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Qoros IAB We want to be a Chinese car company international.
At the Geneva Motor Show last week, we sat down with two main leaders Qoros, Stefano Villanti, general manager of sales, service, marketing and product strategy, and Roger Malkusson, executive director of vehicle integration asking them which led to the creation of Qoros and what their big picture is.
R-L Stefano Villanti Executive Director of sales, service, marketing and product strategy and Roger Malkusson executive director of vehicle integration pose to the IAB at the Geneva Motor Show 2013 Show.
Regular Indian Autos Blog readers should not recap about Qoros which is a 50 50 joint venture between Chery, a Chinese car company based on the domestic market which is largely develops outside China operations and is also JV partner JLR China and Israel Corp., the largest Israeli holding company.
IAB We read that behind the design and engineering of Qoros cars, there were a lot of German influence is this true.
SV We basically wanted to develop a competitive car in China China is a global market and is open to all major OEM's therefore an evolutionary approach where you start to try and get you it is not going to work this way, from the beginning, you had to develop a competitive edge, state of the art car now, there's only one way to do that is the only way to bring together people with many years of experience and join them together to create a state of the art product which is what we did the natural conclusion is that we can not start with a bad product, we must start with an international product.
IAB Regarding the platform, the development of a platform is a very expensive thing to do What was your starting point.
RM When you start to develop a platform, you have to understand the bandwidth So before you start the engineering work, we decided which are the variants that we must build on this platform we have to think about modularity, but we can not do that if we don t know the bandwidth, but after we had the understanding we have started work and we have a base platform that is the sedan you see here, then we have models that we will add to the based platform variants we need to have a couple of variations on a platform for volumes.
Qoros 3 Estate Concept at Geneva Show 2013 Show.
IAB You have an estate, a sedan and a crossover nickname.
RM We will have 5-6 different variations on this platform different height, length was the knowledge that we had before started working on the platform.
IAB yet I notice you have the word Concept on two of your show cars They look production ready well.
Exactly RM They re concept cars, two or three cars we haven t developed, perhaps 50 or 75 is already the one you see here may be ready 90 But we've more 2-3 which is 25 -75 ready.
IAB You will be launched in China.
The instrument fully functional Qoros edge at the Geneva Motor Show was a notch above a Volkswagen Jetta in quality, workmanship, fit and operational sensation.
SV In China, we launch mainly with 60 outlets and we are increasing rapidly at the beginning of next year to 120 and continue to increase in Europe, we start with small Eastern European markets with the sedan and beyond also we will increase gradually from Western Europe by the end of 2014 early 2015.
IAB you see the market for these cars in countries like India, Brazil and Russia.
SV Yes, we do studies, we re for RHD because it is an important investment and we look to the opportunities India is a big market, but in this car class numbers are not huge in Brazil is very great.
In IAB Europe which reference you against your cars.
SV Basically, this is a C-segment car we didn specific reference If you see the car, it's not like everything you see is essentially an internal D-segment in a segment size car C.
There's a whiff of Kia in Qoros designs The design and construction are flawless for a beginner China.
IAB I ask you questions Crossing segment As you know B and C size crossovers increase the footprint in the world are part of these 6 models you Vee announced.
RM Yes Cross 3 hybrid is a part of the car C-segment strategy is that we are able to raise some higher than the sedan variants, we can easily do without a lot of investment When it s' is going down in a segment we will have a second platform But we have not decided whether we should or we should go that's the decision we have to take when I talk about the bandwidth platform, part is to allow the platform have different heights because you have said, the customer likes the crossover and SUV.
The Qoros 3 Cross Hybrid Concept have an older brother sitting at the higher end of the range Qoros.
IAB As for powertrains, these are your own engines or are they outsourced.
RM We collaborate with AVL, a motor manufacturing company very high performance in Austria We work with Bosch So when we go to China and Europe, we have 1 VVT 6 liters and 1 6-liter engines VVT turbo.
RM Diesel is currently not in the plan, but we are considering whether we should have it on the European market diesel does not exist in China, but we'll see.
SV end of this year we will have the hatchback and every 6-12 months, we will launch a new product.
IAB direction that will lead you in the future regarding mobility solutions.
RM We work a lot with different types of hybrid technologies We have a traction system of electric wheel we love because mechanical AWD has mass, which is all-wheel drive on demand essentially can increase acceleration.
The Qoros 3 sedan, presented in a form ready for production in Geneva, will be the first model to launch later this year in China and Europe.
SV It is located in Munich, where we had many of our suppliers and network.
Looking IAB joint ventures regarding the manufacture of these cars outside China.
SV For now, we're talking about cars that are made in China The future will be an opportunistic approach.
IAB What price will be like for the sedan for the European market.
SV We begin less than 20,000 Euros Its not going to be the cheapest car, but its got 20,000 euros a call to many customers with LED technology, improved braking system and infotainment touch screen.
IAB What will be the flagship of the range Qoros.
SV A 4 4 SUV that you do not see here, it will be a C SUV segment.
RM We will have the same turbocharged 6L 1 in this vehicle we are working on new engines in a relatively short period of time, we will have engines TDI turbocharged direct injection, February 1 -liter 3-cylinder 1 and 6 liter 4-cylinder The 1 2 and 1 6 are also AVL technology and very unique Qoros engines.
Qoros aspire to produce a world-class car at the first attempt it is studying the feasibility of RHD variants and the development of new engines with AVL Austria.
IAB Regarding retail, how do you convince your customers.
SV The first is making sure that customers are going to the retail location So you need to go where the other OEM's are or try to shop stores in crowded places The second thing is to create an experience where they can touch and feel the car because, being a new Chinese car, trust is something you have to earn it's what we're going to the third challenge is that there are frequent migration sellers Chinese to other brands therefore, to ensure the quality you've standardize your processes in a clear and modern way and make sure that the store looks almost like a website, you can do it yourself without asking no one.
IAB So that the factory that manufactures these cars.
SV There will be a plant with an annual capacity of 150,000 units has already started production, now at about 55 test cars.
RM In the first phase, we ve 150,000 cars and in the second phase, we will have 450,000 units is located in the province of Changshu, two hours drive from Shanghai.
SV We clearly have a competitive warranty clearly as a newcomer, we need to put money where mouth is the Kia warranty strategy was a great success in Europe and we are not afraid to have an extended warranty We are confident of the quality of our products.
SV We're creating a world car, China international car a The only way we could do something like this is to create an international society So what we want to do, we want to create a Chinese international company that brings Chinese innovation specific to urban cities and the younger generation, we're creating a different potential product value compared to the products you see on the market.
Hi Shrawan good job Your team is great anyway IAB update me really with all the information to the automotive world Im a mechanical engg, and really a car enthusiast, such as working in the field of automotive, j 'I also add opportunities for automotive use with suggested that if all wish you much success.
Chery is the jv partner JLR JLR in China and belongs to Tata tata Hope learn some lessons from this Why not revive the Rover brand now owned JLR as a bridge btween Tata and JLR products in Quros like approach.
Qoros We want to be a Chinese car company International, Qoros, want, International.