BEIJING, Feb. 12 (InfoChina) – Brilliance Auto Group, parent company of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: CBA, HK: 1114), is expected by insiders to launch the Zunchi 1.8T car model on March 18, about one month ahead of the schedule made before.

Insiders guess that as Brilliance Auto launched its Junjie car on March 18 last year, which turned out to be a big success as sales of the car totaled 32,000 units in the following nine months, the company is very likely to launch the new model of Zunchi car on that “lucky day” this year as well. But so far Brilliance Auto hasn’t disclosed the exact date for launching its Zunchi 1.8T.

       The new model of Zunchi car will be equipped with the 1.8T turbo engine self-developed by Brilliance Auto in June last year, which can improve energy- efficiency by 30-100 percent and saves oil consumption by some 35 percent as compared with autos of same displacement volume.  Inner decoration of the new model of Zunchi car has been updated as well.

It is learned that Brilliance Auto has made the plan to sell some 120,000 units of Zhonghua serial cars in 2007, which doubles the sales in 2006. A source disclosed that to meet the sales goal set for 2007, Brilliance Auto hopes to sell some 20,000-25,000 units of Zunchi 1.8T this year and so price of the Zunchi 1.8T won’t be set high. Some insiders predict that the car will be priced at 130,000-170,000 yuan while some deemed that the price will stand at 150,000-200,000 yuan.