ZhongXing’s Crossover SUV to see the market in 2012

Spy Shots, Zhongxing | Ash | January 3, 2012 at 12:16 pm

Zhong Xing, or rather ZX Auto are the long forgotten Baoding based manufacturer pick up trucks. The truck company is clearly living in the shadow of its more famous neighbour, Great Wall Auto, but the company had a great PR goal in 2011 when its trucks became the truck to own in the recent Libyan Civil War. Zhong Xing Trucks were headline news material all over the world thanks to ingenious Libyan’s that retro fitted their ZX trucks with rocket launches, heavy machine guns and other types of heavy weaponry in a bid to over turn Ghadaffi’s rule – and they won.

ZX Auto’s impact in the Chinese market has always been small, largely due to the fact that they focus on trucks and SUV’s whilst the market was growing ever towards smaller displacement models, however ZX Auto are planning to change that with the launch of this new small hatchback crossover SUV that was recently spotted out testing:

Interestingly, this mini SUV is rather similar to Great Wall’s own Hover(now Haval) H2 SUV, which itself was born off the back of the Coolbear (second picture down, left) which has now morphed into the ZX Crossover.

The ZX Crossover will likely launch in April 2012 at the Beijing Auto Show which is not too far from ZX’s Baoding base. Engine power is likely to come from 1.3L and 1.5/6L engines from Mitsubishi which are bought off the shelf and service a cheap and cheerful purpose for many a manufacturer that lacks engine technology.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.