A few days ago, we talked about rumors of Chinese production of Lincoln cars, rumors which Ford denies. Chinese media are blasé about the Dearborn denial. New reports are coming out, and Carnewschina says there is more meat to them. The new reports still insist on a start date in 2015 at Ford’s new Hangzhou plant. And they claim to know what cars will be made, including a new Lincoln ‘compact SUV’.

If the reports are true, then Chinese Lincoln production will kick off 2015 with the MKZ sedan and the MKX SUV. They will be followed by the Lincoln MKS and a new Lincoln ‘compact SUV’. Other Lincolns such as the MKT and Navigator will be imported into China, again, if the reports are based on facts and not on speculation.

Bringing Lincoln to China could make sense, and making it overweight with SUVs would make even more sense. Chinese love luxury and never heard that SUVs are going out of style. Now what would that new compact SUV be? A Lincoln MKE, as in Escape? Or a Lincoln MKK, as in Kuga?

Optimism sure ain’t what it used to be. Introducing its latest survey of auto industry executives [PDF], Booz & Co. proclaims that “optimism is skyrocketing,” and that “a new wave of optimism is overtaking the U.S. auto industry.” They’re not wrong, but for those used to the pre-bailout days of unabashed optimism dressed up as analysis, the “new optimism” is remarkably guarded. And it’s all relative to the pessimism that was beginning to set in when the industry began to realize that the “old optimism” was wildly at odds with the slow-motion market recovery.

So, just how optimistic is the “new optimism”? Which companies have the most reason for optimism? What do industry executives worry about most? When do they expect a Chinese invasion? The answers to these questions and more after the jump.

The “somewhat better” scenario that industry execs tell Booz is defining their business planning looks something like this graph. Overall, 86% of suppliers and OEMs expect auto sales growth to be consistent with GDP growth. This steady market growth outlook puts a premium on market share growth, and the execs polled certainly seem to have strong opinions on that front:

This chart is amazing to me. Clearly the US industry is terrified of two automakers: VW/Audi and Hyundai/Kia. More executives think VW will gain share than think Nissan, Honda, GM or Chrysler will gain or maintain their market share, and the optimism around Hyundai/Kia is straight-up out of control. It’s almost as if auto execs are haunted in their sleep every night by hipster hamsters and the disembodied voice of Jeff Bridges repeating the words “forty miles per gallon” over and over in a congenially bemused voice.

And where do executives think success comes from? Product, product, product. After all, market growth may be slow, but companies expect their revenue to rise. Cost, inventory and pricing discipline can deliver improved profit in a low sales growth environment, but only if the product sells itself.

Meanwhile, 55% of the OEM executives polled say their companies are “capacity constrained” and 36% say they are comfortable with current capacity. As sales rise slowly, higher capacity utilization will  help drive the revenue improvements the industry sees. Once again, as long as the product is good and discipline can be maintained.

And though 69% identified current product portfolio as a top-three driver of growth in 2012, only 17% expect their current portfolio to turn in a “strong performance” vis-a-vis the competition, with 44% expecting a “good performance.” Cost position and financial position are two factors that could always be better from an executive’s position, but the fact that 26% of execs say customer experience and relationship performance could be “poor” or “very poor” is worrying.

Meanwhile, all the talk of price and capacity discipline and improving profit rather than buying market share will only last as long as there’s no major effort to break into the US market. But by 2020, 32% of auto execs expect Chinese manufacturers to have broken into between four and eight percent of the market. By attacking the low end of the market and aggressively trying to buy a foothold in the US market, Chinese firms hold the potential to wreck the disciplined, realistic “new optimism” by putting severe pressure on pricing discipline.

For now, though, the automakers in the US market seems to be settling into a quiet phase of profit-taking rather than adventurous market share grabs. Clearly there’s a sense of having learned tough lessons from the auto bailout, and from the ongoing capacity issues in Europe. But rather than focusing on bailout-era lessons as they did last year, Booz’s 2012-specific questions now center on dealing with “black swan” events like last year’s tsunami and Thai floods. All of which adds to the overall perception that automakers are playing defense, concentrating on profits and hedging against uncertainty.

