This is the first of a monthly series about China’s MIIT list that unveils upcoming vehicles long before their official launch. Today, with cars from Baojun, iCar, Leapmotor, Toyota, and Voyah. Huawei is ever-present, supplying motors and software to almost everybody. There’s a truck too, and an H8 motorbike.
What is the MIIT list?
Every month, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) publishes a list of new vehicles that have been approved for production. This is a remnant of the old planned economy. Automakers in China must request government approval for every new model and for facelifts of existing models. Production without approval is prohibited. The list includes passenger cars, vans, trucks, motorbikes, and scooters. There are specialized categories too, like street-sweeping cars and ambulances. For years, automakers have been trying to stop MIIT from publishing the list, but so far, without any success.
MIIT requires automakers to supply basic information and a set of photos of each new car. The specs include size, engine size, engine horsepower, and top speed. For EVs, automakers must hand over motor horsepower and battery type, but range is not required. Also, automakers don’t have to reveal the definite name of the new models. Most do, but not all. Some automakers like to do a bit of fooling around, supplying photos with several model names, or without any names at all.
Let’s get into September’s list of upcoming cars in China.
iCar V27
iCar is an off-road SUV brand under Chery Automobile. iCar is best known for the super cool V23. The V27 is iCar’s new flagship SUV. It has a boxy design, with a little Land Rover inspiration, perhaps, but it looks way better than the old British-Indian thing.
The side windows are huge; that’s a new trend in China, with a low beltline and a wide D-pillar. There are large mirror stalks, wide wheel arches, and lidar units on the front bumper. The iCar V27 is a sizable vehicle at 193 inches long, with a 4792-pound curb weight. It has an EREV powertrain, with a 141 hp 1.5 turbo ICE range extender and a 105 kW electric motor. iCar is also working on a dual-electric motor version, with double the power.
Baojun Huajing S
Baojun is a brand under SGMW, a joint venture between SAIC (50.1%), General Motors (44%), and Guangxi Auto (5.9%). The Huajing S is a new SUV, jointly developed with Huawei, the Chinese tech and automotive giant. Huawei supplies various systems, including Huawei ADS 4.0 ADAS, and the HarmonySpace 5.0 smart-cockpit system. That’s Huawei tech in a partially-American car. The Huajing (华境) name refers to the Huawei (华为) connection.
The SUV is based on SGMW’s Tianyu Architecture L platform. It is a big car for a Baojun at 206 inches long, with a hefty 5,445-pound curb weight. The Huajing is a PHEV, with a 141 hp 1.5 turbo and a 134 hp electric motor, good for a 118 mph top speed.
Leapmotor Lafa 5
Leapmotor, spelled as one word, is a Chinese NEV maker. The Lafa 5 is the brand’s first compact hatchback. It is a great-looking car with a sporty design. It has a darkened light bar, black alloy wheels, and a lidar atop the windscreen. The car in the photos is painted in a racy color called Lightning Yellow.
The Lafa 5 is based on the LEAP 3.5B platform. It’s 174 inches long, with a 3670-pound curb weight. It is a rear-wheel drive car with 214 hp and a 106 mph top speed. Leapmotor will launch the new hatchback in Europe as well. There, it will be called the Leapmotor B05. The company says it will compete with the mighty Volkswagen Golf.
[Ed Note: It looks like a combination of a Kia EV6, a VW Golf, and a Porsche Macan. -DT]
ORA 5
ORA is an affordable electric vehicle brand under Great Wall Motor (GWM). ORA makes wacky stuff, like the Ballet Cat, the White Cat, or the Black Cat/R1. In recent years, GWM has neglected ORA a little bit, busy as it was with building the Tank brand. ORA hasn’t launched a new car since 2022. Until now. The new ORA 5 is a small hatchback with a fuzzy retro-modern design that somehow works. It has a sharp nose, round-ish headlights, roof rails, and an empty behind. Size: 176 inches, with a 3395-pound curb weight. It has a 200 hp electric motor and a 106 mph top speed.
