A customer visits a Chery Automobile dealership in Shanghai.
© AFP/File Mark Ralston

HONG KONG (AFP) - Chery said it was not ready to sell cars in the world's biggest car market although Bricklin, who introduced the Subaru brand to the US in the 1960s, planned to import 250,000 Chery cars through 250 US dealers as early as 2007.

The joint venture, Visionary Vehicles, also planned to develop five low-cost cars with luxury vehicle content.

"Chery was not moving fast enough to do all of these cars. It may still assemble some cars for Visionary on a contract basis," Visionary Vehicles spokeswoman Wendi Tush was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.

Parent company Chery Auto Group signed a contract last year to create Visionary but it is still in the preparatory stage and the export agreement has now been scrapped, the newspaper said.

©AFP