Pressure building up on Excelle in China

[Bravada]

More competition for Excelle in China
Bravada reporting on recent websearch discoveries



Almost everybody knows that GM is doing really well in China, and that is in no small way thanks to the popularity of the Buick brand there. More well-versed GM fans know that the sales engine of Shanghai-GM in China is the compact Buick Excelle. And it is not a secret that the Buick Excelle is in fact the Daewoo Lacetti, a newer derivative of the Daewoo Nubira originally developed by the Korean now-subsidiary of GM.


The humble Daewoo Lacetti became one of the most desirable prestige cars in China

Alas, GM's growth is slowing down in the burgeoing Chinese market as more and more choices are presented to the Chinese customers looking for a practical, inexpensive and, in a way, prestigious family car. On the one hand, VW recently introduced the new fifth-gen Jetta as the FAW-VW Sagitar, PSA attacks the prestige end of the faimly car class with the C-Triomphe and 307 sedans (sedan developments of popular compact cars known elsewhere in their hatchback forms), and the locals previusly focusing on cheap small cars and Isuzu-pickup derivatives are now branching out to family sedans too, with examples such as the Byd F3 looking eerily similar to the Toyota Corolla.


Corolla? Honda City? No, it's the new BYD F3!

Citroën C4 with a backpack - the C-Triomphe is kept away from the discerning eyes of European customers

While GM still has one ace up its sleeve - the redesigned Excelle currently made in Taiwan, which has not yet made its way to the mainland - it seems like fending off competition will be getting tougher and tougher for the ageing Excelle. Recently, an offbeat news report signalled one more unexpected future competitor for the Excelle in China - the Lancia Lybra!


The Lancia Lybra - both the classy berlina and the graceful SW exude irrestistible Italian charm

Yes, it's the Lancia Lybra, Fiat's less-than-successful attempt at stealing some sales in the compact executive arena. Overshadowed by its more hyped cousin, the Car-Of-The-Year winning Alfa Romeo 156, the Lybra lingered in the dark corner of the market, not even achieving a fraction of the sales of competitors such as the Mercedes C-Klasse, BMW 3er, Audi A4 or even the Volvo 40-series, outside of its native Italy.


Lybra's predecessors, the Prisma and the Dedra - not quite hot sellers...

The Lybra followed Lancia's long tradition of building "almost-midsize" cars - two of its predecessors, the Prisma and the Dedra, were essentially the sedan and wagon versions of the famous Delta hatchbacks, but despite that, they did not sell well either. There were some reasons for that - in spite of the prestige badge, and quite lavish specifications for the day, they were still compact FWD cars, with the sedan/wagon conversion not always done to the best effect.


All new, with those heritage-inspired headlamps... The Lybra did have quite a bit going for it!

To be fair, Lybra was much better suited for its task - with the Delta dropped after two generations, the Lybra was a standalone model, with its own chassis based loosely on the Alfa 156's, but with its own suspension different from the Alfa's (or its distant cousin's, Fiat Marea), it was styled from day one as a sedan and wagon, with clean, flowing lines, classy heritage-inspired stylin cues and the last-minute addition of a front end drawing on the 1950s Lancia Aurelia (which was received with mixed feelings and remained a one-off between the more squarish Greek-letter-named Lancias of the previous decades and the later jewel-headlighted Thesis, Musa and Ypsilon).


Interior quality, design and equipment set the Lybra apart from contemporary family-sized cars.

Inside, there was also a lot to speak for the Lybra, with a nicely laid-out dash and high-quality materials, especially the plush alcantara upholstery, which became something of a hallmark for modern Lancias. The selection of engines was impressive, including Fiat's five-cylinder two-litre and the then-revolutionary JTD diesels (later also found in GM cars). In spite of that, Lancia's insistence on marketing the car as an alternative to intermediate-sized premium sedan (and thus keeping the prices rather high), while funnelling most of the skimpy prestige marketing resources of the already endangered concern to Alfa Romeo, kept the Lybra a perennial underdog in most European market. Its gradual dropping from European markets, culminating with the end of sales and production in Italy in 2005 without a direct replacement, was barely noticed by the European automotive media.


The attention to detail is expressed in many design elements, one of the most prominent being the unique taillights of both body styles - the berlina's later found a new life in the rear quarters of the facelifted Fiat Marea sedan in Latin America!

But now, it seems that the Lybra will enjoy a brand new life in China, joining many other slightly forgotten nameplates. One China's up-and-coming automakers, the Zotye Group, has announced their agreement with Fiat to start Lybra production in the PRC. Essentially, Fiat's involvement is minimal - the transaction stipulates for all tooling and intellectual property pertaining to the discontinued Lybra, as well as its basic 1.6-litre engine (replaced in recent Fiat models by the all-new fuel-sipping turboed 1.4's) to be sold to Zotye, with no further license payments made to Fiat, but also with no involvement of Fiat in production or marketing of the car, which is to bear an oh-so-inspired name of Zotye JN-X1.