Qingling QL4252BEV
Qingling is a Chinese commercial-vehicle brand owned by Qingling Isuzu Motors, a joint venture between China’s Qingling Motors (50.1%) and Japan’s Isuzu Motors (20%), with the remaining shares held by other investors. The company offers a wide range of trucks and pickup trucks. One of its latest models is the Qingling QL4252BEV, a 3-axle 6×4 electric semi-truck tractor unit. The design focuses on aerodynamics, featuring a flat-panel grille, sharply angled windscreen, integrated headlights, and a large roof-mounted wind deflector. In China, this futuristic style is often referred to as the “Stormtrooper design.”
The truck is powered by two electric motors, each producing 342 hp, for a combined output of 684 hp. Its top speed is 55 mph. The maximum permissible total mass of the quasi-trailer it can tow is 40,000 kg — equivalent to about 44 US short tons (88,185 pounds).
Souo LH2000-4
Souo is a motorcycle brand under Great Wall Motor, the same company that owns ORA. Last year, Souo launched the S2000, a giant Honda Gold Wing-style tourer with a 154 hp 2.0-liter H8 engine. The new Souo LH2000-4 has the same powertrain, combined with a completely different body, with a retro Harley-Davidson-style design. The MIIT images show two variants: one with a windshield and saddle bags, and one without. The exhaust pipes are different, too. It is 100 inches long with a 71.2-inch wheelbase and a 941-pound curb weight. The top speed is 124 mph.
Toyota bZ7
Toyota is from Japan, but the new bZ7 is more Chinese than Japanese. It is a new electric sedan, designed & developed in China. The manufacturer is the GAC-Toyota joint venture. Toyota buys the DriveOne electric motors from Huawei. Toyota is the first non-Chinese car maker to use Huawei motors. Huawei also supplies the ADS 4.0 ADAS and the HarmonySpace 5.0 smart-cockpit system. Those are the same systems as in the Boajun Huajing S. The Toyota bZ7 is a typical Chinese electric sedan with a long wheelbase and a 202-inch length. The curb weight is 4927 pounds. It has a 277 hp electric motor at the rear and a 112 mph top speed.
Voyah Taishan 9L
Voyah is a luxury NEV brand under Dongfeng Motors. The Taishan 9L is Voyah’s new top-SUV model. It is a massive machine with a giant grille, loads of bling, big 22-inch wheels, darkened lights, and a lidar. The Taishan name refers to a famous mountain in Shandong. The Taishan 9L has a PHEV powertrain, combining a 147 hp 1.5 turbo with two electric motors (201 hp front and 308 hp rear). The top speed is 124 mph. It is a six-seat car. It’s 206 inches long. It is a little heavy, weighing in at 6084 pounds. That’s hefty, even for China. Guess who supplies the ADAS and the smart cockpit? Yes, it is Huawei again; the same systems as in the Baojun Huajing S and the Toyota bZ7.
Stellar outward visibility – the new luxury.
The Voyah Taishan 9L has a pedestrian shredder on the front.
If Toyota had named the bZ4X the “BZ-4”, it would have been slightly less of a bomb. At least it would have avoided a lot of ridicule for having such an awful name. Quick, someone find a mountain, river, city or weather phenomenon somewhere on Earth to replace the nomenclature!
So now that they are going well they’re going to need to get approval from the communist party which should just about destroy the industry.
iCar looks pretty neat, I just couldn’t buy a CAR from a brand with that name. Just something about it feels disposable.
940lb motorcycle. Who greenlighted this mess?
Can’t put my finger on it, but I think I like ORA’s styling direction in general
Also, those H8 motorcycles are pretty awesome, and the engine in particular creates intriguing possibilities in terms of what else it could be put into, potentially
Yeah, I’m kind of getting 911, Boxster, Cayenne and Macan vibes all one car. Who’d have thought that was possible.
Love me some Tycho content!
Anyone else think that the Toyota Bz7 might actually be a good seller in the states? Of course, the name is garbage, but I’m sure that they can come up with a better name than that.
