Driving Sports

The North American International Auto Show is the biggest new car show in America. Of course, it's in Detroit, at the huge Cobo Center from January 17-25. The show features a black-tie gala, press days, charity benefits, and everything that's new in the automotive world.

Well, almost everything. Nissan, Mitsubishi, Ferrari, Suzuki, and Land Rover have pulled out of the show in recent weeks, citing economic stresses and a general sales downturn in the United States. Honda canceled their press conference announcing the new hybrid Insight. But there will be some new and interesting faces to take the place of the old guard.

"In addition to the familiar brands, Brilliance Auto will be making their North American debut, adding to the growing number of Chinese manufacturers occupying space in Cobo," says the rather long and boring video on the NAIAS website.

Brilliance Auto and BYD Auto will both show their products in Detroit this year. If you've never heard of either of these companies, neither had we until today. Other Chinese automakers you might hear about soon are Changan, Chery, Shanghai Automotive, and Dongfeng. Every one of these companies has contracts and joint ventures going with established western auto manufacturers.

Take a closer look at Brilliance, and marvel a bit at this well-kept secret. Brilliance has partnership agreements with Toyota, Mitsubishi, Design Giugiaro, Porsche, BMW, Pininfarina, Johnson Controls, and TRW.

Brilliance already makes several brands of cars and vans for the Chinese market. A 51% - owned subsidiary, Shenyang Automotive, manufactures and sells minivans under the "JinBei" and "Granse" brand names. These cars are based on Toyota's HIACE and GRANVIA minibus models in China.

Shenyang Automotive also makes passenger cars under the "Zhonghua", "Zunchi", "Junjie" and "Kubao" (coupe) brand names in China. The "Zhonghua" sedan was designed by Italdesign and was formally launched in the Chinese sedan market in August 2002. The "Zunchi" sedan, design modified by Pininfarina, was the "face-lift" version of the original "Zhonghua" sedan.  The "Kubao" coupe is designed by Porsche with certain other components being designed by Shenyang Automotive.

Click here for a 360-degree view of the Zhonghua sedan.

Even more interesting, Brilliance owns  49.01% of BMW Brilliance Automotive Limited. This subsidiary manufactures and sells sedans under the BMW brand name in China. Here's the story on that from the Brilliance website: "On 27th March, 2003, the Company (through its 98% indirectly owned subsidiary) entered into a joint venture contract with BMW Holding BV in relation to the establishment of the joint venture to manufacture, assemble and sale of the latest version of the BMW-designed and branded passenger cars, engines, parts and components in China. The 3-series and 5-series BMW sedans produced by the joint venture were launched in the Chinese sedan market in November 2003. The BMW joint venture also launched new versions of the 3-series and 5 series in September 2005 and November 2006, respectively.The BMW sedans are targeted at the premium sedan market in China."

All these 49.01% and 51% statistics are crucial to understand what's happening. These Chinese companies have partnerships and joint ventures strong enough that BMW is willing to let Brilliance put their Roundel on a Chinese-made car. Companies like Brilliance are ready to compete on the world automotive market, and for the first time they're bringing their brand to the Detroit Auto Show - at precisely the same moment the Big 3 are begging for cash just to stay alive and other foreign brands are withdrawing from the show.