German automaker Borgward was founded in 1919, went bankrupt in 1961, and basically backslid into obscurity until an influx of Chinese cash got their wheels rolling again in 2008. I remain skeptical, but the company wants you to think they’re about to start selling these crossovers.
Last year at the Frankfurt Auto Show we heard about their flagship BX7; a knockoff Audi SUV. This week at Geneva the company’s trotted out a similar-but-smaller crossover, simply named BX5, and an Accord CrossTour/BMW GranCoupe-looking thing called “Projekt BX6 TS.”
With a small batch of digital images, scant technical details and lines like this on the company website:
“What’s the special thing about BORGWARD design? The combination of elegance and dynamism, without gratuitous embellishment; engineered to the very highest precision with an attention to detail; authenticity.”
...the whole thing stinks of overhype and emptiness to me. But apparently the Chinese are committed to resurrecting this nameplate to create the facade of a German brand so they can cash on the “import mystique” as they go to sell the cars in China, which is apparently the target market.
“Like its larger stablemate, the BX7, it is a prototype approaching the series-production stage,” Borgward says about the BX5.
And if true, the BX5 is slated to be a five-passenger plug-in electric crossover with a 143 horsepower engine paired with a 115 horsepower electric motor and permanent AWD.
It’s about 176 inches long, making about half a foot shorter than a BMW X3.
The Projekt BX6 TS coupe-looking car is a juiced up version with 272 horsepower made from a traditional engine and 150 electric horsepower, also hooked up to AWD all the time.
Apparently we’ll learn more about the technical intricacies of these machines as they get closer to production time. I suppose I’ll reserve judgement until then.
Images via Borgward
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.