If they do bring it here, I’m going to suggest they resurrect the name Cressida. Which was also used last on a RWD sedan.
Toyota Cressida 2.8 (inline 6): a great car, almost unknown (or never thought of), a very underrated car.
Back in the day, these were way better than Buicks and Ford Tauruses.
Was a shame to see the Cressida disappear and replaced with the Avalon. Which was basically a larger Camry, went to FWD.
Unlike a lot of Japanese sedans, the Cressida and the Crown were fun to drive. Not in a canyon-carving way, it was a comfy cruiser, but not a boring one.
A much lower, narrower, shorter wheelbase, 2-door/2-seat version of that Ora 5 has potential to be an inexpensive, fun, and sexy sports car. Imagine it done up like the SC01, except with a rounded front end with those Porsche-like headlights, in aero-tail coupe form. If slightly smaller than a Subaru BRZ, I bet a 40 kWh streamliner weighing under 2,800 lbs with 200+ peak horsepower getting 200+ miles highway range could be done, for a similar cost to the normal Ora 5.
*long sigh* The crossover comes for us all.
Also, those Souos look like chipmunks or gerbils with their cheeks stuffed full. Just hilariously chubby.
Interesting. A pastiche of mismatched cliches from automakers near and far, dusted with authoritarian oversight. For some reason this reminds me of California, my home and state that I love, warts and all.
Misleading headline. Per the article, “Automakers in China must request government approval”, not all automakers. Thankfully, China doesn’t have THAT much power yet.
The ORA 5 looks like something you would get if you told someone to draw a Porsche Mecan from memory.
“The design focuses on aerodynamics, featuring a flat…everything”
FIFY.
Is the top-mounted
taxi lamplidar housing basically a status symbol/trend among Chinese cars at this point?So many have them and I feel like they could be mounted more subtly inside the windscreen, but I wouldn’t put it past people to want to show it off as a marker of ‘high tech’
No, it’s not a status symbol for people but it signifies that the car has the hardware for city & highway auto driving (equivalent to FSD).
Lidar is not a must for FSD, more cars are becoming vision only (Xpeng, Onvo).
Lidars can’t be hidden inside the windscreen for now, but some carmakers put the lidar in other places on the cars (under the rear mirrors or near the headlight)
BTW, many people in China asked the same question 3 years ago. But now no one asks.
Ho there. I think you are mistaking.
FSD is a tesla thing. And teslas do not have lidar. Just camera.
I think you meant actual self driving. Which does need extra hardware, but is not sold by tesla at this moment.
It’s simply about location. Most car makers believe that the position atop the windshield is the best for a lidar. But it isn’t pretty. So, some car makers/suppliers are developing smaller lidars, sometimes in combination with additional lidars in the bumpers and/or front fenders. Interestingly, IM Motors has unveiled a new SUV with the lidar under the roof line. It looks less like a taxi, but it is probably more expensive to manufacture.
The windshield glass either blocks or distorts the Lidar’s laser, so it can’t be placed behind it, and automakers thankfully haven’t chosen to make a notch in the windshield instead. It is preferable to use only one Lidar since they’re still expensive, and putting it above the windshield provides the best vantage point, like the F1 T-cam.
Mounting it in the bumper would blind the sensor in traffic if stopped close to the vehicle in front, and the sensor would not be able to see a person standing in front of the headlight from that position.
I would say it was kind of a status symbol in the recent past when some automakers installed Lidars without having good enough ADAS, but with more and more automakers going towards Huawei ADAS which is actually competent, this is reducing. The most prominent offender this year is the Leapmotor B10, which has Lidar at an incredibly low price point, but the in-house ADAS is definitely not good enough.
I’d say that automakers voluntarily installing teal ‘auton mode-On’ indicator lights on all sides of the car is much more of a status symbol, albeit a useful one to society.
The Leapmotor has been formally announced as coming to Australia badged the B05. Seems like it could be promising as an everyday runabout car as it has decent range, adequate performance AND IS A SMALLISH HATCH!!
