Brilliance! First Chinese Automaker In Europe Calls It Quits

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

We knew Brilliance’s plan to export 158,000 sedans to Europe had taken a bit of a beating when the Chinese automaker’s European export partner folded back in November. Even before then, the ADAC’s now-infamous crash tests of Briliance’s BS6 and BS4 seemed likely to doom the brand’s early attempt at the European market. And now, according to Reuters, it’s official. Brilliance execs admit:

We have stopped exports to Europe. For now, we have no timetable for resuming the business

The chagrined executives blame rapidly-changing European regulations as well as the sedans’ poor reception, but one look at the ADAC’s crash test video tells you everything you need to know. And the videos certainly suggest that Brilliance’s premature attempt at cracking the European market has hurt future efforts by other Chinese firms, by confirming the worst fears about Chinese quality. European executives who have been living in fear of a Chinese invasion will probably sleep just a little bit better tonight.


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Analyst Analyst on Apr 29, 2010

    This whole story might be bogus: " The Chinese automaker Brilliance has likely pulled out of Europe. A Reuters reported earlier today that Brilliance has halted its exports to Europe. Another report from the Global Times disputes the Reuters story, claiming that the company, “will never pull out of Germany and Europe, even though it is confronted with bleak sales and thin profit margins.”" http://www.motobullet.com/news.php?id=10222

  • Davekaybsc Davekaybsc on Apr 30, 2010

    I recall one crash test video of a Chinese car where the test crew could be heard audibly laughing at the results. That's never a good sign. I do love the giant shard of glass flying at the camera in this video though. Good thing it had airbags, otherwise somebody might've gotten hurt!

  • Garak Garak on Apr 30, 2010

    Russian Autoreview has also tested Chinese cars, and without exception they've performed horribly. Chinese C-NCAP testing is done at 55 km/h, not 64, and the cars are submitted to the tests by the factories, not bought off the market. The build quality of standard-production Chinese vehicles is much worse, with sloppy welds that've burned through the metal, parts made from cheaper materials and thinner sheet steel.

  • FromBrazil FromBrazil on Apr 30, 2010

    Interestingly enough the top selling mag here (still profitable business) pulled a Effa M100 (???) from their long test of cars, when they buy and drive a car for 60k km. While the mag's thinking of whjat constitutes a long term test is way off line (since they have to get to that limit in aabout a years time so the cars spend about 70 or 80% of their time on the road and thus the methodology is flawed), this was the 1st time a car was pulled off the test 'cause it was deemed unsafe to drive (at 45k km). I think they still have a long way to go.

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