According to Booz & Co.: Two hundred and eight automotive executives from more than 75 automotive vehicle manufacturers and suppliers participated in the online survey. Thirty-two percent of the respondents were employees of OEMs, and 68 percent work for auto parts suppliers. Three-quarters of the executives were from U.S.-based firms. More than 50 percent of respondents were VP level or above.

The dreaded huge wave of cheap Chinese exports – is still not happening. Instead, China’s Changan exports factories.

“We are looking at building automobile assembly plants in foreign markets including Russia and Brazil,” Xu Liuping, board chairman of Shenzhen-listed Changan told China Daily.

Changan (a.k.a. Chana) is owned by China’s largest military industrial group, China South Industries Group Corp. Changan has a long standing joint venture with Ford.

While other carmakers produce little more than noise when it comes to own brands, Changan quietly became China’s largest maker of indigenous brands.

By 2020, Changan wants to produce 4 million automobiles annually under its independent brands. Changan already has six foreign factories in Mexico, Egypt and other countries.

Infiniti formally opened its new world headquarters in Hong Kong today. This marks “the first time the city has been selected for the headquarters of a car manufacturer,” as Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post notes.  A staff of approximately 100 will trade Nissan’s swank building in Yokohama for even swanker digs in the Citibank Tower in Hong Kong’s high-rent Central district. Heretofore under Nissan’s wings, Infiniti makes its own nest in a dedicated headquarters for the first time in the brand’s history. Its mission: Triple Infiniti sales by 2016.

Next door in China, Infiniti hopes to finalize its plans to produce the premium luxury car in China this year, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn told The Nikkei [sub] today.

In addition to China, Nissan is also looking into moving Infiniti production to other countries, Ghosn said. Currently, Infiniti cars are mostly made at Nissan’s plants in Tochigi and Fukuoka in Japan.

If facts reported by Chinese media are often rumors, then rumors reported by Chinese media are most likely completely bogus. Ford said recently that “its luxury Lincoln brand will remain on the sidelines for now.” But by 2015 … who knows. In any case, Lincolns have a rich history in China, wrapped into the red Flag.

A fight between two makers of cheap Chinese delivery vans will spill over to America – in more ways than one. China’s Jonway is a small carmaker from Zhejiang Province. Usually known for cheap pickup trucks, Jonway launched the Wuxing onto China’s small van segment. That segment is ruled by Wuling, the company that has a joint venture with GM. Jonway is also ruled by an American company: Californian ZAP bought 51 percent of Zhejiang Jonway Automobile Co. Ltd. in 2011.

Wuling’s cheap breadvans rule a hot, but recently beleaguered segment in China. Wuling  Sunshine minivan was China’s most-popular vehicle last year. At 33,000 yuan ($5,215) list, the car does not make much money for GM, if any at all. “GM does not rely on the minibus for profit,” said Jenny Gu, a Shanghai-based analyst with industry researcher JD Power & Associates. “They only contribute volume.” It was that volume that helped GM dethrone Toyota last year.

Yonway wants a share of this market, and the company is not subtle about it. Says Carnewschina:

“Jonway choose Wuxing on purpose, it almost sounds the same in Chinese as Wuling and it almost means the same. Wuxing means ‘Five Stars’, Wuling means ‘Five (sharp) Squares’.”

Jonway will sell its Wuxing from 37,800 yuan on up. Last year however, Wuling dropped the price of its already cheap Sunshine to 28,000 yuan ($4,424). The segment as a whole is under pressure, the entry of new competitors with similar names is likely to spark price fights. Losing $100 per van does not sound like much, but if you sell more a million of them …

Be prepared to see the Wuxing closer to home. ZAP says that the Wuxing will be sold in the U.S. as the Shuttle G, a plug-in version will be sold as the Shuttle EV.

