First Chinese-brand cars to sell in Australia soon

The first Chinese-brand vehicles to be sold in Australia will be in dealerships by mid-year when a local importer begins shipping in two workhorse utes made by Chinese carmaker Great Wall.

About 50 dealers will offer two models from the privately owned Chinese maker with starting prices under $20,000.

Independent vehicle importer Ateco Automotive expects to sell a couple of hundred a month and has spent four years working on the deal.

The models, called Wingle and Sailor in China, will bear alpha-numeric names here and are just the beginning for Chinese car imports, according to Ateco managing director Ric Hull.

Mr Hull made more than 20 trips to China to select potential suppliers and whittled the list down to Great Wall and Chery, which supplied hybrid cars for the recent Beijing Olympic Games.

"Chery was an obvious pick because they're the largest of the independents," he said. "We ended up with Great Wall because we like them, their products and how they do business."

Great Wall, based in Baoding, south of Beijing, already exports to 120 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and Eastern Europe.

The Great Wall utes were originally due on sale late last year but Ateco postponed the launch after exchange rates moved against the Australian dollar.

Ateco chief Neville Crichton said China's car industry was ambitious but pragmatic.

"They want to be No 1 in the world eventually, like they are with whitegoods and televisions and every other appliance," he said. "But they're realistic about where the product should sit and how much time it could take to become a major player."

He was impressed by the pace of industrial and infrastructure development in the country.

"Every time you went back things were vastly improved -- from the roads, to the manufacturing plant and office blocks. Everything's new and immaculate," he said.

Mr Hull said crash safety issues, which sank early attempts to export Chinese vehicles to Europe, had been overcome with internal testing by the companies to international standards.

The Great Wall utes will be the first Chinese-brand vehicles ever sold in Australia, although not the first Chinese-made cars.

In recent years Volkswagen sourced some Polo small sedans from its Chinese factory for sale here on a trial basis.