NO LONGER ARE WE CONFINED TO THE DEPTHS OF CUV HELL! THE RITUALS ARE WORKING! WE MUST CONTINUE THE SACRIFICES!
Another request–nay, demand–that this be a recurring feature.
Interesting about the top speeds. Since they have to announce it, I assume the Chinese gov’t is very interested in knowing. I notice all the cars are slightly different, but they should all easily be able to hit higher than programmed. Are there tax or other restictions for the top speed? What goes into consideration for them?
120km is the speed limit on most highways in China. So the top speed above 120 only shows the capability of the car.
There are no legal/tax restrictions on a vehicle’s claimed top speed. I don’t know why top speed is included in the MIIT requirements. It’s probably just old bureaucratic rules. The MIIT specs have more weirdness. One example is “Steering type”: That’s a steering wheel for cars and handlebars for tricycles and motobikes. Seems very obvious, but it’s specified on every entry.
I’m guessing it’s a relic of when cars lacked enough power to achieve good top speeds with small engines due to the displacement tax? Or, since these NEVs are released for public comment, maybe to expose if certain NEVs are really bad ‘compliance cars’ which was probably more common 5+ years ago.
One stolen idea after another.
Or some tacky design that makes you think it is a toy.
Or it has some gimmick that you’ll never ever use in real life.
That’s China for you.
That’s every car market.
You have no clue what you are talking about.
Here’s just a few examples of stolen car ideas:
https://carscrapbook.com/the-tatra-t97-the-car-hitler-and-porsche-copied/
https://www.hotcars.com/cars-that-straight-up-stole-their-designs-from-other-brands/
“Or some tacky design that makes you think it is a toy”
Everything Hummer has ever made is soldierboy cosplay.
“Or it has some gimmick that you’ll never ever use in real life”
Like a top speed of 250+ mph?:
https://luxe.digital/lifestyle/garage/fastest-cars/
Or how about Nuremburg ring times? Those are useless in the real world.
Are you for real? You are linking to about a dozen questionable examples from over some 50 years, versus a dozen examples from just this year. Only one country almost exclusively steals IP from everyone else, and does it with no shame.
The examples I provided are less “questionable” than the Chinese vehicles discussed here. Even Hitler knew Porsche was stealing ideas from Tatra:
“Hitler, too, was very impressed with Tatra’s innovations, saying that he thought the new cars were the right cars for his roads. Unfortunately, he also felt that the new T97 was too similar to the KdF-Wagen project, which was about to go into production, even though the T97 was a luxury model and significantly more expensive than Porsche car. As a result, both the T77 and the T97 were ordered to be pulled off the floor at the 1939 Berlin Autosalon.”
This person is determined to troll. Nothing will ever be “good enough” even if you directly refute their point.
Oh I get that. My replies are more for everyone else.
Thanks for posting with links to the articles which support your statements. I’m one of the “everyone else”, and I appreciate informed commenters who add depth to published articles.
Keep showing up and thwarting those who seek to destroy. Those who offer nothing of value eventually fade into the darkness.
People like you are why I read comments on Autopian whereas I don’t on other websites.
[Comment deleted. -Ed]
Still upset you were wrong about Mexican auto labor?
When did that happen? I schooled a dumbass about labor rates days ago, but they seemed like the type that grew up sucking on exhaust tips for fun.
Trolls gonna troll.
https://www.reddit.com/r/maybemaybemaybe/comments/1nhjc55/maybe_maybe_maybe/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
What a fucken clown show!
Indeed. Sad to see they just copy
Just copy? So who’d China copy their thorium reactors from?
It’s about cars here
So then, whose drug induced hallucination did they copy this car from?:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TBz9zLFEa70&t=3s&pp=2AEDkAIB
In many ways China is at the forefront of car design these days, but some of these prove China still loves an obvious knock-off. The iCar V27 is a GTA-style mashup of a Land Cruiser and a Defender, and the Voyah Taishan 9L is a borderline criminal attempt at a Maybach.
