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From Fantasy to Feeble?
What's happened to Hafei?
Hafei once showed lots of promise with its fine line of innovative models. Remember the HF Fantasy concept by Pininfarina shown at the 2002 Beijing show? It was inspiring and raised our expectations with regards this little emerging player from China's Northeast. But now with prospects for a pending Dongfeng-Hafei merger, or even a little Peugeot-Hafei tie-up, pretty much in limbo, what will happen?
There were reports that parent AVIC II, the state-owned aircraft company that loved to dally with autos, had planned to shed its automotive holdings and get down to concentrating on aircraft alone. But apparently it's too greedy to let go of the little automaker. And in the meantime Hafei seems to be in a state of stagnation with no new metal to put on display.
Maybe what Hafei needs is a private company like BYD to come and rescue it before it gets completely snuffed out by state ownership. As for the early involvement of Mitsubishi, well that seems all but gone.
It must be frustrating for Miles Automotive to have to deal with the hard-nosed bureaucracy of Hafei's parent. Meanwhile its grand plans of offering an electric version of Hafei's Saibao seem also to be in limbo.
I'd hate to see Hafei go the way of Wanfeng, Tongtian, Jiangbei and the other wash-outs. It's too good for that.
What's happened to Hafei?
Hafei once showed lots of promise with its fine line of innovative models. Remember the HF Fantasy concept by Pininfarina shown at the 2002 Beijing show? It was inspiring and raised our expectations with regards this little emerging player from China's Northeast. But now with prospects for a pending Dongfeng-Hafei merger, or even a little Peugeot-Hafei tie-up, pretty much in limbo, what will happen?
There were reports that parent AVIC II, the state-owned aircraft company that loved to dally with autos, had planned to shed its automotive holdings and get down to concentrating on aircraft alone. But apparently it's too greedy to let go of the little automaker. And in the meantime Hafei seems to be in a state of stagnation with no new metal to put on display.
Maybe what Hafei needs is a private company like BYD to come and rescue it before it gets completely snuffed out by state ownership. As for the early involvement of Mitsubishi, well that seems all but gone.
It must be frustrating for Miles Automotive to have to deal with the hard-nosed bureaucracy of Hafei's parent. Meanwhile its grand plans of offering an electric version of Hafei's Saibao seem also to be in limbo.
I'd hate to see Hafei go the way of Wanfeng, Tongtian, Jiangbei and the other wash-outs. It's too good for that.
