“Meet customers’ demand” is unchanged goal of company, provided customers with
“zero-defect” products and all-round service is unswerving objective of the staff.

On the 10th, April, 2001, the National quality supervision and inspection center
of cars checked on the SQR7160 CHERY car including the items such as complete-car
basic performance, security and environmental protection, which proved that the
complete-car products are totally qualified.

Entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin says he will work with China's Chery Automobile Co. to make the Chery name a trademark in the United States despite opposition from General Motors.

GM's lawyers have told Bricklin, founder of Visionary Vehicles LLC, that the company will fight his plan to use the Chery brand name in the United States because it sounds too much like "Chevy."

Visionary Vehicles is trying to create a U.S. dealership network to sell Chery's Chinese-built cars.

"Chevy is synonymous with General Motors and Chevrolet in the minds of consumers," says GM spokeswoman Geri Lama.

"GM will continue to oppose the use of the name Chery in the United States because it is too close to Chevy."

Bricklin says he hasn't decided if he will use the Chery name for the Chinese-built vehicles he says he will sell here starting in 2007.

But he wants to keep that option open, and he appears willing to pick a fight with GM.

"General Motors must resort to unfounded legal attacks to make up for their declining sales and unimaginative product line," Bricklin said in a written statement.

Meanwhile, Bricklin says he expects to sign 50 Visionary Vehicle dealers this month and 50 more each month through September.

Visionary Vehicles founder and CEO Malcolm Bricklin said Thursday that he will not market cars from China automaker Chery Automotive in the U.S. under the Chery name, because General Motors has made it clear that it will sue Visionary because the car name is too close to its "Chevy" brand. "My partners in China wanted to use the Chery name and I wanted to, but it's not possible," said Bricklin, addressing the International Motor Press Association luncheon in New York.

"So, now we are looking at names," said Bricklin. GM is already suing Chery in China over design infringement. He said "Bricklin" is not on the table for the brand. Bricklin was the name of the gullwing car the automotive entrepreneur started in Canada in the mid 1970s. But the Visionary founder did say that the hybrid engine vehicles planned for 2009-10 will be called "The Bricklin Collection."

Bricklin also said that he will announce his first 25 dealers by the end of June. He says discussions have been going on for a few months with dealers and that he's been delayed over certain negotiating points, such as dealers who want the right to multiple points in a territory for the price of one. Bricklin had previously said it would cost dealers $15 million to buy into a Visionary dealership, but now says that $2 to $4 million will begin an agreement. He also backed off his earlier plan of demanding dealers build new dealerships. To begin the business, he said, he will allow dealers to use an existing facility.

Bricklin says the first two vehicles to be exported from Chery to the U.S. will probably be a convertible and a four-passenger coupe. He had wanted to begin with a four-door sedan modeled after the Audi A4, but he said that the exterior designs of the convertible and coupe are practically frozen and the interiors have to be completed shortly in order to realize his goal of launching in 2007.

DETROIT -- Dealer Tim Ciasulli has invested $2 million in entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin's plan to sell Chinese vehicles in the United States.

Ciasulli, CEO of Planet Honda of Union, N.J., expects to open a dealership to sell vehicles assembled by China's Chery Automobile Co. starting in 2007. Bricklin's company, Visionary Vehicles LLC, is Chery's distributor in the United States.

"I'm signed, sealed, delivered," Ciasulli told Automotive News on Wednesday. "All the dealer agreements have been inked. I'm just waiting for cars."

Ciasulli's $2 million has been parked in an escrow account established by Visionary. When Bricklin signs 50 dealers, the money "can be utilized by the company," Ciasulli says.

Ciasulli says he will spend another $2 million to renovate a former indoor sports complex in northern New Jersey to be used as the Chery dealership. Renovations will begin early next year, he says. Included will be an 80-by-100-foot video screen showing footage of the Chinese-built vehicles.

A Visionary spokesman said other dealers have been signed, but he declined to say how many or to name them.

Ciasulli's Planet Honda sells about 6,000 new Hondas and used vehicles annually.

Billionaire investor George Soros wants to be an automaker.

He is preparing to invest $200 million in a joint venture with China's Chery Automobile Co. to produce vehicles and distribute them in the United States, say sources at Chery and elsewhere in the industry.

The big question: Will the New York investor push entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin from main partner with Chery to a subordinate role?

