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Looking back at city’s car brand
Print Edition
THOUGH most Shanghainese today complain about the relentless car traffic that has become a feature of our city’s streets, automobiles were a rarity here even a couple of decades ago.
In fact, until relatively recently, cars were so uncommon that people would often take their pictures with one in the background. Even taking a taxi across town would have seemed like an unspeakably luxurious journey to the average person.
Shanghai Brand Cars, as well as cars made under the earlier Phoenix marque, were the stars of the streets and the earliest Chinese-manufactured automobiles.
In September 1958, the first Shanghai-made car was born under the Fenghuang (Phoenix) brand. It was capable of a top speed of 105km per hour. A few months later saw the birth of Dongfeng (East Wind) Cars in Changchun, Jilin Province, the precursor to the famed Red Flag brand.
Only a handful of Phoenix cars were produced during the brand’s early years, and production ceased entirely during the “difficult years” between 1959 and 1961.
It was not until 1963, with support from the government and relate enterprises, that Phoenix technicians and engineers were invited back to work. Eventually, they would develop the country’s first mass-produced passenger cars under the Shanghai brand name.
During this period, Red Flag vehicles were reserved exclusively for use by top Chinese and foreign leaders. While Shanghai-brand vehicles were a popular choice for mid-rank officials, they were also used as taxis in the city as they became more readily available.
Prior to the arrival of the Shanghai brand, most of the cars on Shanghai’s streets were Volga or Warsaw-204 badged vehicles from Russia and Poland respectively. Many of these Soviet cars were imported during the late 1950s and were gradually replaced in the following decade by Shanghai cars. For many Shanghainese who lived through this time, the Russian and Polish cars were pale imitations of the US and German-made autos that once cruised around local streets.
For many Chinese born after 1949, Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 was the first chance they had to see a Western-made vehicle. According to a popular story, the US president left behind the bullet-proof, satellite-connected car which carried him during his stay in the country.
As China opened further to the outside world in the 1980s and 90s, more overseas-produced cars appeared. Japanese brands like Toyota and Nissan found early success here thanks to orders with the Chinese government. It was around this time that local brands like Shanghai began to fall out of favor with Chinese customers.
The Shanghai brand was dealt a major blow with the signing of a cooperative deal between Volkswagen and Shanghai Vehicle Factory to build the Santana, a mass-produced car built with foreign technology for the Chinese market. In 1991, the last Shanghai brand car rolled off the assembly line. In total, the brand produced 79,525 cars over its 33 year history.
The Shanghai name had all but disappeared from the Chinese motoring world until SAIC Motor Corporation displayed two new-energy vehicles named the “Shanghai Brand” banner at an auto fair in 2009. More recently, reports surfaced indicated a potential comeback of the brand as a commercial vehicle under the Roewe brand.
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