Automotive News Europe reports that while this is the BC3's European debut, the BS6 has been brought to the European market before. During its tenure in Europe, the BS6 sold quite poorly due to its dismal crash-test results from no less than 11 national auto clubs. To combat this issue Brilliance has redesigned a significant proportion of the BS6 to make it safer, and an independent test of some prototypes revealed that it would likely get a three-star rating from EuroNCAP.
Production of this new BS6, as well as the BS4, will begin in the next few months at Brilliance's factory and it is uncertain whether the redesigned parts will add to the cost of the car although logically this would be the case.
China's BYD will also be showing cars at Geneva, including a gas-electric hybrid and a plug-in electric car. They will also be displaying three production vehicles including the F1 minicar (don't expect its performance to be F1-like, though) and the F3R hatch which started sales in China in July 2007. The F1 starts sales in two months in China and although no specific date has been set for any European release, BYD expects to enter the Western European market within around 12 months. There will also be a BYD F6 which is a large-segment car and starts sales in China around the same time as the F1.
Ultimately, both manufacturers entering the market can only mean more competitive products coming from the larger manufacturers. However, until brand recognition and build quality is improved it remains unlikely that Brilliance or BYD will disturb the major manufacturers.