Two days ago, Bloomberg brought harrowing news:

“Chinese dealers are struggling with the rising number of unsold cars that’s threatening to deepen price cuts. Dealerships for Honda Motor Co., Chery Automobile Co., BYD Co. and Geely carried more than 45 days of inventory as of the end of April, exceeding the threshold that foreshadows debilitating price cuts.”

Automotive News made the matter the opener of its Friday video newscast. Apparently, the sky is soon to fall in China. The situation is even more dramatic elsewhere.

In Detroit.

A month ago, we wrote about inventory levels at U.S. dealers. Here, 2 months of supply are considered as normal, and the average stood at 54 days when we wrote the story. The Detroit 3 however jointly had an average of 70 days’ of supply sitting on the lots. General Motors had nearly three months of supply.

If 45 days of supply foreshadow debilitating price cuts in China, what does 86 days of GM supply foreshadow in Detroit?

With a new Volvo XC90 finally getting a re-design in 2014 (after 12 years on the market!), the old platform, like so many old European cars, will move on to become a Chinese market car – though Geely has grand aspirations for the venerable Swedish SUV.

Volvo signed the XC90 platform over to Geely, their Chinese owners, back in March. Geely already has a “premium” brand called Emgrand, but the XC90 will be used to launch yet another premium line. Despite its advanced age, the XC90 outsold competitors like the Land Rover LR4, Volkswagen Touraeg and Audi Q7 last year. Perhaps the old dog has a fair amount of life left in it.

Chery has asked the Chinese government for its blessing regarding a joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover worth $1.9 billion.

The proposal calls for a new plant in the Jiangsu province that would produce as many as 130,000 cars per year. Chinese government officials will have to perform an environmental assessment before the plant goes ahead. Approval from the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main governmental economic body, will also be required

Chery recently saw plans for a tie-up with Subaru go belly-up, but an agreement with JLR combined with China’s appetite for luxury vehicles and SUVs should help take the sting out. Jaguar will need to help make some of its product more attractive for China – a V6 engine has been cited as a must-have for the XJ due to taxation reasons.

The untrained eyes (and not too many follow the ebbs and flows of car sales) see two giants on this table: General Motors, and SAIC. Looks are deceiving, most of their sales are counted twice. GM reports its sales in China, SAIC reports the same (but not necessarily identical) sales again. GM has a contract that allows it to report sales of the SAIC-GM-Wuling three-way joint venture, in which GM holds a minority interest. No skin off majority partner SAIC’s back: SAIC simply reports the numbers again. Without the dubious achievement of some 1.5 million Wuling sales, GM would not even be in the Top Three.

People with a tendency towards OCD will notice that the numbers are slightly off. GM reports different numbers for Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling than SAIC does. Spend some time in China, and you will shrug it off as a rounding error. There are bigger discrepancies to fry.

Have a look at this table. It shows the January-April sales for select Chinese automakers, as reported by the Chinese manufacturers’ association CAAM and by Reuters. Would the real sales please stand up?

With a planned Chinese joint-venture between Chery and Subaru now really, honestly dead in the water, Subaru will look to the United States for sales growth, while importing cars to China for the next few years.

As part of its America-focused future, Subaru will expand its sales goal to 380,000 units per year in the United States by the end of the 2016 fiscal year. Subaru sold 264,198 cars in American in 2011. Production facilities in both Japan and the United States may also be expanded as part of the plan.

With the collapse of the Chery deal, Subaru will be forced to import vehicles to China, and have their cars subject to a 25 percent import duty. Subaru said that Chinese manufacturing would be difficult to establish until the end of their 5-year plan in 2016, but that stipulation likely means that the door hasn’t been completely shut on Chinese Subaru production at a future date.

Just-Auto issued a breathless press release with the hot news that the nasty Chinese government has said no to a joint venture between Japan’s Subaru and China’s Chery. If this sounds like deja vu to you, then you are an ace analyst. Send your CV to just-auto.

