s 1,075cc), putting out 52 horsepower at 5,200rpm and 83Nm of torque at 3,000rpm (versus the Lobo/Forza’s 65 horses and 88Nm). It has a power steering and weighs about 1,050kg. It measures 3,745mm in length, 1,505mm in width and it is 1,925mm tall.

Think of it as a smaller and cheaper Suzuki APV with one less seat. If sold here the Hafei Minz could cost under RM50,000, possibly making it the cheapest 7-seater MPV around if Naza Corporation ever decides to expand its Hafei-rebadging line-up with the Minz.

More photos of the Hafei Minz after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Hafei Minz 1.1 liter 7-seater van

Chery’s new Chery A6 Coupe will go on sale in the second half of 2008. The front wheel drive coupe was based on the Chery A6CC Concept shown at Shanghai 2006.

It is built on Chery’s new B2 platform, and has a wheelbase of 2700mm. The original concept had a 3.0 liter V6, but for the production version three engine options are available – a 3.0-liter V6, a 2.4-liter V6, and a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4 engine.

Read the linked post below for more photos of the A6CC Concept.

Related Posts:
Chery A6CC Concept

BorgWarner has announced the winners of the 2007 China Heart awards – an annual event which picks China’s top 10 engines.

The 2007 China Heart awards are selected by an independant evaluation committee comprising of 14 members from research agencies, universities, and media. An engine must be manufactured in China, equipped for vehicles made in China, and in mass production in China for the current year to quality for the awards. 59 engines by 34 OEMs and engine manufacturers were rated based on performance, technology, market performance, and environmental-friendliness. The winners are:

• Mazda 6 2.3L engine from FAW Car Company
• Audi 3.2L FSI engine from FAW-VW
• BMW 3.0L engine from Brilliance BMW
• Roewe 2.5L engine from Shanghai Motor Company
• Buick 2.4L engine from Shanghai General Motors
• Magotan & Skoda 1.8 TSI engine from FAW-VW
• Zun Chi 1.8T engine from Brilliance Auto
• Corolla 1.8L engine from FAW-Toyota
• Brilliance Jun Jie 1.8L engine from Dong’an Engine Company
• SX 4 1.6L engine from Chang’an Suzuki

It would be interesting to note that the only actual Chinese engine there is Brilliance Auto’s Zun Chi 1.8T engine. The rest are all global engines in global cars, perhaps with minor localization for the Chinese market.

Some of you who have been following my blog for more of the year should be able to remember the Brilliance Zun Chi – it was featured back in April 2006 but I spelled the name “Junjie” instead of Zun Chi. Its a rather decent looking car, and this particular engine that won the top 10 award powers the top of the range variant of the car.

The engine is codenamed the BL18T, and it is a turbocharged 1.8 liter engine making 167 horsepower at 5,500rpm and 235Nm of torque constantly from 2,000rpm to 4,500rpm. It has a bore and stroke of 81×87mm.

Quite a decent effort from a Chinese car manufacturer, isn’t it? The Brilliance Zun Chi/Junjie itself is not too bad looking – you can view it by clicking the link below.

Related Posts:
Zhonghua Brilliance Junjie

After 6 years of development, the Chang’An Jiexun HVE hybrid vehicle has rolled off the production lines – China’s first locally developed hybrid vehicle. It’s your run of the mill hybrid – a 1.5 liter gasoline engine combined with an electric motor. Chang’An says this will improve fuel efficiency by 20%.

Not sure how well this will do – Toyota only sold 2,000 Prius hybrid vehicles in China last year, but Chang’An promises the Jiexun HVE will be cheaper than foreign hybrids in the Chinese market. Chang’An also recently announced Chinas first independently-developed hydrogen engine earlier this year.

Could this Chang’An Jiexun HVE possibly come to Malaysia? We’ve had sightings of a tall MPV on road tests in Malaysia, not sure what happened to that one, but the model has been identified as the Chang’An CM8.

Related Posts:
Chang’An unveils China’s first independently developed hydrogen engine
Chang’An CM8 spotted in Malaysia!
Chang’An CM8 to be assembled in Malaysia