Loving this insight into the Chinese market. It looks insane at the moment and hard to follow as a foreigner. More of this content please!
I think “having a waterfall grille” is pretty far from “borderline criminal.”
I think they have gone from “knockoffs” to “slaves to trends.” The worst of these is the Leapmotor, which doesn’t really look like one specific car but you can tell that the designers were looking at sales charts and picking their favorite ideas from stuff that was doing well – a whole lot of Kia and Porsche in there.
The Souo LH2000-4 has more than a few design elements reminiscent of the Honda Valkyrie Rune, especially that trademark exhaust…
https://www.motorious.com/content/images/size/w1000/2020/12/Motorious—4–2.jpg
Thanks!
I resist making a political comment.
We can see them it is no secret, looking better all the time.
It has the potential to be like the European and Japanese automotive invasion of North America, but with better targeting.
China’s impact on global auto market is Europe+Japan+Korea, and double.
Interesting looking cars. The SUVs and cuvs look like they would do well in export markets as well. I’ve heard some claim the practice of submitting to the miit helps with the whole “china fast” because it’s out there and everyone knows what you have planned.
Man, what happened to Toyota? This is a company that was so good at chassis and engine design that they literally broke the American car industry, and now they’re repackaging BMWs, Subarus, Huaweis, and there was even a GM at one point, which really should’ve led to an honorable suicide somewhere in the corporate hierarchy.
Toyota has a long history of partnering up for production of low-volume or market-specific cars. Take a look at the Toyota Lexcen for the Australian market as a (particularly lazy on Toyota’s part) example of badge engineering in the 90s. I wouldn’t be worried about them just yet.
It wasn’t really so much great design that set Toyota apart, it was a confluence of lucky circumstances and smartly running with the opportunity. The US industry was at its worst when circumstances turned against the types of cars they had traditionally built, while these circumstances worked in favor of the Japanese imports. The value of the yen was low, dollar high, so they were able to make massive profits off their cars. Smartly, they took those profits and reinvested them into the product rather than shareholder pockets so that each generation was better than the last. That’s a great simplification, but it was reliability and durability that were the big sellers, as they still are. People don’t buy the big seller Corollas, Camrys, and CUVs because they’re more fun or luxurious or attractive or cheaper than competitors (because they often aren’t), they buy them because of the reputation and resale value.
Two of those partnerships are for low volume cars that not only wouldn’t exist without a partnership as Toyota models, but also not likely exist at all (BMW was considering killing the Z4 due to low sales and Subaru has no interest in 2WD or a sports car). They were not only smart business moves (accepting the decision to build sports cars at all), but refreshing signs of rare self-awareness—Toyota hadn’t built anything sporting in years, had no platform they could use to fit the targets, and the prior sporting cars they did make were generally pretty mediocre no matter what nostalgia-infected people may try to say about them today. Toyota has never excelled in feel and character, two of the most important things in a sports car. BMW may have fallen far, but they know how to design a chassis that’s good to drive and that particular engine has a good reputation for reliability. Toyota did not really have a place to build such cars without taking away from high volume, high profit models. BMW doesn’t even build the Z4 themselves, they’re made by Magna Steyr.
The NUMMI partnership with GM started decades ago with a joint venture factory that is now Tesla. Protectionist government put import restrictions (that sounds familiar) on cars from Japan to try to help the domestic market out after decades of bad decisions and cynical purveyance of a lot of no-effort crap. GM had a poor-performing plant in CA they decided to invite Toyota into so that they could learn how to actually build cars properly and Toyota got a US-based production facility to get around import restrictions. GM sold rebadged Toyotas, not the other way around*.
The BZ7 looks to be a Chinese-market-only vehicle, and one that doesn’t relate to anything else they have. It makes sense to buy parts and build local as part of their existing partnership with Guangzhou and I’m sure there are local political reasons, as well.
*The exception to this is that there was a good faith deal to sell the Cavalier in Japan through Toyota’s dealerships badged as Toyota Cavaliers, but this was transparent and rather unsuccessful.
