Explaining the Chinese Car Industry and Chinese Cars
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Avid China Car Times reader, Hunxueer, sent these pictures in of a BMW X5, ahem, a Double Ring (Shuan Huang) SCEO SUV!
The conversion from SCEO to X5 seems to be simple - slap some badging on the front and back, change the grill to a BMW style one, and dont forget to stick some BMW badges on the alloys!
The EU importer of the Xiao Gui Zu otherwise known as the Little Nobel, and now simply ‘Bubble’, Martin Motors has put the super mini car on the market in the EU.
Martin Motors appears not to be afraid of the mighty legal hand of Daimler AG, who earlier threatened to sue if the Little Nobel went on sale in their own backyard, hence sales in Germany of the Bubble have yet to commence due to legal wrangling. The 1.1l, 68bhp motor is going on sale in Italy for just 9,000 Euros.
It seems that the German marques are getting a bit tetchy about the incoming wave of Chinese cars. A German car importer, China Automobile Deutschland, has teamed up with Shuang Huan autos of China to bring in a tiny kei car, the little Noble, the BMW X5 like SCEO SUV and also an older generation Toyota RAV4 clone, named the UFO. BMW have said if China Autombile Deutschland group were to show the SCEO at the Frankfurt show then they would definelty have to look at taking legal action against the distribution of the SUV in Germany. Previously BMW also managed to stop the importation of the SCEO SUV into Italy, earlier this year we heard of a French companies plans to import the SCEO into France, but China Car Times is unsure if BMW managed to stop them or not.
The SCEO was unveiled in 2005 and is powered by a range of Mitsubishi engines. Sure, the SCEO is highly inspired by a previous generation BMW X5 but its a lot of car for a little money in China, and also, quite possibly the most important part, SCEO drivers manage to drive their SUV’s much better than their X5 driving equivalents.
It seems that since we last talked about Shuang Huans little mini car, its finally been granted an English name - we called it the Little Aristocrat, but it seems Shuang Huan have decided its to be called the Little Noble. China Car Times got up close and personal with the Little Aristocrat err Little Noble earlier this year, we think its a great car!
China Car Times can speak freely on its own website, (we think) and to be honest, the only thing that Shuang Huan have taken here is the concept of the car, and Swatch (original makers of the Smart) took the idea of making a super small mini car from the Japanese Kei car segment. The Shuang Huan is better in some areas than the Smart car is, and vice versa.
Mercedes seem a little ticked off that the German company, China Automobile Deutschland, plan to launch the Little Noble at the Frankfurt show, the proposed launch of the car must be a real stinger for Mercedes, as the alleged copy is going to go on the market in Germany (Mercedes own backyard) for a breath takingly low cost of 7,000 Euros. The managing director of China Automobile Deutschland,Klaus Schlössl, lashed back at Mercedes allegations of the Little Noble being a blatant copy by saying the Little Noble is only similar from certain angles.
We finally got a chance to get up close and personal with the Little Aristocrat from Double Ring, also known in Chinese as Shuan Huang. We first saw this bubbly little car in Shanghai, but didn’t get a chance to get up close due to the huge crowds that were swarming the Shuan Huang stand and largely ignoring the other Shuan Huang vehicles. In China, Shuan Huang is quite possibly onto a winner with this car. We caught up with Shuan Huang motors at the Qingdao auto show, not the biggest auto show in China, but not the smallest either. It seemed Shuan Huang decided to go w
To find out what China Car Times thinks of the Little Aristocrat, click continue reading.
Continue reading ‘China Car Times gets up close and personal with the Little Aristocrat’
We talked about the Xiao Gui Zu - Little Aristocrat before, it caused quite a stir and a few blogs picked up the story. Well, the prices for the Little Aristocrat are out and the news is - Its an absolute bargain! The cheapest model starts at 30,690RMB and the most expensive is 40,999RMB. SCEO, the manufacturer of the Little Aristocrat is definitely aiming this paticular car at the in the Chery crowd. Could this car take the hot hatch crown away from the QQ? We will be watching closely, very closely. Actually, we wouldn’t mind buying one of these, bet they are great for inner city travel, to and from the supermarket etc etc. Yes we are fully grown men, but we do like a little car.
It seems Chinese car maker Shuang Huan, or in English ‘Double Rings‘ has been busy. We didnt see this one at the Beijing Auto Show! It seems that Double Ring has created a replica a model very similar to the Smart Four Two. The Double Ring model, named ‘Xiao Gui Zu‘ or ‘Little Aristocrat‘ is a city car with very much the same customer target as the Smart in Europe - city living folks who don’t need a huge car and who are environmentally aware. China Car Times has known for a while that if the real Smart were to come to China it most surely would be a HUGE hit with middle class Chinese women aged 18 to God knows what.
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