Shanghai, May 17 (Gasgoo.com) Brilliance Auto, BMW's China partner, was recently rumored to halt its exports to Europe due to cool sales of its self-developed cars there, but the Chinese automaker now appears it will not give up as it's opening headquarters there, China Car Times reported today, citing local media.
Brilliance's former distributor in Europe, HSO Motors, had declared bankruptcy a year earlier, but one of the first Chinese forays into the European auto market had not completely failed. This time, not to rely on any local importer, Brilliance Auto will export its cars to Europe by itself.
Autohaus Online reports that Brilliance is opening their European headquarters in Ginsheim, Germany under the name "Shenhua Europe GmbH". Former Hyundai Europe manager Eberhard Niering is the CEO of the new company.
Shenhua Europe's operations will also include dealing with spare parts and managing dealers. "Brilliance would like to establish themselves in Europe with their products over the long term," Niering told Autohaus.
Brilliance recently said it would look to start sales again in Europe with products that could meet new EU emissions standards in the future. Now it will have to supply competitive vehicles to achieve this goal.
In 2006, Brilliance secured a deal to ship 158,000 sedans to Europe over a five-year period, the largest auto order ever for a Chinese manufacturer from a developed market, Reuters reported.