The story is ancient news. Last October, Fuji Heavy was told its application was denied because Subaru “is an affiliate of Toyota Motor Corp.” Toyota already has two joint ventures in China, and a company can’t have more. The argument sounded a bit belabored. However, two months later, the Chinese government issued an edict that discouraged new joint ventures between Chinese and foreign carmakers in a market that battles with overcapacity: “Sorry, we are closed!”

Just-auto fell victim to a press release by Subaru, which announced slight adjustments to Fuji Heavy’s “Motion-V” 5 year business plan. One of the changes is a belated realization that “it seems difficult to establish local production in China.” Therefore, “FHI will make a shift from local production scheme to car export scheme.” Except that there never was a local production scheme. Subaru will continue importing cars to China. Good luck with that.

Vehicle sales in China were up a tepid 5.19 percent in April, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) reports. From January to April, overall auto sales, including passenger cars and commercial vehicles, fell 1.33 percent year-on-year to 6.42 million units. Want better news? No problem!

Many news outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal or Fox News report an April increase of 12.5 percent. Technically correct, but misleading. The 12.5 percent are for passenger vehicles only. Sales of commercial vehicles on the other hand dropped a steep 15 percent in April, resulting in a bottom-line growth of 5.19 percent.

The numbers show that just counting passenger vehicles would be a big mistake in China, just like it would be foolish to ignore “trucks” in the U.S. One in five motorvehicles sold in China is classified as a “commercial” vehicle. Many of the “commercial” vehicles are multipurpose vehicles, used to haul vegetables during the day and the family after work. If you want to get a feel for the market, you need to look at all vehicles.

The continuous drop in commercial sales in China is disconcerting. In any market, this would point to a worsening business climate. In China, it does that also, and it reflects that the lower brackets of the market are increasingly reluctant to buy. The newly rich still have money, Audi April sales in China for instance were up 44 percent at 34,221 units.

China-branded cars continue to lose market share. January to April, their combined market share dropped to 42.3 percent, down 3.2 points.

In light of the general market, the performance of GM is confusing. Until recently, GM was a good proxy for the Chinese market. Not anymore. Sales of passenger cars in China are up, even more so amongst the joint ventures. In the same month, Shanghai GM’s sales drop 2.2 percent. On the other hand, sales of Wulings explode, while the market for commercial vehicles collapses. Strange.

News of strong April results of key players in the world’s largest auto market China may indicate than China’s rest and recuperation period is over. SAIC’s auto sales are up 12.6 percent, says Reuters.  GM reports record sales from China, up 11.7 percent for the month. Toyota told Reuters that its April sales in China were up a whopping 68 percent.  Is the Middle Kingdom turning the corner to another episode of hyper growth? Let’s take a look.

The Toyota jump is easy to explain. Toyota’s spokesman Takanori Yokoi conceded to Reuters that “the large year-on-year jump in April sales was due chiefly to the fact that sales during April last year were comparatively low because of the massive earthquake on March 11.” For the same reason, Yokoi predicts double digit growth for the next several months.  For the first four months of the year, Toyota’s China sales are up 14.3 percent.

The case of GM China is a bit trickier. GM’s incurable penchant for spinning numbers and omitting key metrics when they get inconvenient, requires a closer look and some Excel work. Blue numbers in the table had to be retrieved from the archives, or recalculated.

GM’s core China business, a.k.a. Shanghai GM, actually was down 2.2 percent in April, mainly caused by a 6.2 percent drop of Chevrolet. Buick was up slightly. Cadillac sales dropped 19.7 percent, a fact GM’s press release shamefully omits.

Shanghai GM’s losses are glossed over by a jump in Wuling sales, where GM holds a minority interest. A resurgence of the commercial sector is a positive indicator. Higher unit sales of low cost delivery vans at minority-held Wuling however cannot make up for losses in the upper brackets.

