Chinese automaker Brilliance has shelved plans to enter the EU market in a big way, according to Chinese media reports.
Reports suggest that the firm’s products fail to meet EU emission standards – specifically Euro V – which apply from 2011 and that the company has decided that low European volume does not justify the necessary investments to achieve that standard as well as meeting EU safety standards.
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Meeting EU product standards has long been a bugbear for Brilliance. Its BS6 model was crash tested in accordance with Euro-NCAP regulations in 2007 at ADAC’s crash test laboratory in Germany. After the car received just one star in the ADAC crash tests, Belgian buyers of the BS6 were given refunds by the importer.
Brilliance sales in Europe since then have amounted to hundreds rather than the tens of thousands predicted when it reached distribution agreements which never came to fruition.
The strength of the Chinese domestic car market this year – and associated pressures on capacity – may also be a factor in Brilliance deciding that growing sales in Europe is low priority.
