According to Shanghai Daily and the China Daily, Zhonghua Autos, English name Brilliance, plans to export 3000 cars to Germany in 2007, and then reaching up to 180,000 cars within 5 years! Ambitious plans for a company thats controlled by a mobile phone battery maker!
Zhong Hua/Brilliance are based in Shenyang, Liaoning in North East China. Under a deal with BMW, Zhonghua would get engineering and design help from BMW, and BMW in return would have a partner to help it produce the 3 and 5 series BMW’s in China. A great deal! The Zhonghua front end looks really nice, very similar to the BMW but still with an edge of its own. Brilliance have already exported 50,000 cars to other continents except North America and Europe before now, this is their first entry in Europe. If China Car Times liked sedan cars we would most definitely buy this car, however, as we very keen cyclists this Zhonghua isn’t very convenient for carrying bikes. Rumors have it the Zhonghua (pictured above) will cost between 15,000 and 20,000 Euros. Bargain!
Sources - China Daily and Shanghai Daily. Picture from Shanghai Daily, cheers fellas!
Xinhua, the Chinese state broadcaster , often called Skinhua due to the large enormous amount of pretty girls on its website, has posted the 8 prettiest models from Beijing Car Show
Published by Ash November 28th, 2006
in Roewe - Rong Wei and Chinese Car News.
When China Car Times was at the Beijing Car Show, I was able to snag some information on how the actual entire engine works. Being the talented individual that I am, I’ve translated the diagram from Chinese into English, but its not perfect English mind. Its pretty big image at 150k, but its worth every penny. Click it to see a bigger image.
Hopefully this will answer some of the many questions that China Car Times has received over the past few weeks since we first wrote about the hybrid Roe We. We will post more information about the engine over the course of the week. Stay tuned, Roe We fans!
Published by Ash November 28th, 2006
in Chinese Car News.
We havnt posted anything about ZhongXing as of yet, thats not to say theres nothing good to say about them though. China Car Times finally caught up with ZhongXing at Beijing Car Show where we saw a few of their new models.
The Grand Tiger
The Grand Tiger (Wei Hu) looks a bit like a Mitsubishi Triton, actually quite a lot. ZhongXing also had a Grand Tiger done up like a Monster Truck, complete with a foreign guy modeling it for them. The Grand Tiger will be sold for 90,000RMB once it is released in China.
It has a 3.0 four cylinder turbo diesel engine, giving max torque of 221nm/2000rpm and max power is 80.9kw/3600RPM, judge for yourself if its a Toyota Tundra or a Mitsubishi Triton beater, but China Car Times thinks its cheep and cheerful. If pick up trucks wernt banned from Qingdao City centre (The city government classes them as goods vehicles and are thus banned from using the main roads into the city) we would buy one ourselves, maybe even this monster truck version:
At the Beijing Car Show, the new Beijing Jeeps were unveiled, the Brave Warrior which is meant for military use plus a newer updated version of the original 2020, except this one is called the ‘Gladiator’ (角斗士 - jiao dou zhan)
The Brave Warrior:
China Car Times commented on the Brave Warrior before, but once you get up close to it, you can clearly see that this jeep is no where near as good as the original 2020 - it feels too plasticy, especially when compared to the combined Soviet and American technology that went into the first 2020. The doors feel like they could be ripped off by hand never mind bullets or missiles. I’d rather drive a Citroen 2CV into battle than this, at least I’d feel safer.
China Car Time has been confused, confused ever since we first laid eyes on the above new Dong Feng Coupe. It looks okay I guess, nothing super special from the front, but once you start to move towards the rear of the car you see:
Just what is the need for that plastic bellows? China Car times has posted before about this Dong Feng Coupe, but even then we were confused, but a poster on China Car Forums has said
This is a new concept in hybrid vehicles. It uses compressed air to supplement the gas engine. When the spoiler at the rear is pushed downward it collapses the YELLOW BELLOWS and creates a chamber of compressed air. After the pressure is spent the driver knows it because he can’t see out the back window anymore, and so he gets out and pushes downward on the spoiler again…….and so it goes.
Then another poster goes onto comment:
The “hybrid” post is a joke guys… peeps r dense round here.
China Car Times has trawled Google and Baidu in search of why this DongFeng has the plastic bellows under the rear and just cant find a good answer. Theres no mention of it being a hybrid, in fact, just the opposite - it comes with a 2.4 Liter 134BHP engine…… Could it just be that the rear hatch can be raised or lowered to allow the trunk/boot take a greater load? In which case Dong Feng must be crazy for trying to make a sports car into a goods vehicle.
Published by Ash November 28th, 2006
in cars and girls and Beijing Car Show.
A car show wouldnt be a car show without girls draping over them, China Car Time has brought you a small selection of what was one offer at Beijing Car Show, if we took too many pictures of pretty girls then my prettier half would no doubt cease performing her matriarchal duties i.e. cooking and laundry, this would leave China Car Time in quite a pickle! So here is a small yet modest collection of hot chicks from Beijing Car Show 2006. Click here to view the full post!
Chery A3 Girl
BYD Girl
Continue reading ‘Chicks of Beijing Car Show 2006′
Since SAIC bought Rover they’ve been busy squirreling away in their Research and Development departments, presumably busy making these utterly stunning, beautiful new cars. China Car Times was awed by the beauty and quality of these cars at the Beijing Car Show, although China Car Times will do well to keep in mind that these are only samples and it would be better to wait for a test drive before commenting further on the quality and design of the cars but we are impressed by the general design! Roe We has produced a 1.8 turbo diesel, a 2.5 V6 and a hybrid car, although not a true hybrid it is a hybrid none the less. Look out for our other stories on the Roe We as they come!
Roe We 2.5 V6
The Roe We 2.5 V6 engine is made entirely from aluminium to aero space industry standard, the engine has ETC - Electronic Throttle Control. The max power from the engine is 135kw/6500rpm and the max torque is 230Nm/4000rpm.
Side view:
From the rear:
The Interior:
Published by Ash November 26th, 2006
in Beijing Car Show and Roewe - Rong Wei.
I think the Rover - Roe We car is really going to take off as a mid range luxury car in China, and its certainly looking like Roe We is going to push its cars as such. Now in China Volkswagon Passats and Audi A6’s are the staple car for any budding Chinese wanting to flout themselves as mid to upper class, but these Passats and A6’s were largely purchased 3 to 4 years ago when there really was no other alternative in the mid to upper range car market, at least until now. The Roe We has shown up on the scene with a host of engines, 1.8 diesel, a 2.5 V6 and even a hybrid. The advertising in and around Beijing shows the Roe We being pushed as a gentle mans car, sleek, classy and expensive, which it largely is at 250,000 - 300,000rmb a good chunk of money in China. The above picture is a billboard in Beijing international airport, note the town housing and the rather British looking man in a top hat and tails suit? I think in the Chinese stereotype, all British men are perfect gentlemen (I think Chinese people read too many British novels from the 19th century) and all British things are of higher quality, thus SAIC are marketing the Roe We as being ‘British’
Published by Ash November 26th, 2006
in Beijing Car Show.
China Car Times has been in Beijing at the Beijing 2006 Car Show - Normal service will resume. In the mean time, China Car Times finds itself sitting in the lobby of the Japanese embassy in Beijing. Can you believe they close at 11am and open again at 2pm ? What kind of crazy consular staff take a 3 hour lunch break?
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