10 cars that stole the show at Auto China 2014

Beijing, China—Just a little more than five years ago, carmakers would hold their debuts of new car models on the global stages of Tokyo, Frankfurt, and Detroit. These three major auto shows were where the major car launches and introductions were almost exclusively held.

How times have changed. Today China has cemented its grasp on the international automotive scene. It’s hard not to achieve that if you’re the fastest growing market in the whole world and has become the single largest car market on the planet.

Auto China 2014, also known as the Beijing International Auto Show (Beijing alternating with Shanghai as host city for the annual exposition) underscored just how important—make that crucial—the Chinese market is to a carmaker.

Keynote after keynote, speech after speech, press conference after press conference, the message was the same: “The Chinese automobile market is important and we will introduce so-and-so brands and launch x-teen car models, and build so many number of manufacturing plants  to meet local demand (and in some cases, to make China an export hub as well).”

This was basically the message uttered by every American, Japanese, Korean, German, Italian, French, British and Swedish car company CEO, chairman, and president who spoke in Beijing.

Every high-ranking car company executive worth his private jet is tantalized by the sheer size of the Chinese automobile industry. While North America, which had always been the biggest car market in the world, sold 16 million automobiles last year, China rolled out 20 million vehicles from showroom floors in the same period. And it’s projected to continue this sales pace to the tune of a double-digit growth for the next several years. (It grew by almost 25 percent year-on-year from 2005 to 2011.)

Just to put that in perspective, the Philippines, which is fast getting choked by the number of new cars added every day, is a mere 250,000-car-a-year market. That’s how big China is.   

As an example of its clout, China practically drove German manufacturers to specially develop long-wheelbase versions not just of their flagship large executive sedans, but also of their compact and mid-sized sedans; hence you see not just long-wheelbase A8’s, 7-series, and S-class sedans, but LWB versions of A6’s and A4’s as well as their Mercedes-Benz and BMW counterparts as well. You won’t see those models anywhere else in the world except in China. 

Needless to say, car companies flaunt their cream of the crop at Auto China—with each brand trying to outdo each other. Still some brands or models steal the show more than others. 

Lamborghini Huracan

The Huracán, also named after a fighting bull, replaces Lamborghini’s sales leader and most produced car, the Gallardo. It is scheduled to be released globally this quarter with local availability following soon after.

Audi A3 sedan

The big news about Audi is not an all-new model but a surprising new variant off its bestselling subcompact hatchback, the A3. Now sporting a trunk, the A3 sedan is not a niche player, but will create a whole new category: the luxury four-door subcompact sedan class.

Bentley Hybrid Concept

The Bentley Hybrid Concept is based on the flagship Bentley Mulsanne luxury sedan, with the exterior and interior both enhanced by copper styling features, which highlight the car’s electrical theme. This includes copper details to the headlamps, brake calipers and badges, and interior copper accents including inserts to the cabin’s hand-crafted veneers, copper cross-stitching and instrument inserts.

Porsche Macan

The Macan is Porsche’s new compact SUV. It is destined to become the German sports car specialist’s bestselling vehicle of all time—for the foreseeable future. It will hit Manila showrooms within the next few months.

Porsche 919 Hybrid endurance racer

Designed to take on corporate sibling Audi in the crucible of world endurance racing, the Porsche 919 Hybrid endurance racer was two years in the making. Needless to say, expectations are very, very high. The wait won’t be too long. Le Mans 2014 happens this June.

Subaru Viziv 2 Concept

Taking the award for most spectacular door openings, the Subaru Viziv 2 Concept is a “future crossover” with unique butterfly front doors and sliding rear doors. The visual trick is that, with all doors closed, the Viziv 2 looks like a two-door crossover—the sliding rear doors look like they’re fixed rear fenders. How cool is that?

Lexus NX

Lexus leaps right into the compact SUV fray with the stunning-looking NX (which also comes in a hybrid version). It’s almost inconceivable that it won’t make it to this country—hybrid or otherwise.

VW Golf R400

With 400hp, 450Nm, all-wheel drive, 0-100 km/h in 3.9 seconds, sub-8-minute Nurburgring lap time, the R400 Concept makes the Golf GTI seem slooow…

McLaren P1

The McLaren P1 is a limited-production plug-in hybrid (what else?) sports car by British automotive manufacturer McLaren. Deliveries to retail customers began in the UK in October 2013. The entire P1 production after. Yeah, we wanted one, too. 

Dong Feng

The jury’s out if this Hummer-like vehicle is as tough as its American counterpart. Somehow, we wouldn’t want to have to know.