Loved by UK families, hated by conservatives around the world - will the Multipla take the final bow and head to China?

As the 156/Lybra platform is apparently not to be used anymore, replaced by the aborted child of Fiat-GM partnership, the Premium Platform at Alfa Romeo, it seems like it was a good way for making a few quick bucks on assets already written-off by Fiat. Seems like it is not the only one, as reports go further to indicate the unique love-it-or-hate-it Multipla compact minivan, featuring six independent seats in two rows, is to join the Lybra at Zotye in 2008. The sources state the first Chinese Multiplas will be built out of CKD kits shipped from Italy, but with the imminent end of the 1996-born tired Multipla looms, it might be that it will share the fate of the Lybra. This might also indicate the new Multipla, if at all created, will not share any of its underpinnings with the old Bravo/Brava/Marea-based one.


The facelifted Excelle from Yulon in Taiwan - will it make it to mainland China?

Anyway, Lancia Lybra, oh sorry, Zotye JN-X1 production starts in autumn 2008 in China, which is still more than a year away, but I'd say the outlook is promising for the Italian emigrante. It was originally created with the same aim as the Excelle - to become an upscale compact family car, with bells, whistles and prestige - but without the baggage of being essentially a budget compact car for developing markets from an automaker of not-so-stellar record. The Lybra debuted in 1999, while the original Lacetti is a 2002 model, receiving a few facelifts in the meantime (including the expected Taiwanese one for the Excelle), while Fiat dosed any refreshments for its little dame very sparingly.


The Zotye and the Terios - resemblance not purely accidental

Zotye is also no SAIC - the company was previously mostly known for the manufacturing of its Zotye2008 mini-SUV, which is essentially a knock-off of the Daihatsu (or, as the Chinese know it, Dario) Terios, which hardly generated any positive press for the company. The Lybra will join former MG Rover models in its quest to use any of the premium magic and good design and engineering left in the aging body to woo Chinese customers. Whether it will work or not, remains to be seen. But given all the goodness of the original Lybra, GM should not overlook this new competitor.

Links:
One of the earlier reports from the reputable Italiaspeed.com
One of the scarce English-language reports on the completion of the transaction.
Another one, expanding on the specifics of the deal and mentioning the Multipla
The Spanish Autoblog was first to inform the Western world of the new Yulon Excelle - and provide lots of pics!
Italiaspeed sums up the Lybra's biography (to date)
Pics and specs of the Lybra in a convenient format (with Imperial conversion!) on Globalautoindex

Dear moderators, it took me some time to complete this research and the writeup to broaden the views of GMI members on the global situation of GM. If Hyundai's new TV campaign in the US is so worthy of GMI folk attention that it makes the news ticker, I believe so does it.

[osv_alero]

The strength of the Buick name in China, and the fact that the new Excelle is showing up sometime next year should help Buick continue to hold their early lead.

[samkung]

Nice work, from what i know, Sales of Excelle is kind of going down while the whole compact car market expand, because of the increasing competition from other car maker n the aging Excelle people are kind of looking forward to the next Gen of Excelle (might be the taiwan version or maybe not)

Competition:

Hazma "3" Dont be CONFUSED with mazda 3;p although they look kind of the same



Skoda Octavia


New Toyota Corolla along with the last generation, Honda Civic, VW Jetta(another name is used in Chinese market but i cant remember)




Kia Rio



and alot more competition

[Ming]

Not sure if the Taiwanese Excelle (below) has much to do with the upcoming 2008 redesign of the Lacetti (or if the sheetmetal is even compatible), if not, Mainland China could just be holding out to tool up for the new model next year. I hope that GM Daewoo and its joint ventures keep a tight grip on the progress of the Lacetti-based cars around the world and does not let some countries/regions stagnate with older designs as Opel has done in the past.

