Archive for China

It seems that the abomination of a jaundiced GEN2 is not the final Europestar product after all. This is the recently announced Europestar RCR based on the GEN2 and it looks pretty much like a usual prefacelift GEN2 with Europestar badges slapped on! Many Chinese automotive publications have been referring to this car as a rebadged Lotus Racer, so the RCR most likely stands for RaCeR.

The Campro 1.6 liter engine under the Europestar RCR’s hood makes 84 kilowatts (112.6 horsepower) at 6,000rpm and 148Nm of torque at 4,000rpm – this is a 2 kilowatt boost over our standard 82 kilowatt (110 horsepower) Campro engines in Malaysia

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The Europestar RCR will be priced between 100,000 to 150,000 yuan, which is about RM45,000 to RM67,500. As previously mentioned, initial fully imported shipment into China by Jinhua Youngman will be 30,000 units, but once CKD operations are started the car will be offered at a lower price. It’s not known whether the version locally assembled in China will get the “unique styling“.

More photos and a video after the jump.

Related Posts:
Europestar GEN2 gets “unique styling”
Youngman to sell Proton GEN2 badged as Europestar in China

Click here to read the rest of Europestar RCR – rebadged GEN2 in China

A recent lucrative export deal to China involving the Proton GEN2 has been cited as one of the ways to spearhead Proton’s recovery, as most of you would know by now. Proton was to export 30,000 completely built up Proton GEN2 cars to China for Jinhua Youngman to rebadge under the Europestar brand, with a further possible 80,000 units to be assembled in China.

Thanks to spyshots by Chinese automotive industry website Cheshi, we now find out that the “localisation” of the Proton GEN2 by Jinhua was not just limited to a left hand drive conversion and swapping badges with the Europestar badge. The Europestar GEN2 gets a completely new front fascia that looks like the poor car has jaundice, and the rear crop circle lamps get a similiar treatment.

UPDATE: Some of you may remember the spyshots of the facelifted Proton GEN2 due to be launched very soon. It too had a larger grille, although not as over the top as the Europestar version.

More images including rear light treatment are after the jump.

Source

Click here to read the rest of Europestar GEN2 gets “unique” styling

Something Lotus generally does not do is respond to individual articles in the media, but this time the British company has stepped up and responded to the recent news that Jinhua Neoplan will be assembling Lotus sports cars in China.

“The company does not normally respond to individual articles in the media, but occasionally we feel it necessary to comment directly to set the record straight about specific rumors that could affect staff morale or performance. There has been comment in the Chinese press that two Lotus sports cars will be put into production in China by the end of the year. This is not true. Staff has been briefed by [chairman] Mike Kimberley on plans for the company for the next five years. Those plans do not feature the manufacture of Lotus cars anywhere other than at Hethel. In future please treat such press comments with the scepticism (sic) they deserve,” said a Lotus representative in an email.

Source

Related Posts:
Jinhua Neoplan to assemble Lotus cars in China

Jinhua Neoplan will be assembling CKD kits of Lotus cars in China, with one of the first cars set to be the Lotus Europa.

Interesting to note that Jinhua Neoplan is part of the Jinhua Group, and it is the division that makes buses with technology from German company Neoplan with an annual production capacity of 2,000 vehicles. A bus company making Lotus sports cars.

Source

Of the many Chinese car manufacturers, some of the Malaysian public would have been introduced to the ChangAn brand already because of the ChangAn MPV that has been spotted going around the Klang Valley on road tests.

Anyhow, ChangAn’s R&D has been advancing and their labs have managed to churn out something much more advanced than the ChangAn CM8 – China’s first independently-developed hydrogen engine!

ChangAn began to research this hydrogen engine back in 2005, and a prototype has been produced after 2 years.

Source

Proton has secured a deal to supply fully built-up (CBU) Proton GEN2 cars to Youngman Automobile Group Ltd Co. to be sold in China. The agreement was signed between Proton Managing Director Dato’ Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir and Youngman through its Chairman, Pang Qingnian.

The deal involves a minimum of 30,000 Proton GEN2 CBU cars that wil be rebadged in China under the brand EUROPESTAR and eventually Youngman and Proton (through Lotus Engineering) will be developing a new range of EUROPESTAR cars together. This supply contract is for a period of 20 months from the date of the first delivery of vehicles.

I think it’s best that the underlying components of these new EUROPESTAR cars use component sharing with Proton cars, that way the economies of scale for both Youngman’s EUROPESTAR and Proton can improve together. From what I understand, the deal involves technical licensing of the GEN2 platform as well as the CamPro engine for future EUROPESTAR cars.

