The People's Court of Beijing recognized China-registered Borgward Automobile Co. bankrupt. The company is not able to fulfill its obligations to creditors, its property is sold at auction to pay off at least part of the debts.
It should be recalled here that Borgward filed an application for its own financial insolvency on April 22. Thus, the attempt to revive the historic German mark with Chinese money can be considered officially closed.
The reincarnation of Borgward is a project of the Chinese auto concern BAIC Group. In 2015, he bought all the rights to the Borgward trade name and trademark and launched the production of four luxury crossovers under this brand in China - Borgward BX3 (urban), BX5 (compact), BX6 (compact and sporty) and BX7 (mid-size).
In 2019, amid sluggish sales, Borgward BAIC lost interest in this project and sold a 67% stake in Borgward Automobile Co. for $614 million. Hong Kong company Ucar, whose main business is carsharing, that is, per-minute car rental. Subsequently, the Hong Kong firm raised its stake to 75.2%, while BAIC, respectively, lowered it to 24.8%.
The largest number of Borgward crossovers were sold in 2019 - 45 thousand units, but already in 2020 the situation went downhill - sales amounted to less than 10 thousand cars. In the European Union, the Chinese Borgward also showed little interest to anyone.
Recall that the "first life" of the Borgward brand took place in 1929-1961 in Germany - the company founded by Karl Borgward produced a wide range of cars and trucks, but a number of managerial mistakes in the late 50s drove the company into financial difficulties, which led to its ruin in 1961
In 2008, Christian Borgward (grandson of the founder of the company) decided to revive the forgotten brand, and in 2015 he sold the exclusive rights to it to the Chinese Beiqi Foton Motor, which is part of the BAIC concern. The Chinese wanted to develop Borgward as a premium brand, comparable in status to Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The machines of the revived brand were developed with the involvement of European engineering firms, but they were produced in China.
Note that Borgward cars were planned to be sold in Russia as well. Moreover, at the beginning of 2018, the BX7 model was certified according to Russian rules and received a Vehicle Type Approval (OTTS), but it did not come to real deliveries.
BX5, BX6, BX7 relied on a licensed version of the GM2900 platform (Saab 9-3), BX3 was built on BAIC's own aggregate base.
Premium car maker Borgward filed for bankruptcy