I think you are selling Toyota a little short. Off the top of my head they have always planned for the long term, mainstreamed multivalve engines in economy cars and hybrid motors and revolutionised ( Toyota production method) manufacturing and car development (kaizen). Making all brands more reliable.
Lack of feel and character? GR86 GR Corolla and Yaris would state otherwise and the mainstream cars are much improved like I hope BMWs reliability has improved. I love German cars but I would never recommend one to a loved one.
I had already written a novel as it was, but I stand by what I wrote. Multivalve engines were not new or special for Toyota to employ and they’re a natural choice for a small displacement engine that needs high rpm to deliver power. The Europeans did the same thing. Toyota has traditionally been very conservative and that’s been their strength. Hybrids were an exception, but they were developed with a lot of Japanese government money. Toyota tried to get in on the US government development money to build an 80 mpg family car, but were denied as the partnership was only open to the US manufacturers (who largely pocketed the money, minus some show cars, and GM’s EV1, though the EV1 might have actually been part of a CARB program), so Japan introduced some kind of program to help Honda and Toyota do something similar, though I don’t know too much about the details without looking that up. Recently, Toyota was one of the few companies to not jump on the “everything EV” bandwagon, which was a smart decision I defended from the get-go, but is another example of institutional conservatism.
The GR86 is pretty much all Subaru except for the dual injection system and some minor suspension and other detail changes. I own one and that’s why I bought it. Moreover, it’s an older platform than the other Subarus, developed from the 1st generation Legacy/Impreza and it reminds me very much of my beloved FWD Legacy wagon, if lacking some in steering feel (and a lot in utility). Most of my few complaints about the car are Toyota-specific, like the terrible throttle programming where response is front-loaded and hits WOT at about 60% of pedal travel and the inconsistent, flaccid clutch. Though I don’t know who’s to blame for the clutch, it reminded me of the old Toyotas I’ve driven, not my old Subarus. Anyway, that was an easy fix with a pedal spring swap and now it’s decent. My last complaint is the torque dip/lack of torque feel and that one is all Subaru, which is odd because the car weighs about the same as that Legacy, has ~100 hp and 50 lbs ft more than my old EJ22 that also contended with taller gearing, but the EJ felt more torquey throughout the rev range.
I haven’t driven the GR Corolla, but I am highly suspicious of it being a good driver’s car since the base Corolla is so terrible (which isn’t to say it’s a bad car—it’s a fine choice for someone who doesn’t care about driving and it’s not like it’s torture for someone who does). Compare that to, say, the regular mk3 Focus, which was a much better driver’s car (for what it was) with decent control feel and good handling characteristics (that were held back by the terrible stability control that could not be turned off) for the ST and RS to build off of. My thought is that the GR Corolla would have to have been changed pretty drastically in some fundamental ways to have the kind of feel I look for, even grading on the modern car “double rubber” curve. Of course, I could certainly be wrong and wouldn’t turn down a drive.
I’m sorry I’m not able to give your post the full full response it deserves. Thank you for being polite and detailed in your response. You are much more knowledgeable than I on these subjects and I appreciate what you are saying. I don’t disagree with anything particularly you are saying. But I also don’t agree that Toyota just stumbled into becoming the world’s largest manufacturer. A few points.
I’m from Australia. Context is important. Toyota servicing and parts are available in the most remotest outpost and have helped make them the defacto brand for much of the country. GM and Ford have made themselves irreverent here.
BMW handling isn’t really comparable to Toyotas because its in a different price range (a more sporting Lexus?). Comparing a BMWs handling with a Toyota is like comparing a BMW to a supercar – different market.
Toyota isn’t the only firm to innovate due to assistance from government. Indeed most of Europes manufacturers have support / part ownership by governments and trade unions.
I’ll stand by the fact that Toyota Production System (TPS) (Jidoka), and continuous improvement (Kaizen) have changed manufacturing in all car companies more than any other innovation (although we saw its downside in recent semi conductor shortages) but in the long term it has made all manufacturers cheaper, more responsive and the cars more reliable.