[samkung]

Some Half year sales figure in China

Model Jan Feb March April May June Half Year Total

Audi A6 6254 5365 6170 6740 5748 6251 36528
Audi A4 1627 1377 1800 1425 1342 1472 9043

Bucik Park Ave 0 0 0 0 145 524 669
Buick LaCrosse 8357 6095 7696 7509 4765 3381 37803
Buick Regal 2693 2082 1061 707 799 1083 8425
Buick Excelle 16203 13371 16402 16750 13252 15325 91303
Buick GL8 2927 2153 2999 4069 2958 3359 18465

Chevy Epica 2111 1329 3629 3980 2324 4090 17463
Chevy Aveo/Lova 6399 5731 6412 5980 6215 6085 36822
Chevy Sail 1487 960 1084 1118 544 1631 6824

Toyota Crown 4776 3077 4707 4281 3743 4223 24807
Toyota Raiz 3162 2245 4741 4711 3446 4309 22614
Toyota Camry 13645 10424 15540 14514 12186 14355 80664
Toyota Prius 24 36 32 58 14 12 176
Toyota New Corolla 0 0 0 0 120 3771 3891
Toyota Old Corolla 8142 5078 6726 5796 3912 3796 33450

Honda Accord 11565 8639 9879 12077 70510 11773 64443
Honda Civic 7730 4115 7364 6446 5617 6729 38001
Honda Odyssey 3074 2843 2936 3653 2877 3597 18980

VW Passat 10907 9611 9664 11213 6886 9802 58083

Nissan Tenna 3083 2750 2802 5305 2453 3251 20364
Nisaan Sylphy 3962 3331 4774 5241 3632 2720 23660

Hyundai NEW Sonata 1403 1153 1496 1643 1188 925 7808
Hyundai Old Sonata 3309 2689 2120 2064 1990 1411 13583

Mazda 6 5039 3215 3686 4323 3777 3755 23795
Mazda 3 2569 2055 2357 2085 1645 1516 12227

Ford Mondeo 4364 1754 2998 3013 3610 3976 19715
Ford Focus 8950 2093 9431 13414 10541 11257 55686
Ford S-Max 0 0 1103 635 349 173 2260

Skoda Octavia 0 0 0 0 0 2066 2066

Chery A5 6800 4164 10577 6396 7918 6759 42611

Edit:

Citroen C2 2275 1393 2198 1559 1197 1023 9645
Citroen C4 4174 2517 2930 3205 2546 2506 17878
Peugeot206 3476 1966 2812 3245 2528 1485 15512
Peugeot307 5526 3334 4710 5361 4477 4086 27494

VW Old Jetta 13833 11853 17573 19131 17890 17294 97574
VW Sagitar 3824 3436 5923 7872 6306 6168 33529
VW Bora 6432 4400 4651 4852 3749 4597 28681
VW Santana 7884 5890 12482 10289 9690 9457 55686

Nissan Tiida 10677 7266 9935 13791 8565 10549 60783

Geely (dunno which model 22060 13285 17411 17358 16029 16898 103041

Chery QQ 13713 6867 15294 10473 12639 8255 67241

Suzuki Swift 1651 1032 1799 1317 1979 1849 9627
Suzuki SX4 847 916 314 1737 1797 2012 7623

little update:
VW Santana 3000 7466 5889 9109 9295 9719 8629 50107

Mitsubishi Galant 1518 581 1050 345 284 282 4062

Honda Fit 3999 4129 4467 4248 3708 4138 24689
Honda City(Fit sedan) 3385 3718 4418 4551 3171 5818 25061

Kia Carnival 235 146 272 312 184

[Bravada]

Opel did not "let countries stagnate", it was a controlled policy of making the most out of models. For example, Latin America was for many years used as a "dumping ground" for older European models, which was in no small way due to protectionism which limited the market for affordable cars to locally-built ones. So, major automakers there (Fiat, GM, PSA and VW) just kept churning out older models, with entire production lines being "exported" there once their life was over in Europe. That is why Chevrolet do Brazil used to be one or two steps behind Opel concerning the model palette. As concerns present times, GM keeps supplying Astra Classics (Chevrolet Viva in Russia) and Corsa B Classics (Chevrolet Sail, Chevy C2) to some markets because it can offer them reasonably cheap given the fact that their extended lifespan allows for not accounting for return on development/production setup investment, as this has already been covered, while there is a market for inexpensive, reliable transportation.

BTW, I really wonder what the Hainan-Mazda really is, it doesn't look like a Mazda3 but like something made to look like Mazda3. OTOH, it doesn't look like the last-gen Mazda Familia sedan either...

[Bravada]

Chevy Epica 2111 1329 3629 3980 2324 4090 17463
Nissan Tenna 3083 2750 2802 5305 2453 3251 20364
Hyundai NEW Sonata 1403 1153 1496 1643 1188 925 7808
Hyundai Old Sonata 3309 2689 2120 2064 1990 1411 13583
Mazda 6 5039 3215 3686 4323 3777 3755 23795
Ford Mondeo 4364 1754 2998 3013 3610 3976 19715

Notice how the Epica pretty much outsold everybody but the Camry, Accord and Passat in June!

Got any numbers for compact cars, Samkung?

