This is a Qoros 3 sedan in the south of the Chinese capital, Beijing. The Qoros was painted white and had the original multispoke wheels. Qoros was a Chinese car brand, owned by Qoros Auto Corporation, a joint venture between Chery Automobile and Israel’s state-investment fund Kenong Holdings.
About the Qoros brand
The Chinese brand name was 观致 (Guanzhi). Most of the senior management and senior engineers were German. The idea was to create a modern “European” sedan in China, to compete with cars made by the existing Sino-foreign joint ventures. These cars had usually been in production for ages, with aging design and technology, so the idea made a lot of sense. Qoros was founded in 2007. Engineering took a long time back then, and the first car came out only in 2013.
The Qoros 3 sedan
That first car was the Qoros 3, a pretty sedan with a modern design. I was living in China when the 3 was launched, and there was a lot of interest in the project and the new sedan. At the time of launch, it certainly was a better car than the competitors.
The chief designer of the 3 was a German by the name of Gert Volker Hildebrand. I had the honor of meeting the man once, late at night in a bar, after the media day of the 2014 Beijing Auto Show. We were with a group of Chinese car fanatics, and we had a short chat. Friendly fellow, he lived in Shanghai.
The interior of the Qoros 3
Qoros was particularly proud of the interior of the Qoros 3, with a fancy little screen and, again, a modern design by Chinese standards at the time. The interior was also very German, with gray seats and a gray dashboard. But everything was well put together, and the quality was great. I once went to a Qoros dealer, and that too looked totally different than a typical Chinese dealer at the time, very clean with ambient lighting and soft music. I will look up the pics and post ‘m later.
The Qoros 3 was a compact sedan. Size: 4615/1839/1445, with a 2702 wheelbase. The trunk space was 403 liters or 1105 liters with the bench down.
Specifications of the Qoros 3
Qoros sourced the engines and gearboxes from Chery. The Qoros 3 was available with two engines: a 1.6 with 126 hp and 155 Nm and a 1.6 turbo with 156 hp and 210 Nm.
Buyers of the 1.6 could choose between a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed DCT, and the 1.6 turbo was always mated to the 6-speed DCT. The Qoros 3 was a front-wheel drive car. The 3 wasn’t very quick. The 1.6 had a 193 km/h top speed and did 0-100 in 12.6 seconds. The 1.6 turbo did 217 km/h and o-100 in 9.6 seconds.
Large light units were all the fashion in 2014!
The Qoros 3 sold for 119.900 yuan for the base model to 171.900 yuan for the top-spec car, which was a pretty good deal. Qoros quickly launched 3 more cars on the same platform: the Qoros 3 GT, the Qoros 3 Hatchback, and the Qoros 3 City SUV. Qoros also unveiled a wagon version, but that one never made it into production.
The end of Qoros
After all of the buzz, we expected a lot from Qoros. Sadly, it never happened. The main reason was a terribly slow rollout of the dealer network. Folks who wanted to buy one simply couldn’t get one. That means slow sales and low income. That led to a delay in upgrades and new models.
The interior and engine lineup stayed the same all the way until 2020, which is ironic, because Qoros once criticized other carmakers for exactly that kind of stagnation. In 2021, Qoros finally launched an update with a new 1.5-liter turbo, but the effort came too late, and the company ended sales that same year.
Characters: 观致汽车, Guanzhi Qiche, Qoros Auto.
The company didn’t fare better. In 2018, after disappointing sales, Chery Automobile and Kenon Holdings sold most of their shares to the Baoneng Investment Group, a large privately owned industrial conglomerate. After various name changes and reorganizations, Baoneng took control of the Qoros brand and launched a bunch of rebranded Cherys and ‘new’ Qoros models. It was too little and too late, and in 2023, it was all over for Qoros.
Too bad! The Qoros brand was a good idea, and the Qoros 3 was a great car. Had Qoros invested more in its dealer network early on, things may have turned out very different for the Chinese-Israeli-German project.