A well funded revival of this once dormant German make initially saw Borgward going from nowhere to huge popularity in China. Alas, the early success was not to last and the brand crashed to earth in 2018. Now with a new owner, sales are rising once more and fresh models are on the way.
Earlier this decade, BAIC-controlled truck maker Beiqi Foton Motor spent a lot of money attempting to reinvent what had once been a Bremen-based luxury make. There were big plans for manufacturing a range of SUVs in China and Germany, including electric models. Unfortunately for Foton, demand fell away sharply during 2018 after what had been a promising start in 2016 and 2017. In December last year, the company reportedly sold 67% of Borgward Group to Ucar. This start-up is controlled by Changsheng Xingye Enterprise Management Consulting, a company based in Xiamen in Fujian province.
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Under Changsheng ownership, not much is expected to change: the company is said to have agreed to continue Borgward’s business plan launched last May. That involves the introduction of at least two new models per year as well as the addition of a sedan by 2022. For now though, the emphasis remains on SUVs. Sales have bounced back a little to what is perhaps the brand’s natural level, wholesales for the first quarter rising to 7,967 units, a year-on-year gain on 14.7%.
Formerly ambitious plans for the German market have been watered down to the point where the brand appears to have been discontinued there. As a reminder of what had once been stated, Borgward’s then CEO Ulrich Walker (replaced by Philip Koehn last July) told the media assembled at the 2016 Geneva motor show that he saw worldwide sales of “…over 500,000 units a year in the medium term; and market launch in German-speaking countries to take place at the end of 2017”.
Three months later came a further media statement:
Borgward Group AG has formed a long-term strategic partnership with the Augsburg-based company KUKA Roboter AG, the world’s leading supplier of robotic systems. “The cooperation with Industry 4.0 pioneer KUKA is another milestone for Borgward in its endeavor to create a state-of-the-art production system,””said Ulrich Walker, CEO of Borgward Group AG, at the signing of the memorandum of understanding in Munich on Tuesday. “We are delighted to have found a long-term partner for the implementation of concrete Industry 4.0 projects: the Borgward Group,” added Stefan Lampa, CEO of KUKA Roboter GmbH. Among other things, the partnership covers the joint development of production lines, the standardization of processes, and the development of versatile systems and tools.
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By GlobalDataThe cooperation with KUKA will enable Borgward to expand its global production system and create an extremely flexible manufacturing process that can quickly respond to changing market developments. Borgward Group AG has already introduced its Borgward Sustainable Platform (BSP) at its first plant, which is located near Beijing. This platform strategy enables the plant to simultaneously produce a variety of models with different wheelbases and drive technologies on a single assembly line. The platform will also be used in all future Borgward plants.
BSP is a renaming of an existing body-on-frame architecture as used by the Foton Sauvana, the vehicle which the BX7 is based upon.
In October 2016, Borgward announced that it planned to open a 10,000 vehicles per annum plant in Bremen. This SKD operation would have been for the assembly of the BXi7, an electric SUV evolved from the BX7. The new owners are said to be looking at reviving both this model and the idea of some assembly in what had long ago been the brand’s home city.
SUVs
The BX3 should be the fourth model for this brand, joining three existing, larger SUVs. This approximately four metres long model would be the first vehicle styled under the direction of Anders Warming who left Mini in 2016 for Borgward. The company is yet to officially acknowledge the BX3 but after many delays, it is rumoured to be on track for launch in China later this year.
The brand’s best seller is the BX5, its first quarter wholesales total for the Chinese market being 5,525 units. This 4.5m long SUV has been around for just over two years and therefore won’t be facelifted for another 12-18 months. A successor should be launched in 2024 although both the mid-life refresh and replacement could be delayed by a year or more as the company’s owner assesses which models need more attention.
The BX6 continues to struggle in the Chinese market, a mere 133 units having been sold in the first quarter. This non-PHEV version of the BX6 TS, announced in May 2018, is powered by a 165kW (224PS) turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine. Torque is 300Nm (221 lb-ft), a six-speed automatic transmission is standard and so is all-wheel drive. Should the brand’s new owners choose to keep this model in the line-up, it would be due for a facelift in 2021. Presuming a seven-year life cycle, that would mean a replacement could be as far off as 2025.
Much had been hoped for the BX6 TS, a plug-in hybrid which was announced a year before the BX6. This model was previewed the Projekt BX6 TS, a design study for a five-door crossover coupe which had its world premiere at the Geneva motor show in March 2016. The prototype was claimed to be powered by the combination of a turbocharged 200kW (272hp) four-cylinder engine and one electric motor. Drive went to all four wheels. Borgward is believed to have plans to revive this model later in 2019.
The BX7 had a good quarter in Q1, its tally of 2,309 representing a YoY rise of 23.5% and therefore being the main reason why Borgward’s deliveries bounced back relatively strongly. This model had its world premiere at the Frankfurt IAA in September 2015 and went on sale in China in May 2016. Sales in Germany were at one time due to follow from July 2018. Cars would be sold via the internet with ATU, a network of repair shops, handling parts and service.
There is also an EV version: the BX i7 which first became available in May 2018. It looks almost identical to the BX7 but has a slightly different front end which includes a bespoke grille. Combined power and torque outputs of the so-called ‘e-Propulsion’ system are 180kW and 390Nm.
The next news for the two BX7 variants should be facelifts in 2020/2021. Successors are due in 2023 or 2024 although there are now rumours that only the EV will be replaced.
Reports for many other manufacturers’ future models are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.
Future product program intelligence
More detail on past, current and forthcoming models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicles database which is part of QUBE.
The next OEM to be featured in the future vehicles series will be Soueast, also known as Southeast.