SAIC sales must be carefully scrutinized, because they contain both joint venture and own sales.  SAIC reports a 0.1 percent drop in its JV with GM, and a 10.2 percent gain in its JV with Volkswagen.  This, and a report that Audi’s China deliveries jumped 44 percent in April, indicates a continuation of Volkswagen’s strong showing in China. Official Volkswagen Group data are not yet available. The Audi data are a blend of cars made locally in a JV with FAW, and imported cars.

All in all, April sales in China will likely be in the positive region when they are reported some time this week. I do not expect them to jump as high as these early data make believe.

TTAC alum Justin Berkowitz has been checking out the trademark applications lately, and he’s uncovered what looks like a change in name for Lamborghini’s ridiculous shopping trolley for Russian May-September rent-a-rides.

According to Mr. Berkowitz, Lamborghini recently registered the Spanish name “Huracan”. This is, apparently, Spanish for “hurricane”, or vice versa. The name “Deimos” has also been floated about.

Although TorqueNews called the name “Huracan” a move away from bullfighting, it turns out that couldn’t be less true. One of the C/D blog commenters noted this morning in what looked like authentically broken English that “Huracan” was “the bull of the century”… and, indeed, he’s correct. Let’s meet the real Huracan (warning: I didn’t watch this all the way through but it almost certainly has animals being stabbed with sharp objects at some point):

Click here to view the embedded video.

And here’s a stunning tribute to the death of Huracan, mixed in with some music which will be somewhat familiar to anyone who has ever visited the Mexico pavilion at EPCOT:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Look for the deaths of actual production Huracans to be accompanied by drunken squealing, the crunching of guardrails, and the incessant beat of DJ Tiesto throughout what will no doubt be a luxury-branded, state-of-the-art, audio experience system.

Forbes predicts that the U.S. will bypass China this year as the world’s largest auto market. Forbes does that because it employs as its China expert one of the lousiest forecasters in the business.  Regular Forbes columnist Gordon G. Chang published a book in 2001, titled “The Coming Collapse of China.” In it, he predicted that China would implode by 2006, if not earlier, due to the mass of non-performing loans. China did not implode. Instead, non-performing loans brought the U.S. banking system and the world to the brink in 2008. In 2006, Chang wrote the book “Nuclear Showdown.” In it, he predicted that North Korea would rain nuclear missiles on Japan. Has not happened either. Now, Chang predicts that China will no longer be the world’s largest auto market when the year is over, and that the title will go back to the U.S.

By making this prediction, Chang shows that America is a land of opportunity: People who can’t count and aren’t really bright can become famous columnists at Forbes.

Says Chang:

“Last year, 14.5 million passenger cars were sold in China, outpacing America’s 12.8 million. In the first quarter of this year, however, the U.S. car market grew by an impressive 19.5% year-on-year, while the Chinese one, as noted, got smaller.

In fact, American car sales are projected to reach 13.9 million this year. If they hit that mark—likely, given the amazing first quarter—China at the end of this year may have to give back the crown of largest auto market to the recovering U.S.”

In 2009, Chang said that Chinese auto sales are a fraud and that the Chinese government stored cars in parking lots across the country. Now, Chang either commits fraud himself. Or, he is simply incompetent.

The 12.8 million automobiles sold last year in the U.S. were not “passenger vehicles.” They were “light vehicles,” comprised of 6.38 million passenger cars and 6.40 million light trucks (data according to Automotive News .)

The corresponding Chinese light vehicle number is not 14.5 million. According to Jenny Gu of J.D. Power, “China’s light vehicle market finished 2011 with 18 million new vehicles sold.”

If American car sales, well, light vehicle sales, reach 13.9 million this year, then they will be some 4 million short of taking the crown from China.

A competent columnist would either compare 6.38 million American passenger cars with 14.5 million Chinese passenger cars. Or more precisely, 12.8 million American light vehicles with 18 million Chinese light vehicles.

Chang does not do that, because he is an incompetent columnist.

Beijing authorities have slapped organizers of the 2012 Beijing Auto Show with a “serious reprimand” for featuring scantily-clad models.

