Once upon a time in China.

The Lifan 520i is coming off the line this week, according to various sources in China.

The 520i is the hatchback version of the popular Lifan 520 sedan. Although Lifan has only been in the auto manufacturing business for 2 years, they have shocked the Chinese market with their good quality cars that come at a low price; in fact, Lifan have made great strides with their auto production!

This year one can expect the Lifan 320 (a smaller hatchback) and the larger Lifan 620, by the middle of 2009. Lifan will also have MPV and SUV offerings. Lifan are currently working hard to expand their sales network in China, which currently stands at 214 dealerships, but that is expected to rapidly expand in size over the coming months.

To many Chinese, Lifan is a miracle company. Lifan started from pretty much nothing, and quickly grew into one of China's biggest companies, mainly through its motorbike manufacturing.

Lifan has only recently turned its hand over to car manufacturing, and they seem to be getting very good at it. In their first year of automotive sales, Lifan went for 50,000 car sales, and they achieved that in their first year. Since then, Lifan has entered several foreign car markets with success (Ethiopia, Russia, Iran, Egypt etc). To date in the overseas markets, Lifan has sold just shy of 25,000 vehicles, which is quite a bit for a relative new comer to the international market.

Over the next few years, Lifan aims to enter the European market and sell a yearly amount of 57,000 to 63,000 vehicles overseas. The comparisons between the Lifan of 2007, and Honda of the 1970s is startling.

Honda started out as a cheap motorbike manufacturer, before branching out into higher class motorbikes, then eventually cars, and the rest is history. Lifan is one to watch in the coming years.