Lifan aiming to sell 5000 electric cars in 2010
Lifan might be a small auto player when compared to other giants like BYD and Geely, as their sales are only 60,000 units per year, but Lifan are a strong auto maker in their local market of Chongqing and South West China where their cars are quite popular due to strong local support. Lifan might lack sales volume, but they make up for it in vision, they are one of the stronger car exporters in China and also have some interesting plans for selling electric cars in 2010.
Lifan’s CEO, Mr. Yin Ming Shan, has never given up his dream to become a major car maker. Lifan started as a motorbike manufacturer and quickly excelled at supplying exactly what the rural communities of South Western China needed exactly, now that those rural communities are prospering and becoming small towns there is a demand for small autos, which Lifan has been eager to supply, but with massive competition from the local auto giant Chang’an it has been difficult for Lifan to stand out in a crowd of cheap Chinese made cars. Mr. Yin has realized this and appears to be planning to become South West China’s BYD, and will begin to offer pure electric versions of its popular models (chiefly the 320 hatch and 520 sedan) with electric drive instead of gasoline models.
Mr. Yin has teamed up with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai which has resulted in the Lifan-CAS company, essentially a joint venture between Lifan and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and will see the two companies work together on developing new batteries, and battery management systems in Shanghai.
Initial sales goals for the JV in 2010 are set at 5000 units of pure electric vehicles, whilst in 2011 they are aiming for 10,000 and hope to double that in 2012 when electric power stations are more common.
Lifan already has two of its models in electric form, the Lifan 320 and Lifan 620. Visitors to the Shanghai World Expo will be able to see the pure electric Lifan 620 on patrol with the Expo Police force, where it is able to reach top speeds of 120kph and can travel upto 200km on a single charge. A fast charge can take as little as 15 minutes to see it charged to 70%, but a slow home charger can take upto 7 hours. The Chinese media are saying that if the car is charged to full at peak times it will need 15rmb’s worth of electricity ($2.1USD), whilst an off-peak charge will cost as little as 6rmb ($0.87USD).
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“…it has been difficult for Lifan to stand out in a crowd of cheap Chinese made cars…”
Lifan doesn’t exactly stand head and shoulders over Chang’an and Qingling. It too has to work hard on improving quality.
As for the 200km range of its EV, under what driving conditions are we talking about here? Lifan like the others is not giving us the details.
Too much design likeness to MINI to be really taken seriously. Looks like a very cheap copy. Haven’t they any ideas of their own?
And queue the biased pro Chinese responses who’ll cll this is nothing like a Mini and that actually it was the original that was copied by Mini.
I wonder how many of the pro Chinese posters are part of the 50c Army?
I think it looks like shit. Not only it’s copied from the Mini, it makes a very poor effort at doing so. It’s this kind of stupid shit that gives all Chinese automakers a bad image out there. And I heard build quality on those things is just atrocious. Lifan needs to go.
I wouldn’t care about the similarity to a good looking model of another manufacturer if the technical side is satisfying and the price is right. How is the everyday-performance? That is what counts and what does it cost to get and maintain that. Looks like very good value for money – I would give it a try.
hi im from the philippines ah about the lifan car.
i bought 1 and thats the mini type and i got no complaints well at my first time i always got stal but driving it for a few days got the hang of it and no major problems and i ran fast on the highway over taking other well known cars just for testing it can take the top speed still no problems.
dude i am also an owner of a lifan 320 from the philippines. nice to hear comments form other co-320 owners
Bernard and other commentors driving the lifan 320 and 520 is fun well i drove my mini for almost 2 years now and i even raced it on a dirt road and it was my 1st time also and won 3rd place and on the track iv won 2nd place. their are no changes on the engine only the tires and still the performance is very very good! oh yha i forgot the terrain here in the philippines are mountainous and the road are 5050 ok still lifan 320 and 520 runs perfectly! Go lifan! just improve you design don’t copy just get ideas from the other car industries. Use your imaginations people of china you can do it! ^_^
Has anyone heard of any newsworthy results from the establishment of the Lifan Electrical Car Industrialization Project in March 2008? Location was to be in Huhehot, Inner Mongolia?