夏利 风光不再

choi

Rose Yu, 中国国产车风光不再 与外国品牌差距拉大. 华尔街日报, Feb 24, 2015
cn.wsj.com/gb/20150223/biz115331.asp


, which is translated from a large part of  

Rose Yu, Chinese Cars Fall Behind Foreign Brands; More customers prefer VW and Chevys over once hot Xiali; brutal shakeout is likely. Wall Street Journal, Feb 23, 2015.
www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-cars-fall-farther-behind-1424644382

Quote:

"Two decades ago the most popular car in China was the Xiali * * * Today, more than three-quarters of the new sedans that Chinese customers drive off the lot are foreign-branded cars like Volkswagens and Chevys. Xiali’s star has faded

"Government data shows that local-brand passenger vehicles accounted for 38% of China’s domestic market in 2014, down from 46% in 2010. For sedans, local brands’ share fell to 22% from 31%.

"By 1998 * * * it sold nearly 100,000 cars, accounting for 20% of China’s car sales for that year. * * * A Tianjin registered license plate costs more than 20,000 yuan, or half of the retail price of some Xiali cars [nowadays]. * * * FAW Xiali also owns Weizhi 威志, another low-cost brand.

Note:
(a) The last third of the English original is not translated.
(b) "Xiali’s maker, state-backed Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Co * * * Half of its stock is controlled by state-run auto maker FAW Group Corp, which is a major Chinese partner of Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp"
(i)  Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Co   天津一汽夏利汽车股份有限公司 (天津一汽); based in Tianjin; produced first car in 1965

Modeled on the 1983 Daihatsu [in simplified Chinese: 日本大发] Charade, Xiali "'夏利' 这个译名则是当时的天津市长李瑞环所起的。他 * * * 把Charade取名为夏利，不仅取了谐音，合起来还有 '华夏得利' 的意思."  zh.wikipedia.org  
(ii) FAW Group Corp where FAW stands for First Automobile Works   中国第一汽车集团 (一汽); PRC第一家汽车制造厂; 1956年: 生产出第一辆 (解放牌) 汽车; 總部 吉林省长春市  zh.wikipedia.org