Chinese car manufacturer Brilliance Jinbei Automotive is to launch its BS6 upper medium saloon model in some areas of continental Europe this month at a price expected to be around €20,000 (£14,000), which, with its 2.0-2.4 litre engine range, will pitch it against larger Korean saloon segment competitors.

The importer is the Luxemburg- and Bremerhaven-based HSO Motors Europe, which has signed a five-year import contract and expects to sell 15,000 BS6 units this year.

Following the launch of a smaller BS 4 car and a BC3 coupé in the next two years, HSO expects to achieve sales of around 75,000 units by 2010. Brilliance showed three models at this year’s Geneva Motor Show.

The shareholders of HSO Motors Europe are Hans-Ulrich Sachs GmbH in Stuttgart, and the entrepreneur Marcel Harms, the proprietor of E.H. Harms Automobile Logistics. Operations and the supply of spare parts across European markets will be managed by a subsidiary company based in Bremerhaven, from where cars will be moved to dealers.

Brilliance JinBei Automotive is the first Chinese car manufacturer to have concluded an exclusive import contract for the supply of its cars to Germany and other European markets.