Malcolm Bricklin, the man who introduced US buyers to Yugo and Subaru cars, has formed a new company called Visionary Vehicles to import a new line of vehicles made by China’s Chery Automobile Company into North America.
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The vehicles will be priced 30% below comparable models and will have a warranty of 10 years/100,000 miles.
Bricklin is said to have considered automakers in Serbia, Romania, Poland, England, India and China before agreeing the deal with Chery.
The 2007 launch models will include an entry level compact sedan, a mid-size sedan, a “crossover-type” sedan, a sport/luxury coupe and an SUV. They will be designed by “renowned European and Japanese designers”, including Bertone and Pininfarina.
Bricklin previously founded Subaru of America; manufactured and distributed the Bricklin-SV-1 sports car; and imported the Italian-made Pininfarina-designed Alfa Romeo-built Spyder and Bertone-styled Fiat-built X1-9 sports cars.
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By GlobalDataIn 1984, he founded Yugo America, which sold over 160,000 units in the United States to become the fastest selling European import brand in its launch phase but the venture eventually failed, due largely to quality problems.
Bricklin plans an initial dealer network of 250 outlets.
Chery Automobile Company president Yin Tongyao said: “The North American automobile market is complex, competitive and always changing. We are looking forward to working with Visionary Vehicles and taking advantage of Malcolm’s expertise as we enter it.”
The president of Harbour Consulting of Troy, Michigan, Ron Harbour, has been retained to assess the capability, capacity and quality performance of the Chery manufacturing facilities in China.
“This task will be critical in insuring Chery’s ability to deliver vehicles that can be competitive with current quality standards and in the volumes necessary to support the demand in North America,” Visionary Vehicles said in a statement.
Detroit based Emissions and Safety Certification Experts will handle all aspects of safety engineering and homologation for the US-bound Chery vehicles.
Visionary Vehicles and Chery are targeting sales of 250,000 vehicles in its launch year and intend to reach one million units by year five.
