Chevrolet Baojun

Chevrolet Baojun

 Honda revealed prices for their „Chinese Brand“  Everus S1.  As reported before, these “Chinese brands” are brands created by joint ventures, based on (usually not the latest) foreign platforms, filled with parts of foreign pedigree, and as much Chinese manufacture as possible. Supposedly, these brands are targeted at the lower income brackets. They better start saving. When the concept was launched, the target price
for the cars was under $10,000, but what is going on sale is consistently over that
Prices for the Everus start at 69.800 yuan ($10,752) and go up to 99.800 yuan ($15,373), reports  CarNewsChina. That’s a lot of coin for a car that is based on an old Honda City platform, powered by a 1.3 liter or 1.5 liter minimill.

Chevrolet Baojun

Supposedly, the fresher looking BaoJun, a Buick Excelle posing as a Chinese, will be priced similarly.
GM China’s BaoJun might have an ace up its sleeve: China Daily reported that a discontinued version of the Chevy Spark could be revived as a Baojun, called “Lechi” (“happy driving”) and sold for around $6,000.  In China, that’s considered a decent entry level price.

Chevrolet Baojun

 When you have a larger joint venture with a Chinese automaker, at some point it will be strongly suggested to you to create a Chinese brand. At least this is how The Financial Times understands it: “Foreign carmakers wishing to build new plants or add capacity in China’s burgeoning car market are being told by the government that if they wish to expand, they must develop a low-cost local car brand.”

Chevrolet Baojun

 Yesterday, Ed introduced us to the latest addition to GM’s brand portfolio, the BaoJun. Introduced in China, it is allegedly slotted below the Chinese Chevrolet and the Chinese Buick, and supposedly, it is targeted at “first-time buyers in the nation’s second- and third-tier markets,” or so the propaganda goes. The car is made by the SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) joint venture. We’ve had our eyes on that brand for a while, and eyed it with interested suspicion. The suspicion seems to be warranted.

Chevrolet Baojun