Singapore Company to Co-Produce Cars with China Company

[Nutty]

This is roughly translated from what I read from the Chinese evening papers tonight.

 

Singapore based company Royal Automobile is collaborating with Chinese company Chongqing Lifan Corporation to produce a new car called Lifan 520. As of now, the production line has the ability to produce 50,000 cars annually.

 

Royal Automobile becomes the first Singapore company to produce cars in China.

 

Lifan cars go with the slogon of "high performance, low fuel consumption, high quality", set to change the general public's perception of Chinese cars.

 

According to sources, Royal Automobile will debut with two Lifan cars, 1.3L and 1.6L. The 1.6L car comes with TRITEC 1.6L engine - winner of world's top 10 automobile engine.

[Nutty]

Lifan 520 - girls not included as part of the standard package

 

[Gobbler]

should build bio-diesel cars to capture china huge market hee...

petrol cars too common already.

[Normal_aspirated]

got some specs from this webby:

 

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/04/04/028879.html

 

Chongqing Lifan, one of China's biggest private motorcycle manufacturers introduced its first passenger car last week.

 

Called the Lifan520 this new compact sedan is powered by a 4-cylinder 1.6-liter petrol engine supplied by Tritec of Brazil. It is the same engine as found in the Mini Cooper and the Chery Fengyun.

 

Main dimensions are: 4370x1700x1473 mm, kerb weight is 1155 kg.

Production line of Lifan 520 was developed with assistance from Hainan Mazda, while design and engineering assistance was provided by other FAW subsidiaries.

Another body style, a five-door hatchback will join the lineup later this year.

 

Domestic launch will commence in June, with exports to start later this year. According to official information, the company has signed an agreement with an Iranian automobile rental company on the import of 500 vehicles.

Btw, look a little like the Geely.....

Edited November 27, 2006 by Normal_aspirated

[EventH]

the 4-cylinder 1.6-liter petrol engine is supposed to be supplied by Tritec of Brazil, the same engine as the one found in the Mini Cooper

[Shull]

personally, i dun have high hopes of this car..

[Boyboy]

china cars now CMI. but i think like hyundai and daewoo, their cars will become pretty acceptable with time. maybe in 10 yrs i can consider a china car, if korean car makers up their price to match their jap counterparts.

[Nutty]

The key thing is - a Singapore based company finally takes the plunge and enter the automobile market.

[Karoon]

my 0.02....

 

the chinese company will ask the sg partners to invest more and more for whatever reasons until the sg partner dry up, give up and close shop and the chinese look for new partners and REPEAT

UNTIL END;

[Nutty]

Sounds like some investment at a certain industrial area in China.

[Furrynadz]

u miss out two words "get conned"

[Zyrofillica]

ya man. soon we will have a car model called The LIFAN merleeon 2.0TT (twin turbo). A tribute to our nation's iconic merlion and all mighty lees

[Liquidh]

Hey, the tritec engine is from the factory that BMW and Daimler used to co-own in Brazil right? I remember reading a casestudy about Lifan wanting to buy the tritec engines.... Basically, it's BMW engine... the older versions of course...

[Tomsss]

i believe the engine will outlast any other part of the china car

[Nutty]

How about Lifan Harry?

 

That will be the best "tribute" - A car that refuses to retire and can hit mileage of 888,888km without any problems.

[Shull]

should be Automobile Production market..

 

but bottomline is, it's still a MIC China branded car..so i still dun really trust the QC..

[Kelpie]

should be Automobile Production market..

 

but bottomline is, it's still a MIC China branded car..so i still dun really trust the QC..

 

I will not be surprised that they will call it Singaporean made car but manufactured in China. I just saw one QQ A160 parking near a kopitiam at Lorong Lew Lian. So, another variant of QQ is now on the road.

 

Regards,

[Porche]

nice better than Geely CK