New Roewe MPV Spied

Roewe is not wasting much time taking cars into market after taking control of the old Rover brand. Spied here is their new MPV format vehicle, one that will attempt to access markets currently owned by such cars as Mazda5, Opel Zafira, VW Touran and Renault Scenic.

Roewe recently showed the new 550 at the Beijing Auto Show. The vehicle spied was leaving a GM facility in the US, so some may think it’s a GM product, which it isn’t. The rims are clearly Roewe and also, GM and its Chinese counterpart do co-operate here and there, and so the event isn’t significant at all.

We don’t know much at this point as far as engines and other accessories go, suffice to say petrol will dominate while diesel will also be on the offering since Roewe - a three-digit nameplate is likely - aims to take the car straight into Europe where the smell of burning diesel is much sweeter than that of the green unleaded stuff. Other things that could show up include a third row of seats and even a hybrid, now that issues of pollution have been heavily highlighted in China.