Bricklin, reached in his New York office last week, was tight-lipped about the situation. He confirmed that an investor, whom he refused to name, has committed $200 million to Visionary Vehicles LLC, which Bricklin established to form a joint venture with Chery and import cars to the United States.

Asked whether the investor is Soros, he said, "No comment."

Bricklin also declined to indicate whether the investor would gain control of Visionary Vehicles. He said the joint-venture agreement between Chery and Visionary Vehicles "is being finalized as we speak."

Soros and Chery declined comment last week.

Soros, 75, built a fortune spotting investment opportunities overseas. He also is well known for his liberal politics and philanthropy.

Soros' $200 million is in escrow and not yet available to the joint venture, sources say. The billionaire's investment was arranged by Atlantic-Pacific Capital Inc., an investment bank in Greenwich, Conn.

Any agreement would have to be approved by the Chinese government. The government is expected to support the joint venture; Beijing has steadfastly supported Chery's export plans.

It is not clear what role Bricklin would play if Soros and Chery strike a deal. Two sources say Bricklin's role would be reduced.

Asked what role he would play under the agreement, Bricklin's reply left room for interpretation: "I believe I will be doing exactly the same thing I've been doing since the beginning."

Bricklin announced his plans to import Chery vehicles in 2004. He since has been recruiting dealers. He says he has signed about 50, but his staff will not release the complete list.

Bricklin, a skilled salesman, has had a long career starting auto importers in the United States. He successfully launched Subaru here in 1968. His best-known failure was Yugo America Inc., which died in 1992.

Chery, which sold 189,000 cars last year, is China's largest fully domestic carmaker. By comparison, Shanghai General Motors, a joint venture between GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., sold 325,000 vehicles.

Chery, based in the central China province of Anhui, is owned by the local government. Last year Chery exported 18,000 units to developing countries such as Egypt and Malaysia, making it China's largest car exporter.

Chery assembles cars in Iran and recently signed an agreement to assemble cars in Russia.

Bricklin had predicted Visionary Vehicles would start exporting cars to the United States in 2007. Chery sources say a more likely date is 2009.

Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary. After earning a degree at the London School of Economics, he moved to the United States in 1956 at age 26.

He started an international investment fund and accumulated a fortune estimated at $7 billion in 2004. He is chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC.

He also is well known for his liberal politics and philanthropy.

BEIJING -- Auto-industry entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, one of the most outspoken promoters of Chinese car makers' prospects in the U.S. market, said his company has decided it must design and engineer its own car models in the West and look to China to assemble them.


Mr. Bricklin, who signed a deal to distribute cars in the U.S. made by Chery Automobile Co., a Chinese state-owned auto maker, said Chery's newest models, while much improved, still fall short of the quality and safety standards to succeed in the U.S. So, he said, his company, New York-based Visionary Vehicles LLC, will develop new vehicles itself and look for several Chinese manufacturers to produce them.

Chery, which declined to comment on Mr. Bricklin's decision, is in advanced negotiations with DaimlerChrysler AG about producing a small car for sale around the world under the German company's Dodge brand. DaimlerChrysler said it also is in talks over the project with one other potential partner, which it declined to identify.

After their meeting, Yin Tongyue, Chery's chairman, said that Chery would bring cost advantages to any venture with the huge U.S. auto maker. "We eat rice and they eat bread," he said. "Our cost is cheaper."

Mr. Yin said he estimates the company's annual exports will hit 100,000 in 2007, about double the number expected this year. So far, the company has concentrated on sales in the Middle East and Africa. Chery has also signed a deal to sell engines to Fiat SpA for use in the Italian company's cars.

Separately, DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said the auto maker is looking at different options to develop lower-cost cars as it aims to increase sales in China and other growing markets. Chrysler already builds the Chrysler 300 sedan and the Mercedes E Class at a joint-venture factory outside Beijing. Mr. Zetsche said DaimlerChrysler hopes to assemble five models in China by next year.

Earlier this year, Mr. Bricklin said he was confident Chery would be able to produce cars that he could start selling in the U.S. market by as early as the end of 2007. He no longer thinks that is possible, in part because of limits on Chery's ability to design and develop cars, he said.

Mr. Bricklin brought Subaru vehicles from Japan to the U.S. in the 1960s and imported the Yugo from Yugoslavia in the 1980s. He said his new plan is to create a "virtual" car company -- hiring Western car-design and engineering firms to develop vehicles and build prototypes. He would then contract with auto manufacturers in China, including, perhaps, Chery, to produce the cars. Engines and transmissions would be bought from established suppliers.