Who killed the Brilliance SUV launch?

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For the weeks we have been gearing up for the launch of the Brilliance A3 SUV as it was to be one of the major center pieces for Brilliance at the Shanghai Auto Show, oddly on the first press day there was a big space for where the A3 SUV should have been. It thus started a ‘who dunnit‘ across the auto show.

The likely culprit appears to be Brilliance’s own partners, BMW. Rumor has it that BMW were unhappy with Brilliance for practically cloning  the X1 and then putting it on show before BMW had a chance to launch their own locally made BMW X1 2.0T. Several of Brilliance’s own car models have BMW overtones within their design, partly as a nod to their Bavarian brothers clean line designs, but the A3 SUV was the first time that Brilliance had taken a liberal Xerox approach to BMW’s styling.

When the A3 SUV will launch is now a mystery, as BMW did not launch the locally built X1 at this Shanghai Auto Show, it might be that Brilliance will have to wait until next years Beijing Auto Show if BMW are going to launch at the years end Guangzhou Auto Show.