DCX To Chery-Pick Chinese Partner For Small Car?

Could DaimlerChrysler be planning on Chery-picking a Chinese partner for production of a new small car? According to BusinessWeek, that’s a distinct possibility.

Over the next few weeks, DCX will explore the option of working with Chinese automaker Chery Automotive to build a production version of its acclaimed Hornet concept. Chery, you’ll recall, has been eying the US marketplace, though to this point it has done so via industrialist Malcolm Bricklin’s Visionary Vehicles. Unfortunately, Bricklin’s timetables and promises of a huge dealer network have met with delay upon delay, so perhaps this talk of a DCX tie-up means that that Chery is open to other avenues–even if their company’s badges don’t end up on the grille.

BW speculates that a deal between DCX and Chery wouldn’t necessitate a joint-venture agreement, because the Chinese automaker could simply serve as an outsourced point of assembly. The Hornet-to-be would likely shift about 150,000 units per year, with about fifty percent coming Stateside.

+ BusinessWeek: Chrysler’s China Patterns

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