I am not a Toyota fanboy, but I have huge respect for them as a manufacturer and I’ll take responsibility for not being clear. I’m not saying at all that Toyota stumbled upon success, like it was mere luck, only that they had some unexpected circumstances turn in their favor in the US, the giant market where a large portion of their success comes from, and they took that opportunity to build better vehicles more efficiently, rather than putting it in their shareholders’ pockets like the domestic auto makers would. It’s not a negative thing to be on the receiving end of some luck and it takes intelligence to see the opportunity and not only run with it, but fly. Other companies have let opportunities slip through their hands. Look at where Nissan is today—they had the same opportunity, maybe even more with the success of the Z, which gained them a respect that most Japanese players didn’t have (a lot of people still viewed the Japanese with suspicion from the war and the Japanese had been largely known for building cheap stuff before the ’80s boom in cars and electronics. Even as a kid in the ’80s, I’d frequently hear the term “Jap crap” by morons in regards to their cars).
Prior to the emissions standards, the gas crises, labor issues, and stagflation, the US domestic manufacturers completely dominated the market. Toyota was in the US prior to the upheavals, but they weren’t especially popular. If it wasn’t for the turn of events that had swung the market in favor of cars they were already making and the domestics did not (and half-assed when they did), they wouldn’t have had the opening they needed for people to try them out and, then, the money to reinvest in themselves in better vehicles and smart manufacturing. Then people tried them and realized (in parts of the country where there wasn’t rust) that your car falling apart by the end of the 4-year payment schedule didn’t have to be a rule. And as I stated, every generation got better while the domestics were apparently fine (for a while) watching their market share erode as they put out even worse crap, compounded by labor relation issues where workers would intentionally make already bad cars worse, even in such petty ways as to leave empty cans inside doors so the car would rattle. I imagine that kind of thing would have been unheard of from Japan. People who otherwise wouldn’t have bought Japanese got fed up with domestic trash cynically dumped on the market like garbage being fed to pigs after seeing their neighbor’s Corolla or Cressida still going strong while they might be on their 3rd failing shitbox (again, not as much in the rust belt, but the domestics weren’t a lot better in that regard and the Toyotas were a lot more reliable before rot took them). When they had to replace their domestic car, they decided that maybe some prejudices weren’t worth the cost and aggravation and bought a car like their neighbor. When that car turned out to be bulletproof and better made and had some actual value on the used market, they bought another one to find their new Toyota was even better than their last.
The BMW comment is in regards only to the Supra because that the kind of car where sporting character matters the most and Toyota had nothing that would work to build a Supra from There’s nothing that could fit the necessary form and nothing that could fit the character. Their cars are designed as daily driver and family vehicles with low priority given to driving engagement. Because most people don’t really want that or care about that, they’re designed for long term durability that appeals to the widest range of people as possible. The LC500 was the closest thing they had, but that’s a larger, heavier, more expensive car made to be a cruiser rather than a sports car. Developing a whole new platform for the Supra wouldn’t have made good business sense and outsourcing production was pretty much a must as that’s not the kind of vehicle that fits well with Toyota’s production—demand is too variable and volumes are too low and that’s without factoring it having to be a different platform than a volume car. They looked around or BMW approached them, I forget, but the situation must have seemed like kismet to Akio Toyoda wanting to build a new Supra. Even with all that, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a tough sell to the boardroom in the first place due to the anticipated volumes and target price, but using an outside contract facility at least minimized investment and risk (Magna Steyr in the case of the Supra, Subaru in the case of the ’86).
The brand that’s the highest selling the in the world yet continues to bring out a few fun road legal rally cars and affordable sports cars? Of course they work with Chinese brands for the Chinese market. There is a reason why Citroen and VW are doing so badly in China.
Wait until Toyota’s Lexus EV factory in Shanghai begins production in a couple of years. They just started the construction this summer.
Fun new feature! Looking forward to future installments.
Can’t wait for this trend to spread to the West. We’ve been trapped in bunkers for too freakin’ long.
This. So much this.