While it is way too early to know how the proposed manufacturing and distribution venture between Spyker, Saab, Pang Da and Youngman will pan out, it’s worth taking a look at what other manufacturer alliances Youngman is already involved in. Its links to Proton and Lotus are highly relevant, given that these were the reason for the company getting itself into the car-making business.
The firm, originally a truck and bus manufacturer, is a relative newcomer to mass car manufacturing in China. It has been increasingly involved with Proton, first as a distributor of rebadged cars and more recently as an assembler of vehicles. Interestingly, the company has also allied itself in recent years to two intended EV-specialists, Zero Air Pollution (ZAP) and Detroit Electric.
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The deal with ZAP is a few years old but still no production models have appeared. The companies formed a partnership to develop a three-wheeled electric roadster specifically for the US market. A prototype, the ZAP Alias, was revealed at the North American Dealers’ Association conference in early 2009, but in November of that year, ZAP stated in a US regulatory filing that the Alias project was being delayed. Nevertheless, the car was displayed at the Detroit motor show in January 2010 and at the Beijing motor show three months later. Shortly after the latter event, ZAP and the Chinese manufacturer Jonway announced plans to manufacture the Alias at an undisclosed site in China.
The deal with the Dutch start-up Detroit Electric, similarly launched with a fanfare two years ago, also now appears to have been damped down. Two models were under development, each a heavily modified version of a Proton sedan. Things have gone very quiet as regards the launch of these Detroit Electric e46 and e63 models but at one time, the cars were scheduled to be on sale in Europe, China and the US during 2011.
If Youngman’s EV ventures have yet to bear fruit, that certainly can’t be said of its involvement with Proton, which, though it took some time to get off the ground, is now gathering pace. The latest evidence of this is the Lotus L5, a small sedan that Youngman builds at a plant in Hangzhou in China’s Zhejiang province.
Youngman has been involved with Proton since 2007, with the Chinese company being granted a licence by the Beijing government to build cars in July of that year. As well as retaining Proton and Lotus as its R&D and production partners, the firm began imports of the Proton Gen.2 five-door hatchback in November 2007. These were the first cars to use the Europestar brand, with the launch taking place in February 2008. It’s not known if all the contracted cars were ever produced by Proton, but the original deal specified 30,000 vehicles for export to China.
The sportier Europestar RCR, which was assembled at the former Yunque Auto plant in Guizhou, went on sale in December 2008. Youngman then shifted assembly to a plant in Jinan in late 2009, with Lotus L3 versions added in September 2009.
At the Beijing motor show in April 2010, Youngman standardised ‘Lotus L3’ as the model name for all variants of the RCR. In the same way, the Proton Persona, which had been known as the Europestar Persona, became the Lotus L3 four-door. CKD assembly of this car as well as the Proton Exora minivan is due to start later in 2011.
The L3 and L5 series cars would certainly seem to be the most logical bet for assembly as models for the unnamed so-called ‘child’ brand which Pang Da is due to launch as part of its tie-in with Saab. Would there also be Saab-badged cars? It seems unlikely.
The best bet for Saab would be to utilise the production lines at one of Youngman’s car plants, and to get assembly of the 9-5 from kits up and running as soon as possible. With its outsized dimensions for the class, this big sedan would no doubt quickly find favour as a direct rival for the best-selling Audi A6 L, the replacement for which is now only months from launch in China. Don’t forget that GM developed the 9-5 for China, easily the largest global market for cars in this segment, which is the reason why it’s such a long car.
After the 9-5, what then? The simple answer would be to go after another big segment in China, and happily Saab has the perfect car on the way. The word is that the recent troubles at Trollhättan have not delayed the development programme for the next 9-3 sedan, hatchback, wagon and convertible so getting the four-door car at least, into production at a Youngman plant during 2013 seems, on the face of it, feasible.
All of these summations should of course be noted with extreme caution until the many relevant approvals are granted for Saab’s alliance with Pang Da as well as for this latest JV with Youngman. That the Chinese firm itself is already very successful, plus that its existing JV with one foreign vehicle maker has been sanctioned both by the authorities in Beijing and also at the relevant provincial levels might be a good sign. But the powerful ministries of the Communist Party have rejected many a proposed JV before, as have regional governments – Renault is still prevented from manufacturing cars in China for reasons that have never been made entirely clear.
For now, however much sense this deal appears to make for all parties, and it admitedly does, nothing can be certain until the first Saab cars roll off a production line in a Chinese plant. Where and when that will be, remains to be seen.
Author: Glenn Brooks
