Geely<\/a> in 2004, as part of a report on the emerging market and industry of China, because its first-ever car, the then six-year-old Haoqing supermini, was the cheapest of the lot. Staggeringly, it cost \u00a32400 \u2013 but it was terribly basic and based on an ancient Daihatsu Charade.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTwo years later, Geely formed a joint venture with Coventry-based Manganese Bronze Holdings (MBH) to build the upcoming LTI TX4 iteration of London\u2019s iconic black cab in Shanghai, the plan being to tempt Chinese cabbies out of their trusty old Volkswagen Jetta and Santana saloons. (MBH began life making ship propellers, if the name had you wondering.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This didn\u2019t go very well (despite Geely painting a TX4 gold and dressing some poor local bloke as a Beefeater for the Shanghai motor show), partly because cabbies couldn\u2019t see any benefit to the expensive TX4 and partly because Chinese cities banned diesel engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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