At last year’s Beijing Auto Show one of the major trends was the launch of large cars by Chinese manufacturers. Hongqi (Red Flag) was there with the H7, BAIC showcased their Saab derived cars and Roewe launched the 950. However as HIS Automotive analyst Sa Boni pointed out this was not entirely new as both Chery and Brilliance started sell larger models some years back. What was different this time, however, is that large cars were being offered by some of the largest SOEs.

Such efforts were obviously encouraged by new government regulations. Last year the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published a draft regulation for the procurement of government vehicles. Included was a list of 412 approved vehicles that are priced less than ¥180,000 with engine displacement of 1.8 litres or less. Thanks to an additional requirement for manufacturers to spend more than 3 percent of revenue on R&D not one of the included cars was from a joint venture.

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