China has been producing homegrown cars like there's no tomorrow in recent years, but their poor safety ratings have traditionally kept them out of American and European markets. But a crash test victory by the Qoros 3 Sedan could mean that's about to change.
The Qoros 3 just scored a five-star crash safety rating in the Euro NCAP test. Even more shockingly, the car achieved the highest overall performance of all vehicles assessed so far in 2013, making it one of the safest vehicles ever tested by the Europeans.
It's hard to see this as anything other than a huge win for both Qoros, a new and upcoming automaker, as well as Chinese cars in general. Just a few years ago, their safety and quality ratings were considered laughable by Western standards. When Brilliance tried to export their B6 sedan in 2007, it scored only one star in a German test. Now we have a Chinese car that ranked among the best tested in Europe this year.
In other words, the Chinese are getting there. You may not be able to buy Chinese cars in the U.S. at the moment (besides a few oddballs like the Coda) but that's going to change eventually.
The Qoros 3 went on sale in Slovakia this month with a base price of about 16,000 Euro or $21,600. Volume sales in China are set to begin next year.