[samkung]

Originally Posted by Bravada

Notice how the Epica pretty much outsold everybody but the Camry, Accord and Passat in June!

Got any numbers for compact cars, Samkung?

Call me sam if u like yep just updated

BTW if u want here is the link where i get my figures from (but its all in Chinese)
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/45cfc62f01000a1n

[johnstarnes]

That Citroen C4 is stunning!

[Bravada]

Thanks Sam! Unfortunately, I can only distinguish a few characters in Chinese and have to check up every string, so if you could keep on translating... In particular, how are VW Jetta/Bora/Sagitar doing? How about Biyadi, Geely and Chang'an?

Let me rehash the results to form a compact car league table:

Buick Excelle 16203 13371 16402 16750 13252 15325 91303
Ford Focus 8950 2093 9431 13414 10541 11257 55686
Chery A5 6800 4164 10577 6396 7918 6759 42611
Honda Civic 7730 4115 7364 6446 5617 6729 38001
Toyota Old Corolla 8142 5078 6726 5796 3912 3796 33450
Nissan Sylphy 3962 3331 4774 5241 3632 2720 23660
Mazda 3 2569 2055 2357 2085 1645 1516 12227
Toyota New Corolla 0 0 0 0 120 3771 3891
Skoda Octavia 0 0 0 0 0 2066 2066

The Excelle is still holding its own, but, if I am not mistaken, it's the NEW C1 Focus in the second place, gentlemen, so quite a runaway success for Ford given that the price is probably not that competitive). The good old Chery A5 remains a strong competitor, but seems like the sales are already downhill from the peak...

Is the Mazda3 there the ACTUAL Mazda3 (imported, I presume), or the Haima 3? BTW, a quick search revealed the Haima 3 is actually a unique model crafted by the Hainan-Mazda design studio basing on the old Familia platform, to use some of the Mazda3 magic and woo buyers in the economy car segment (away from the Chery and the like).

It also comes in a hatchback version, looking as if somebody tried to convert a Chevrolet Lacetti (Buick HRV in China) into a Mazda 3 in his own garage...



The interior treatment looks like more or less what PATAC does to spruce up older GM interiors, but seems like Hainan Mazda designers need a bit more practice...

[Bravada]

That Citroen C4 is stunning!

Yeah, PSA got an award for the longest overall overhangs ever!



Over two metres of overhang in total!

BTW, seems like Citroen is playing the premium card here, the only engine available is the two-litre...

A bit less "exclusive" is this styling abomination - a sedan version of the old 307!

[samkung]

Originally Posted by Bravada

Thanks Sam! Unfortunately, I can only distinguish a few characters in Chinese and have to check up every string, so if you could keep on translating... In particular, how are VW Jetta/Bora/Sagitar doing? How about Biyadi, Geely and Chang'an?

Let me rehash the results to form a compact car league table:



The Excelle is still holding its own, but, if I am not mistaken, it's the NEW C1 Focus in the second place, gentlemen, so quite a runaway success for Ford given that the price is probably not that competitive). The good old Chery A5 remains a strong competitor, but seems like the sales are already downhill from the peak...

Is the Mazda3 there the ACTUAL Mazda3 (imported, I presume), or the Haima 3? BTW, a quick search revealed the Haima 3 is actually a unique model crafted by the Hainan-Mazda design studio basing on the old Familia platform, to use some of the Mazda3 magic and woo buyers in the economy car segment (away from the Chery and the like).

It also comes in a hatchback version, looking as if somebody tried to convert a Chevrolet Lacetti (Buick HRV in China) into a Mazda 3 in his own garage...



The interior treatment looks like more or less what PATAC does to spruce up older GM interiors, but seems like Hainan Mazda designers need a bit more practice...

The Mazda 3 figure is the actual Mazda 3 which is made in China now

[Bravada]

By FAW, or by Hainan?

[samkung]

Originally Posted by Bravada

By FAW, or by Hainan?

Man Mazda is in a mess in China, mazda 3 is made by Chang'an-Ford-Mazda, but the sales channel is by FAW, to make matter worst, last year the 3 way join venture stop making mazda 3 because Chang'an is not making $$ but now matters solved(i guess therefore its on sale again)

Hainan only makes the old 323 and the old Premacy

While FAW only makes the Mazda 6 and maybe they will get to make the mazda5 and CX-7

Its all complicated btw Chang'an-Ford-Mazda is gonna make the new Mazda 2 and sell it in another sales network, so there will be like 3 different mazda networks each for each joint venture, even more than Toyota

[Butz]

Given it's the oldest in the bunch, and hasn't aged well, it's good it held up against the competition. The new one can't come soon enough, and hopefully it'll be not just better than the current model but better than competition.