Visitors view a Chery Fulwin II at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition on Wednesday. China's Chery Automobile will set up a joint venture with Johnson Controls Inc. of the U.S. to make auto interiors, state media said. reuters photo

BEIJING (AP)

Home-grown Chinese brands stole the show Saturday, November 18, at the opening of the Beijing Auto Show, upstaging their bigger and better-known international counterparts with original designs and big ambitions.

"A couple of years ago at the Beijing Auto Show, the (Chinese brands) were like children," said Malcolm Bricklin, a U.S. businessman looking to partner with a Chinese company to make cars for export to North America by the end of 2009. "Now they are road class, big time. Two years from now, forget about it."

Close Competition

Sleek Chinese high-end sedans, hybrids, roomy SUVs, and convertibles in rainbow colours competed cheek by jowl with their foreign counterparts, and in many cases drew the larger crowds.

"You see some good ones, and you see some that make you scratch your head and wonder," said Philip Murtaugh, executive vice-president of Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., or SAIC.

The most remarkable thing, Murtaugh said, is that the knock-offs of U.S. and European vehicles that dominated the Chinese car industry five years ago are gone, replaced by original designs. This brought a nod of agreement from Bricklin, whose flamboyant history as an auto entrepreneur includes importing the ultra-cheap Yugo into the United States in the 1980s, and a failed bid to build the Bricklin sports car. "The Japanese took a long time to get into being original," he said, standing outside the SAIC display, showcasing the company's highly anticipated Roewe high-end sedan, as well as a hybrid prototype and their new Ssangyong-branded Kyron SUV.

MAINLAND SALES

Chinese brands now account for about one-fifth of mainland sales but the government has said it wants to see home-grown cars take 60 per cent of the market share by 2010.

The companies are rising to the challenge, churning out cars that are unique and cheaper than their foreign-made competitors. The next major step will be to export the cars to Europe and the United States - industry experts expect that will happen in three to five years.

Chinese car maker Geely Automobile has said it wants to be selling cars in the United States by the end of 2008, but Bricklin and others said that safety requirements and regulatory issues will make it hard for any Chinese car to enter the U.S. market before 2009.

Partnership

Bricklin said his company, Visionary Vehicles, is considering a number of partners, including Chinese industry leaders SAIC and First Auto Works as well as the country's fifth-largest auto maker, Chery Automobile.

"Two years ago when I went to see Chery, they were a nice, young company selling 7,000 cars a month," Bricklin said. "Last month I think they sold 35,000 and they are talking to Chrysler, and talking to Fiat and talking to Alfa. I mean, they are moving faster than I can think."

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