About Brilliance
Brilliance China Auto, also known as Huachen (华晨), is an automobile manufacturer based in Shenyang, Liaoning in the People's Republic of China.
China Automotive Company Ltd. (C.A.C.) and Jinbei Automotive Company Ltd. are wholly owned subsidiarys of Brilliance (Huachen) China Automotive Holding Ltd. (C.B.A.), established in 1992 and incorporated in Bermuda. C.A.C. sold its rights to a limousine and a minivan project to Shenyang Jinbei Automotive Corp. Ltd., that is 51 % owned by China Brilliance.
In 2003 BMW and Brilliance signed a deal for the production of sedans in China. The new sedan division is costing Brilliance USD 500 million. Under a Technical Assistance Agreement with BMW AG, BMW will provide engineering consulting services to the production of the Zhonghua sedan. A team of engineers from BMW was stationed in Shenyang Automotive's facilities to assist in the start-up of the production processes.
Brilliance's BS6 sedan gained worldwide notoriety in 2007 after catastrophically failing a Euro NCAP crash test performed by the ADAC in Germany, video of which was widely circulated on the Internet. Brilliance has since re-designed the BS6 and retested it in Spain, where it earned 3 stars out of a possible five.
Auto Show Display And Planned Importation To US Market
In August 2008, Brilliance Auto announced that they would be featuring four of their vehicles at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. Brilliance plans to ship its BS6 midsize sedan, BS4 compact car, BC3 sport coupe, and FRV hatchback to Detroit in time for the January 2009 show. The company says that they are planning to sell several models in the U.S. later in 2009, although no Brilliance model currently passes U.S. safety and emissions standards, something the company says will be resolved by December 2008.
Models
- Brilliance BC3 — coupé
- Brilliance BS2/Zhonghua Junjie FRV — hatchback
- Brilliance BS4/M2/Zhonghua Junjie — sedan
- Brilliance BS6/M1/Zhonghua Zunchi — sedan
