I stand corrected, Huatai did receive permissions from Hyundai to produce the Hyundai Santa Fe and Hyundai Terracan under its own brand, so i think they have got permission from Hyundai to build their own Matrix as well.
Huatai Automobile Group, a Shandong-based automaker specializing in manufacturing SUV, will produce Matrix, a medium-and small-size MPV model of Hyundai Motor Company.
August 06, 2008 - Matrix, which dropped out of Chinese market because of the termination of its production in South Korea, will return back in the first half of 2008 by the Rongcheng-based partner of Hyundai Motor. It will be the third car model after Santa Fe and Terracan, two SUV models, of Hyundai introduced to Huatai Automobile.
The localized production of Matrix in China will be set in Rongcheng Huatai Automobile Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Huatai Automobile. 1.6L and 1.8L Matrix with standard, simple and luxury versions available in the Chinese factory will be the 06 version, being sold at roughly CNY 100,000.
Matrix will be positioned as a home-use economy MPV model and will see Livina by Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and Premacy by FAW Haima Motor Co., Ltd. as its rivals, says a dealer of Huatai Automobile.
News about Hawtai's (back then the company was called Huatai) plan to build rebadged Hyundai Matrix was published in 2008. Since then nothing was heard about the car. We all assumed Chinese abandoned the idea to produce it.
As the car shown on new pictures carries Hawtai's old logo I wonder if anything is going to come out of this project.
The picture shown with the article is from October 2011. Matrix doesn't show up in Hawtai plans for the future.
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