Proton MD Syed Zainal says these are landmark win-win agreements as it would enable Proton to sell its products and commercialise its technologies in China through Youngman for their brand of passenger cars in a huge market with promise of exponential growth. Imagine, the Chinese auto market is already huge as it is, yet in reality Chinese car ownership is only at 1% of it’s population and is set to grow by 20 to 30% annually.

“We are therefore positive with the prospects and export optimisation that will result in production volume increase at the Tanjung Malim plant. We are equally optimistic of the opportunities in commercialisation of PROTONs technologies and intellectual property rights,” added Syed Zainal.

However, in Proton’s announcement in Bursa Malaysia, it stated that the relationship of Proton and Youngman is one of independant contracting parties and shall not be construed as creating an agency or partnership between the parties.

Related Posts:
Europestar GEN2 gets “unique” styling
Lotus gets Jinhua Youngman engineering deal

PSA Peugeot Citroen has signed a MoU for a 50:50 joint venture with Chinese automotive manufacturer Hafei to manufacturer small people movers for the Chinese market at Hafei’s Shenzhen plant.

I wonder if these people movers will be PSA-based or Hafei-based. Hafei currently has a small 1.1 liter MPV that can seat up to 7 people called the Hafei Minz, currently on sale in Singapore. It looks similiar in dimensions to the ChangAn MPV spotted undergoing road tests in Malaysia recently.

Coincedentally, both PSA and Hafei are connected to the Naza group in Malaysia.

UPDATE: Chery Alado launches locally assembled Chery Eastar 7-seater MPV

Alado Automobile has introduced the Chery B240 in Malaysia, another CBU fully imported model for us to consider soon after launching the Chery Tiggo earlier.

The Chery B240 is a 7-seater SUV powered by a 2.4 liter 16 valve SOHC Mitsubishi engine that makes 130 horsepower and 198Nm of torque, likely a similiar unit to the one found in the LMG Trekker, Shuttle, and Tourer. It is mated to a 4-speed gearbox with manual shifting features.

Features include a 6-CD changer audio system, a sunroof, electronic headlamp levelling, a pollen filter for the air conditioning system, dual front airbags, anti-lock disc brakes on all four wheels, electronic brake distribution as well as an option for a stability control program that comes at extra cost.

It costs RM132,972.20 including insurance. No word on how much the version with stability control costs. This 7-seater B240 and the Chery Tiggo SUV were the two models that have been previously reported to be assembled locally in Malaysia soon, perhaps at Proton’s plant using it’s excess production capacity. No word on that as far as I know, and the B240 remains a CBU import for the moment.

More photos of the Chery B240 here, and check out a video after the jump.

Related Posts:
Proton to produce MPV and SUV with Chery
Chery B240 Crossover

Click here to read the rest of Chery B240 7-seater MPV in Malaysia

The Malaysian market Proton GEN2 now has a black interior, as shown above in a photo I took at Proton Edar’s branch in Juru Auto City. The black interior was also launched in the UK. Looks much better than beige and silver doesn’t it?

UPDATE: The CM8 has been launched in Malaysia as the Chana Era CM8, the cheapest 7-seater in Malaysia with a price tag starting from under RM40k.

A long time ago back in December 2005, there was an agreement signed between a Malaysian company and ChangAn Auto Group, based in Chongqing, China to assemble the ChangAn CM8 in Malaysia. It’s been one and a half years since, and I bet that most of us have forgotten about this.

But today, reader Edward sent in these shots of a ChangAn CM8 with a tradeplate spotted in Subang Jaya on Jalan Kewajipan turning out from the Kesas Highway, This could either be a CBU ChangAn CM8, or a locally assembled one. Whichever it is, we could see a competitor to the Toyota Avanza, Suzuki E-RV, and the upcoming Nissan Livina soon, as the ChangAn CM8 would likely fall into that segment and price range.

Just some backgrounder on ChangAn: ChangAn is an automotive group in China whose ventures include ChangAn Ford, ChangAn Ford Mazda Engine, ChangAn Suzuki, and even Jiangling, which most of you would have known by now because of the controversial Jiangling Landwind crash test results.

Two more photos after the jump, and check out the related posts for clearer product shots of the ChangAn CM8.

Related Posts:
ChangAn CM8 to be assembled in Malaysia

Click here to read the rest of ChangAn CM8 spotted in Malaysia!