Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Limited (FWB: CBA) (SEHK: 1114) (simplified Chinese: 华晨中国汽车控股有限公司; traditional Chinese: 華晨中國汽車控股有限公司; pinyin: Huáchén Zhōngguó Qìchē Kònggǔ Yǒuxiàngōngsī) is a publicly owned, Chinese investment holding company making automobiles, automotive components, and minibuses.[1]
Based in Shenyang, Liaoning province,[2] and listed on the Frankfurt and Hong Kong stock exchanges,[3] the company is notable for its joint venture with the German car-maker BMW.[4]
Mr Qi Yumin has been the Chief Executive Officer and President of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd since January 2006.[5]
Brilliance has an estimated production capacity of 800,000 units/year as of late 2010.[6] Production capacity figures may consider engines and vehicles as discrete.
The origins of today's modern Brilliance can be traced to a state-owned auto factory which, under the guiding hand of the infamous Yang Rong, became a leading Chinese maker of minibuses between 1991, the year Yang invested in the company, and 2002, when he fled into exile.[7]
In 2003 BMW and Brilliance signed a deal for the production of BMW-branded sedans in China.[8] Its models are, alongside FAW Group Audis, Beijing Benz Mercedes Benzes, and Lexuses, some of the only Western luxury cars to have gained popularity in the Chinese market.[9]
Alongside many Chinese automakers looking to enter the US market Brilliance postponed such plans in 2008 but has briefly sold in Europe.[10] Sales in several European countries stopped in 2010.[11]
In 2009 the company was the eighth-largest automaker in China.[12] That year it sold over 150,000 passenger cars and nearly 80,000 minibuses.[8]
In 2010 Brilliance was one of the top ten most-productive carmakers in China coming in ninth and selling a half million units.[13]
Brilliance has sold under several brand names, including minibuses under the Jinbei and Granse brands, and sedans under the Zhonghua and BMW brands. Brilliance divested itself of the loss-making Zhonghua branch on December 31, 2009[14] to its ultimate shareholder Huachen Automotive Group Holdings Company Limited, which continues to sell the vehicles Zhonghua makes.
The company has many subsidiaries each with its own purpose. A list can be found here.
In 2003 BMW and Brilliance agreed to make selected products of this German luxury carmaker in China.[8] The joint venture makes BMW 3 Series, BMW 5 Series, and may begin producing the BMW X1 in 2012.[15] Indigenously produced engines will appear in some offerings soon, and the company plans to bring total production capacity to 300,000 by 2013.[16] Such figures may consider whole vehicles and engines discrete.
These vehicles may differ significantly from those sold in other markets under the same names. As of mid-2010 almost 60% of the components used in the manufacture of BMW products were imported to China.[15]
As of 2009 BMWs are sometimes used by ranking Chinese state officials, although the traditional choice is still a First Automobile Works-built Audi.[17]
Brilliance has had a minibus joint venture with this Japanese company since the early 1990s.[18]
While the company also manufactures gasoline engines and other automotive components, automobile manufacture is performed by the indirectly held subsidiaries Shenyang Brilliance JinBei Automobile Co Ltd and BMW Brilliance Automotive Co Ltd of which Brilliance has 33% and 50% ownership respectively.[19] As of June 2011, the company may actually have far less than 33% ownership of Shenyang Jinbei Automotive Co Ltd (SSE: 600609).[20]
BMW-branded autos are made at a production base in the Northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang completed in 2004, and ongoing construction may see this base increase its production capacity to 200,000 units/year by 2012.[21]
An engine-making production base may be located in Mianyang, Sichuan province.[6]
As of December 2009 Huachen Automotive Group Holdings Company Limited (Chinese: 華晨汽車集團控股有限公司) has majority ownership of Brilliance controlling 55% of the company.[22] In 2011, Brilliance referred to Huachen as its "ultimate shareholder" and "the Group's major shareholder".[23]
In 2007 Brilliance's BS6 sedan performed poorly in a crash test conducted by Germany's ADAC, receiving only one out of five possible stars in the Euro NCAP rating.[24] Brilliance then redesigned the car, changing at least sixty components, and it saw a three-star performance in a crash test performed by Spain's Idiada.[25] However, the price also rose considerably, and the importer (HSO Motors) went bankrupt in November 2009.[26] Brilliance then tried to go it alone, but with high pricing and considerable market reluctance after the well-publicized crash test failures, exports to Europe had ended by April 2010 with no immediate plans of resumption.[27]