Beijing’s Capital Ethics Development Office said that the revealing clothing of some models at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition has had a “negative social impact,” the state-owned news agency Xinhua reports.  The ethics office criticized the “vulgar publicity” surrounding the models.

Says the government wire:

“The statement is believed to be referring to several widely forwarded photos of Gan Lulu, a controversial Internet celebrity, and Li Yingzhi, a BMW model, wearing a deep v-cut top and a skimpy diamond-studded dress, respectively.”

Online commenters labeled the event as “a breast exhibition with many famous cars.”

In fulfilling its reporting duty, the state-owned news agency runs a picture gallery with high-res examples of the most vulgar pictures.

No reprimand was issued for the showing of protruding ears.

The export cars are the usual Leon, Ibiza and Alhambra cars.

Seat better put the blonde culinary delights in every showroom to attract customer traffic, because the cars will be a hard sell. There is a hefty tax on import cars.

This does not hurt upscale makes, in the contrary. Imported mass market cars have a rough time competing against domestically made cars.

When it comes to car blogging, China has long bypassed the rest of the world.  Even much larger sites than TTAC look like midgets compared to the Chinese giants. Nothing shows that more drastically than the Beijing Auto Show.

TTAC and the Detroit Bureau may be some of the few American blogs that sent in-the-flesh reporters to Beijing. Chinese blogs dispatch them by the truckload. An outdoor section of the Beijing Auto Show is dubbed “Blogger’s Alley.”  Here, major Chinese car blogs  such as auto.sohu.com have their own multi-story buildings.

Newsrooms of the blogs have been transplanted to the show. Newsmaking is powered by instant coffee and carbonated drinks. At least that one we all have in common

Coda Automotive withdrew a Department of Energy loan application after two years of waiting. The $334 million loan was supposed to have gone towards establishing an assembly plant in Columbus, Ohio, but for now, production will continue in China.

The plant would have created as many as 2,000 jobs, but the DOE’s stalling means that production will continue overseas. Coda’s Forrest Beanum told Automotive News that

“It became clear to us after the Solyndra debacle that things in Washington as it pertains to this program were becoming quite politicized…Going into an election year, our objective was not to be unnecessarily scrutinized due to politics,” he said. Rather, its goal was to focus on the U.S. launch of its new EV this year, he added.”

Coda final assembly is carried out in California using “glider” chassis assembled in China. Speculating whether Coda would have really added jobs in the Midwest would just be conjecture at this point (Fisker, anyone). It’s encouraging to see Coda looking to add jobs in America, even if, as Ed points out, the car needs some work to be up to American market standards. Maybe their new tie-up with Great Wall will let them build an EV here without government help too.

Chinese customers will be able to help themselves to not one but two long-wheelbase Infiniti M sedans., just in case up-and-coming plutocrats don’t want an Audi A6L.

At 5.9 inches longer than the standard car, customers will be able to choose from the Infiniti M25L (with the 2.5L 232 horsepower V6) or the M35hL with 360 horsepower. Both cars will have reclining rear seats, sunshades and an entertainment system, as well as auto-closing rear doors and trunk. Unfortunately, there’s no way to stop the incessant beeping of the M’s electronic nannies.

Coda Automotive, a Southern California start-up that assembles EVs with Chinese components, announced at today’s Beijing Auto Show that it would partner with the Chinese OEM Great Wall to develop a new, lower-cost EV. Says Coda CEO Phil Murtaugh (who you might remember as a key character in American Wheels, Chinese Roads) explains in a press release

We’re excited to work with Great Wall Motors to develop the second product in Coda’s portfolio, to bring another solution to a global problem and together make high-quality clean technology accessible. Ultimately, this will enable drivers worldwide to go electric affordably and support our mission of putting an EV in everyone’s garage.

