Foreign car companies have dominated China’s middle and high-end auto market for decades, while domestic automakers could only look on in envy. But in Guangzhou, a coastal city in south China, one Chinese car designer is preparing to challenge the foreign brands on their own turf.

In 2017, a Chinese-made SUV successfully squeezed into the middle and high-end market. It’s the Trumpchi GS8, a seven-seat midsize SUV that’ll also be available in the US in 2019.

The move makes its producer, GAC Motor, the first Chinese car brand to enter the US market.

Zhang Fan is the visionary behind the car. He’s a superstar in the Chinese auto design industry. Describing the work that went into designing the car, Zhang said, “For a car which is over 4.5 meters long, we actually care every movement of the vehicle down to the millimeter, even 10 percent of one millimeter. Just to make sure the vehicle, the shapes, the lines are at their best. And all the highlights of the car are running perfectly."

Good design usually comes with a higher price tag. But Zhang says China’s growing middle class is now willing to pay for quality. This is the best time for Chinese car designers. “Chinese customers like to have good-looking cars. And this kind of likeability is very special, I would say it's more (significant) than in other markets in the world. And the Chinese market has capacity for all the new stuff. Being a designer is all about creating something new. Right now you actually have this opportunity, not only to create something new, but also to establish something. So I think this will be a paradise for designers.” 

Though more and more Chinese carmakers have shown their ambitions in creative designs, some companies are still bluntly copying successful designs of foreign brands. When he talks of those copycats, Zhang cannot hide his contempt. “It's most unfortunate. While they only take the so-called safe ways to copy other stuff, to take advantage of (others), this isn’t right. And it's not brave. And most importantly, it's an act that leaves you with no future.”

Zhang’s bet for the future is a futuristic and eye-catching electric concept SUV called Enverge. Since its conception, Enverge has been designed for the North American market and aimed squarely at young buyers.

Six years ago, when Zhang came back to China to design the Trumpchi series, he only had a team of around 20 young workers. Now he has over 300 people capable of launching four or five new models into the market each year.

“I would say to new young designers, welcome back to work in the Chinese automobile industry. You will not regret it. Just like what I have done.”

Zhang says being in the Chinese car industry right now is like sitting in a bullet train. And this is the moment for domestic car designers to make their histories.