China’s ‘Trumpchi’ carmaker embarks on US drive（540 words）

By Charles Clover and Sherry Fei Ju in Beijing

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Several Chinese carmakers have tried and failed to crack the coveted US market, but if one Chinese car brand can make it, that marque could well be the “Trumpchi”.

Made by Guangzhou Automobile Group Company, the first Trumpchi rolled out of the Guangzhou-based factory in 2010 — well before its near namesake sought the US presidency.

Now the sixth-best-selling brand in China is poised to test the waters of the toughest car market in the world. At January’s Detroit auto show, Trumpchi became the first Chinese brand to feature on the event’s main floor, and Yu Jun, general manager, said the carmaker was targeting its first US sales in 2019.

“The US is the second-largest car market after China,” said Mr Yu. “If you want to become a global leading brand and enter the global market, we must enter the US market.”

So far the Trumpchi has been exported to some developing countries under the GAC brand, but the company is still unsure whether its auspicious-sounding name would help or hinder it in the US.

The car is named Chuanqi (“Legendary”) in Chinese, and GAC said the English name was unrelated to the reality TV star-turned-president — rather, it is a compound of the English word trump (“to excel, surpass”) and the first syllable of the word “cheerful”.

“We were debating whether to use this name [on the US export models] even before Mr Trump was elected,” said Mr Yu, “and now we will have to decide whether to use this name.”

The primary challenge in entering the US is the high cost of testing and meeting the highest safety and emissions standards in the world, said Robin Zhu, chief Asia auto analyst at Bernstein in Hong Kong. “The US has infinitely more stringent rules than China,” he said.

Chinese factories already export China-made Buicks and Volvos to the US while a handful of domestic makers such as Geely and Chery have failed to break into the market. Geely appeared at the Detroit auto show in 2006, where its “China Dragon” car flopped, while Chery tried unsuccessfully in 2005.

Trumpchi cars are roomier than average for Chinese buyers, which Mr Yu said was an advantage in the US.

“Both Chinese and American consumers like big fancy cars — the bigger the better and the fancier the better,” he said, adding that the company had not decided which model to export and what modifications were required.