Qoros: Dark horse contender emerges in market

The Hatch is also equipped with the same 1.6-liter naturally aspirated and turbocharged engines and six-speed manual and dual-clutch automatic transmissions as the Sedan.

The Hatch will be built in the Qoros' plant in Changshu, on the same production line as the Sedan.

Guo told China Daily that since the prices of Qoros 3 Sedan - from 119,900 yuan to 167,900 yuan for six variants - were announced in November, Qoros began to deliver vehicles to Chinese customers at the end of last year.

"The sales in January were about 100 units, and soon increased to 350 units in February. The accumulated figure has surpassed 1,000 units now," said Guo.

Guo predicted that monthly sales will reach 1,000 units soon and whole-year sales will hit 150,000 units.

The designed annual output of its Changshu plant is 450,000 units.

"Sales is limited currently because we just started establishing our distribution channels, in a cautious way. We highlight the quality instead of quantity of dealerships," said Stefano Villanti, sales and marketing director of Qoros. "We now have around 20 dealer outlets, with another 40 under construction," said Villanti.

"The Beijing showroom will open in June and the Guangzhou outlet will follow soon."

By the end of this year, Qoros plans to have more than 100 dealerships around the country.

Though it is a newcomer in China, Qoros is already making moves in Europe. It tested the market of the Czech Republic last year by selling nearly 100 vehicles, as the first step in its planned expansion through Europe.

However, Guo said China is the focus of Qoros' development at present.

"We will focus on China market right now, and develop the European markets after we well established ourselves in China in the near future."