Coda’s first product exemplifies the challenges facing the EV startup: namely a high MSRP (starting price $38,145) for a product that doesn’t quite meet competitive standards for the US. Great Wall may not bring a vast improvement in quality to the partnership (although it was the first Chinese OEM to pass European Whole Vehicle Type Approval), but it should be able to help Coda offer a more affordable EV to the US market. The new vehicle will be jointly developed, with Coda taking the lead on the EV powertrain development and final assembly, and GW manufacturing gliders at its plant in Baoding.

Meanwhile, plenty of questions remain. Will lower costs help Coda battle its way out of a brutally niche positioning? Will even cheaper Chinese vehicles meet American-market expectations? Will new product even make a difference to Coda, considering its dealer net is currently only four stores strong? Bertel and I will be meeting with Coda while we’re in the Los Angeles area this week, and we’ll be sure to bring you more details on its alliance with Great Wall as they become available.

[INSERT JUVENILE QUIP ABOUT THIS CAR'S NAME AND HOW MUCH IT SOUNDS LIKE ANATOMY]. Just kidding. We’re not that silly. Here’s a look at the Fiat Viaggio aka the Dodge Dart for China.

The made-in-China sedan will come with one of two 1.4L turbocharged Fiat engines, with 120 or 150 horsepower. A 5-speed manual or a dual-clutch automatic will be offered, with production starting in July. The Viaggio is set for a Q3 2012 launch.

Although the nameplate says “Sylphy”, this is more than likely the 2013 Nissan Sentra, set to replace the dreadful current generation car.

The Chinese market Sylphy will launch with a 1.8L 4-cylinder engine and a CVT – another less-than-exciting combination, but one that would be in character for Nissan and also allow for excellent fuel economy.

Thanks to NetCarShow.com for the Photos

Our man Bertel Schmitt is en route, all set to cover the Beijing Auto Show for the next two days. By our count, there are over 70 debuts, with many of them being Chinese market products; concept cars, older vehicles re-issued and manufactured in Chinese JV factories and obscure concept cars. A complete list, with a brief description can be read at just-auto.com for anyone really interested in the Brilliance Jinbei Large Sea Lion Camper or the HaiMa Yao.

Audi: Audi has two big debuts. The RS Q3 muscle-crossover (which is not an obscure genre of pornography) and the A6L, a favorite of Chinese government officials.

BMW: A topless version of the i8 electric supercar will be revealed, but the big news is the 3-Series long wheelbase. These long wheelbase sedans are essential for China, where having a driver is a mark of status.

Brilliance: Chinese automaker Brilliance debuts their Jinbei Large Sea Lion Camper concept. I have no idea what this is, but it is already my pick of the show.

Citroën: The beautiful DS Numero 9 is unveiled.

Eterniti: Remember this? The mysterious SUV upstart will show off a production-ready product.

Fiat: The Dodge Dart based Viaggio will be revealed, while we anxiously await for a puerile, pun-infested headline from Jalopnik that will be borderline misogynistic.

Geely: Chinese automaker Geely will show a revised version of the Gleagle McCar, which sounds vaguely like a reference to McDonalds and the Ku Klux Klan.

Lamborghini: Lamborghini will debut their new SUV, said to be named the “Urus”. Observers are suggesting that this may set in motion the opening of the seven seals as prophesised in the Book of Revelations, bringing about an apocalyptic event said to occur at the Urus long lead launch at the Hotel-Du-Cap-Eden-Roc. Others say that it just means that Lamborghini is looking for more customers in emerging markets.

Mercedes-Benz: The CLA Concept Style Coupe will preview the look of a sub C-Class model, confusingly dubbed the CLA. The G63 and G65 AMG will also debut, just in time for Kim Kardashian to drive one on the newest season of her nebulous reality show.

Porsche: With 420 horsepower and a lowered stance, the Cayenne GTS really is just another minutely different special edition of an existing product.

SEAT: The Ibiza Cupra is a small, performance-oriented hatchback with a 178-horsepower 1.4L engine. It ticks all of our boxes and will never come to North America.