Geely set to launch sedan designed for Europe
Privately owned Geely Automobile Holdings is preparing to launch its first car specially designed for the Western European market, ramping up ambitions to become the Toyota Motor Corp of the coming decade.
Vice-president Zhao Fuquan said on Monday that the car, currently designated the EC718, will initially go on sale on the mainland as early as mid-August with the European market to follow once certification has been received.
The car, priced at between 80,000 yuan (HK$90,760) and 120,000 yuan in China, is a four-door sedan aimed at the mid-range market.
Geely, one of the mainland's top 10 carmakers, exports vehicles to Southeast Asia and eastern Europe.
More Chinese carmakers are gearing up to sell their cars in developed markets such as Europe and the United States as they try to enhance their brand reputation domestically.
Hebei-based Great Wall Motor launched a dual-cab utility, priced under US$20,000, last month in Australia and New Zealand through the Ateco distribution network.
Geely expects to sell as many as 10,000 EC718s this year and 50,000 next year on the mainland, said vice-president Liu Jinliang.
Geely, the first Chinese carmaker to display at the Detroit Auto Show in 2006, has refined its strategy in recent years to make more hi-tech and expensive cars. The carmaker gained its initial reputation making cheap, small cars priced at between 30,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan.
The company sold 137,758 cars in the first half, up 29 per cent from last year. It plans to sell two million vehicles by 2015.
This is the second attempt by the Zhejiang-based carmaker to break into Europe.
It said in July last year it would export a four-door hatchback, the FC-2, to the US and European markets by early this year. However, those plans never materialised.
Chen Qiaoning, an analyst at ABN Amro TEDA Fund, said it would take time to realise the ambitious overseas plans of mainland carmakers.
'Other carmakers like Brilliance China started exporting cars to Germany last year, but no substantial outcomes have yet been seen,' Mr Chen said.
Geely said early this year that it had halted construction of a US$500 million manufacturing plant in Mexico because of the dire global economic situation.
'There is a renewed energy in the export accomplishments of Chinese carmakers. But in the aggregate, vehicle exports are down more than 60 per cent from 2008 [for the first half],' said John Bonnell, director of JD Power Asia-Pacific Forecasting.
'The renewed interest reflects more the incremental progress companies like Great Wall are having signing up local distributors than a major development in China's overseas competitiveness.
'Succeeding in overseas markets would have a tremendous positive effect on Chinese carmakers. [But] I am of the school that if a company is not competitive in its home market, why would it be competitive in overseas markets?'
