French Importer Announces Plans To Sell Shuanghuan Sceo SUV in Europe

AZ Motors, a new French car dealer, has announced that it has been appointed as distributor of Chinese Shuanghuan 4x4 vehicles in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The company's Web site features a crash-test video of Shuanghuan's Sceo SUV.

Shuanghuan is perhaps best known as one of China's most frequently accused copycat producers. The company's 2003 Rabo S-RV prompted a lawsuit from Honda for its resemblance to the CR-V. The Sceo was introduced in 2005, and observers noted certain BMW X5 overtones. Shuanghuan's latest offering, called the Noble, rather obviously channels the Smart.

AZ Motors is a subsidiary of Eurauto, a Lebanese Mercedes-Benz dealer that organized the European debut of another Chinese SUV producer, Xinkai, at the 2006 Paris Auto Show. Plans to sell the Xinkai in Europe were put on the back burner when the Isuzu-derived models were found to be lacking in quality.

Along with the video of the Sceo's crash test on its Web site, AZ Motors claims European homologation has been obtained for the SUV. The importer targets sales of 500 vehicles in 2007, rising to 3,000 in 2008. Currently there is no dealer or after-sales network in place, although Eurauto's manager, Albert Abchée, claims that by September there will be 130 dealers signed up.

The Sceo is another in a long line of inexpensive Isuzu-derived SUVs produced by dozens of Chinese companies for their own country. It will be interesting to watch the results of independently organized European crash tests.