In March 2013, a 1.6-liter turbocharged midsized sedan called Qoros 3 debuted at the Geneva International Motor Show in Switzerland, grabbing the attention of a few reporters looking for something new in addition to models from big-name brands like Volkswagen and Peugeot.
The annual event, billed as the barometer of the global automobile industry, was primarily a stage for established giants from across the world, especially Europe, where modern vehicles were invented.
The Qoros 3, however, was not the first Chinese model to appear at the exhibition famed among car aficionados.
Chinese carmaker Brilliance Auto unveiled three models there in 2007, but the flagship of the three, the BS6, won only two stars of the five-starred European New Car Assessment Program, reinforcing the stereotype that the Chinese could not produce quality vehicles.
A year later came BYD, which was back then a nobody, with its F3. The plug-in hybrid that resembled Toyota’s Corolla did not impress visitors at the Geneva International Motor Show either.
Compared with Brilliance and BYD, Qoros, a joint venture between Chinese carmaker Chery and Israel Corporation, was treated more seriously.
The Qoros 3 had a modern design in the eyes of the Europeans and was solidly built — the sedan was the first Chinese model ever to win a five-star rating in the stringent Euro NCAP.
But European car reviewers were more skeptical than optimistic about its prospects.
“It’ll charge around 20,000 euros for the 3, its mid-size saloon, figuring that product quality alone is going to be enough for buyers to look beyond the badge. Which seems…brave,” said Matthew Jones in a BBC Top Gear report.
“Unlike the Chinese, us Euro types aren’t used to being bombarded with dozens of new brands, and loyalty takes at least a few generations to garner, even if the products are dirt cheap,” he added.
Jones’ confidence, or arrogance in the eyes of local Chinese carmakers, was understandable.
Back then, when the gasoline car was the only choice, even Chinese car buyers were convinced that Japanese and South Korean brands did a better job in terms of both quality and performance than local marques, let alone European or American ones.
Thanks to this mentality, the Qoros failed to sell in China despite its good quality. After struggling for more than a decade, it vanished from the scene.
When talking about its failure, one of the most frequent comments from car analysts, including John Zeng, managing director of LMC Automotive Consulting (Shanghai), was that “it was naive for a Chinese brand to carry a price tag similar to that of a Volkswagen”.
The analysts were correct. As Zhang Yongzhan, a 55-year-old construction contractor in Tianjin, said: “In those days, you chose a Chinese car simply because you could not afford a foreign one.”
Zhang was one of the first private car owners in China. He bought a Volkswagen Santana in 1997, but now drives a BYD Han, an electric sedan.
“The Han is nice, spacious and quiet, and money-saving compared with gasoline cars,” said Zhang, who still remembers the day he took a bag of cash to a Volkswagen dealership. “It was a whopping 135,500 yuan,” he said.
The switch in Zhang’s preference from a gasoline VW to an electric BYD reflects the rise of new energy vehicles over the past years, with around 60 percent of the world’s total NEVs produced in China now.
