Hafei motors, the almost unknown makers of a beautiful range of ‘Saibao’ cars, and also one of the big players in the mini van world have landed what must be their dream deal - a link up with PSA, owners of Citroen and Peugeot. The deal is said to be a 50/50 deal based on Hafei’s Shenzhen based plant where they will make 10 seater and smaller minivans for the Chinese market that will be badged as Citroen or Peugeot.
Citroen is no stranger to China, they have been in China via the Dongfeng - Citroen Peugeot joint venture agreement for over ten years. The first car they made in China was the Citroen ZX in 1992, however, it was named Fu Kang (meaning prosperity and health, the Chinese cant really say ‘ZX’ - note the Fukang is still made to this day!) for the Chinese market. To gain the JV with Dongfeng, Citroen sold 2500 luxury edition Citroen CX’s to the Chinese government. Peugeot also had a JV agreement with Guangzhou Automobiles in the South of China to make the Peugeot 504, however, the JV was not successful and Peugeot pulled out.
Last year Citroen sold 200,000 vehicles in China, by 2015 they are aiming for 1 million sales per year.
Let’s hope that PSA has better luck putting Hafei on the map than Mitsubishi did. Hafei had a technical tie up with Mitsubishi but I don’t think the applied for joint venture was ever approved. In any case those folks in Harbin are hard workers….got to be, just to stay warm.
Miles Automotive, the electric car importer to America, has also recognized Hafei’s potential.
I have to say, the Hafei vehicles look AMAZING!
Wonder how they go though.