Borgward, Germany's born-again car brand, vanishes again

By dpa | 2 May 2022


BERLIN: Borgward, the revived German-Chinese car brand, has gone into administration for the second time in the marque's history.

According to the Chinese news portal Gasgoo, Borgward filed for bankruptcy at a court in Beijing on April 8.

In 2020, the company withdrew from the German market where only a handful of its cars were ever sold.

Plans to build a large new Borgward factory in the northern city of Bremen failed to materialise and reports said the brand had been losing money ever since it was revived.

Initial sales of the Borgward BX7, which was a worthy Chinese equivalent of the BMW X3 and Audi Q5, were encouraging, with 6,000 units sold annually but demand later tapered off. An electric version was announced but never built.

Borgward was originally founded in Germany in 1919 and first went bankrupt in 1961 after founder Carl F.W. Borgward ran out of money for new investment. The firm blossomed briefly in the 1950s when it was Germany's second-largest maker after Volkswagen.

China's Foton Motor Group bought the rights to the marque in 2014 for 5 million euros and begun manufacturing Borgward-branded models in China.

Foton sold its holding to the Chinese start-up Ucar in 2019.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the Borgward Group sold around 30,000 BX7 models in 2017 and a record 45,000 in 2019 before sales slumped to 8,703 units a year later.

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