Foreigners Create "Homegrown" Brands For China

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: September 9th, 2010

foreigners create homegrown brands for china

China has a dizzying array of car brands. Nobody is quite sure how many car manufacturers there are. Number of car brands in China? Anybody’s guess. Well, there will be a new one. Nissan created a new brand exclusively for China. They call it the Venucia. Solid Chinese name …

Starting in 2012, Venucia vehicles built together with Nissan’s joint venture partner Dongfeng will be priced lower than the Nissan brand. Their target are “first-time car buyers among the less affluent middle class in regional cities,” as The Nikkei [sub] reveals. And truth be told, in China the car will be called “Qichen” which means “morning star” in Chinese. So why give it a western name if it’s for China only? Inscrutable orient …

Using Nissan’s technology, the joint venture will design Venucia vehicles and assemble them. Pricing will start from 50,000 yuan ($7370).

According to the Nikkei, Honda and GM also plan to introduce China-only brands for next year. The thinking is to deliver entry priced models without damaging the “foreign” halo of a brand.

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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PartsUnknown on Sep 09, 2010

Isn't the last one on the bottom row the exact Citroen emblem?

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Lynn Ellsworth on Sep 09, 2010
When they aren’t stealing the designs of the cars themselves Would you prefer that the Chinese leap frog over European and US car companies? Taxis in many Chinese cities use cng and the Chinese have a lot of experience building electric bicycles and fork lifts. China has few natural resources. They may skip steel and aluminum and go directly to carbon fiber. Rather than worrying about copies I think we should be worried about products that will make our present vehicles obsolete. And why are some still throwing the word communism around? Communism sounds wonderful (similar to the Christian idea of heaven) but all experiments trying to adapt it to real live people have been total failures. China, Cuba, North Korea, and Viet Nam are just old fashion dictatoships with pretend voting. Get over it - move on.

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- Bigtruckseriesreview @ Youtube on Sep 09, 2010
  
  I've lived in China for over 2 years. I like the fact that the Government is strong enough to "make things happen", but, I don't like the fact the PRC turns a blind eye to copyright infringement. Frankly, I think the Chinese government should focus solely on electric cars. The country is innovative enough to do it and probably leap frog everyone else in implementation. If I was the Premiere, I'd force every automaker there to develop electric cars with SWAPPABLE BATTERIES. I would put together a plan to phase out gas/diesel cars int he next 3 years. Only trucks and construction would use petro. You'd drive your car to the "energy station" and your dead battery will be swapped with one of the pre-charged batteries in a 4 minute process! I so hate the current plug in ideas and don't feel they are realistic to continue or improve our current lifestyle.
  
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Stingray on Sep 09, 2010

GM-SAIC launched one with a logo/name very similar to Iran's IKCO Samand. It's the same advice I read some days ago from Managing the Dragon.

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Philip Lane on Sep 09, 2010

"According to the Nikkei, Honda and GM also plan to introduce China-only brands for next year." Doesn't GM already have a China-only brand? You know, Buick?

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