Wednesday 20th July 2011

Caterham Heads To China

Will the world's largest car market take to the iconic Seven?

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The Caterham Seven - that icon of lightweight British performance motoring - is to be sold in China for the first time after Caterham Cars signed an exclusive deal with new importer, Courtenay Trading International (CTI).

The plan is to appoint six retailers in key provinces of China over the next year, and Caterham and CTI are hoping to shift between 30 and 50 Sevens in the first year of the operation.

All Caterham's current Euro5-compliant cars will be sold - which means the Roadsport 120, Superlight 120, Roadsport 175, Superlight R300 and CSR 175 are all heading to the People's Republic - with the first Sevens scheduled to arrive in China in January 2012.

Although Caterham has had a presence in the Far East for a while, notably in Japan, this will be the first time the Seven has been sold in China and represents Caterham's continuing expansion into new growth markets.

"Our entry into the Chinese market is another tangible sign of how Caterham is striving to become a truly global brand," reckons Caterham Cars' international business manager, David Ridley.

Global brand, eh? That's quite an ambition for a company that produces fewer than 1000 cars per year from a small factory in Dartford...good on 'em, we say...

[DonkeyApple]

So long as it is seen as an asperational purchase. It would be key to get the marketing and brand association correct.

Good luck to them.

[James MK]

If the idea catches on, maybe we'll see a copy or two?

[Noger]

James MK said:

If the idea catches on, maybe we'll see a copy or two?

Said without any sense of irony at all

The title is slightly wrong, Caterham heads BACK to china...one has already been..

http://www.ontheroadinchina.com/nokiadiscoverchina...

[DTulloch]

I think you will find that the Dartford factory produces less than 500 cars per year. Caterham have a massive cult following in Japan. Caterhams feature heavily in many "Manga" books and films and youth culture. It's normally the "Super Hero" who drives the Caterham. With the the financial backing of Team Lotus lets hope they can go global but without delaying the delivery of my Supersport in October!

[TheRoadWarrior]

I thought the Chinese didn't by 2 seater cars?

[WMP]

Good luck to them.

However, don't Porsche sell vastly more Cayennes/Panameras than 911s in China?

I think the Chinese mindset is some way from being tuned in to the Caterham Seven. The Japanese culture is significantly more 'in tune' to the Caterham concept as was alluded to in the article.

However, if you can't sell 30-50 cars per annum to a population of over 1 billion something will have gone wrong somewhere!!

[A Scotsman]

If the Chinese like it their next step will be to insist the 7 is built there. Then later on all the Chinese working for Caterham in China will leave and set up a new company building a car that's remarkably identical to the 7.

Some time after that when Caterham sales fall off because of the cheaper Chinese competition the new Chinese company will make an offer to buy all of Caterham and move all their production to China maintaining a small design group in the UK until the Chinese have learnt everything they need to know.

[ewenm]

A Scotsman said:

If the Chinese like it their next step will be to insist the 7 is built there. Then later on all the Chinese working for Caterham in China will leave and set up a new company building a car that's remarkably identical to the 7.

Some time after that when Caterham sales fall off because of the cheaper Chinese competition the new Chinese company will make an offer to buy all of Caterham and move all their production to China maintaining a small design group in the UK until the Chinese have learnt everything they need to know.

There are loads of companies in the UK doing that already (Westfield, MK, Tiger, Sylva, etc) - Caterham seem to survive against the cheaper competition.

[Hellbound]

Better late than never. It's not like they don't have a huge track-day culture in China to exploit...

If an enterprising manufacturer in China can knock-up a 'knock-off' using the same/better materials and engine for half the price then all power to them.

Besides, there'll always be a huge demand for genuine, European/British products in China.

[nickfrog]

Those guys still can't even export their products to France properly for instance despite the low Sterling and the proximity, so it will be interesting to see how they perform in China.

[DonkeyApple]

A Scotsman said:

If the Chinese like it their next step will be to insist the 7 is built there. Then later on all the Chinese working for Caterham in China will leave and set up a new company building a car that's remarkably identical to the 7.

Some time after that when Caterham sales fall off because of the cheaper Chinese competition the new Chinese company will make an offer to buy all of Caterham and move all their production to China maintaining a small design group in the UK until the Chinese have learnt everything they need to know.

There is always a risk of construction moving to China.

The key is whether production is simple enough. If it is then doing so would slash labour costs.

You would have to argue that if a bloke in a shed can do it them so can a basic Chinaman.

If labour costs are a significant element of Production cost then it should be done.

Have the most basic models made there and shipped to point of sale and leave the specialist British work force to build the higher margin more complicated cars which have better terminal profit margins.

If they can build thousands of base models in China and sell them domestically and across the FE and beyond this would be simply brilliant.

With the revenues such an accomplishment would deliver just imagine what other products they could deliver.

[DonkeyApple]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

That's gping to fk up your power to weight ratios.

[Lord Flathead]

DonkeyApple said:

That's gping to fk up your power to weight ratios.

At least he won't need the wind screen unless they've got really small flies.

[jayfish]

Lord Flathead said:

DonkeyApple said:

That's gping to fk up your power to weight ratios.

At least he won't need the wind screen unless they've got really small flies.

To be fair he's obviously only ever ordered large flies...

[Chris944_S2]

TheRoadWarrior said:

I thought the Chinese didn't by 2 seater cars?

They've got a quarter of the world's population. Even if 1% of them like 2 seater cars, of which 1% can actually afford it, that's still a huge market

[davepoth]

As has been said, there are loads of Caterham copies already - if someone in China wants to exploit the market they could buy them as kits and build them in China.

But the skill in this is going to be the marketing - which is Fernandes' skill. If he can persuade the Chinese that they need to drop $100,000 on a Caterham (which is about how much they'll cost due to the import duties), he'll be a lot further along the road to buying Lotus.

[DonkeyApple]

jayfish said:

To be fair he's obviously only ever ordered large flies...

Wrong.

[DonkeyApple]

davepoth said:

As has been said, there are loads of Caterham copies already - if someone in China wants to exploit the market they could buy them as kits and build them in China.

But the skill in this is going to be the marketing - which is Fernandes' skill. If he can persuade the Chinese that they need to drop $100,000 on a Caterham (which is about how much they'll cost due to the import duties), he'll be a lot further along the road to buying Lotus.

The does lie in recognising that the Chinese will pay hefty premiums for classic British brands. The risk here is that of they are built in China then this may weaken the situation.

[davepoth]

DonkeyApple said:

The does lie in recognising that the Chinese will pay hefty premiums for classic British brands. The risk here is that of they are built in China then this may weaken the situation.

Hasn't caused a problem for any of the brands that have set up there already (Mercedes spring to mind).

[Panayiotis]

sell them in Australia too....well they do through a importer, but a 1.6 roadsport costs about GBP40,000...ridiculous!