A concept car called the Kunpeng CAV (compact activity vehicle) was unveiled yesterday by the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), the first independent auto engineering and design joint venture in China.
As the second concept vehicle fully developed in China, the car answers the industry's call for more homegrown auto designs from domestic automakers as a basis for local models.
The Kunpeng concept vehicle was created with the aim of transforming the look of minivans in China and bringing them up to global design and styling standards, said Zhang Zhenhua, executive vice president of PATAC.
PATAC is a US$50 million joint venture between General Motors (GM) and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp Group (SAIC).
The vehicle will hopefully act as a pilot model for China's vast minivan market, though GM said it has no plans to start production of the model at its local joint ventures.
They include one of China's biggest producers of minivans, the Liuzhou-based SAIC GM Wuling Motors Corp in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
In 1999, PATAC, a key auto engineering and design facility for GM in the Asia-Pacific region, unveiled the Qilin. The Qilin was the first concept car designed in China by domestic engineers and designers for the Chinese market.
PATAC also brought out the Buick GL8-based Phoenix, the country's first fuel cell concept vehicle.
(China Daily April 4, 2003)
