Hanteng Autos
Another new car brand from
China. Today we have Hanteng Autos, with an S at the end, Chinese name is
Hanteng Qiche, full name is Jiangxi Hanteng Automobile Corporation, founded in
2013 in the great city of Shangrao in Jiangxi Province. Their logo is a horse.
Their first car is the Hanteng X7 SUV, which will be launched on
the Chinese car market in September.
Design is not unattractive
but pretty generic. The X7 looks like a whole lot of other cheap Chinese SUV’s,
and most like the Zotye T600, which is an Audi clone. The engines too are generic,
1.5 turbo and 2.0 turbo, sourced from the Shenyang-Mitsubishi engine-making joint
venture. The 2.0 delivers 190 horsepower and is used by Landwind, Changfeng,
and Zotye. The latter uses the 2.0 turbo for a whole lot of cars, including the
T600. The 1.5 turbo has 150 horses. Price will range from around
80.000 to 130.000 yuan.
Hanteng Auto works with a
total investment of 3.7 billion yuan. They will soon complete their 100.000
square meters factory. Initial annual output is 100.000 cars per year.
The interior doesn’t look
completely finished yet. There is a large touch screen on top, loads of plastic
carbon fiber, conventional dials, and an oddly shaped steering wheel.
This is the Hanteng PHEV, a
hybrid version of the X7 with a different front. The hybrid power train will be
based around the 1.5 turbo. It will be launched on the Chinese car market in
2017.
It is always nice to welcome
new brands and we do wish Hanteng all the best, but it seems hard to see how
they can earn any money in the most competitive segment in a hyper competitive
market, without having a distinguishable vehicle or distinguishable
features, like a 500 kilometer electric range or such.
