SUV-maker Huatai Auto to launch first sedan in 2009

Shanghai, May 28 (Gasgoo.com)  China's SUV-maker Huatai Automobile is expected to launch its first Huatai-brand sedan in the second half of next year. This self-developed B-class car has integrated the exterior design by a Chinese auto design firm as well as the engines and transmission by Italian VM and German ZF. Carrying the Huatai logo, the sedan will come in the gasoline and diesel powered versions, with young white-collars and businesspeople as its target customers.

As a young Chinese SUV manufacturer founded in 2000, Shandong, Rongcheng-based Huatai Auto has set its new strategy of developing the mid- to high-end sedans by using the national and global automaking technologies. In the past few years, Huatai Auto has been a powerful supplier of SUVs in the Chinese and global market. Its entry into the sedan segment will expand its product lineup and turn a new page in its future growth. At a recent ceremony, Huatai unveiled the new sedan model and and its sedan logo (which looks like the Windows page flapping in the BMW circle?), but did not reveal the company's blueprint in detail.

The Chinese SUV maker, also a partner of South Korea's Hyundai Motor, introduced Hyundai's advanced Sante Fe in China earlier this year. Huatai has been making the Sante Fe, and the Terracan SUV in China for several years now, and have received permission from Hyundai to rebadge the Terracan, and the Sante Fe as its own vehicles.

Huatai-Hyundai has teamed up with SAIC-owned brand, Roewe, to stick the Rover-acquired 1.8t K series engine into the Hyundai Santefe. Huatai is really in a position to shake up the Chinese SUV market. But its ambitions will not stop here -- the SUV maker is making its foray into the sedan market.