A pretty red Shanghai Maple JmStar Meilu SXE7130, seen near the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing in 2011. The Shanghai Maple brand has a somewhat confusing history. It began in 2000 when the Shanghai motorcycle maker JM Star moved into car making.
To cut some corners they largely based their first car on the Dongfeng-PSA Citroen ZX. Not directly, but by approaching the same suppliers, who were likely happy making a few extra yuan and sold JM Star whatever they wanted. The doors for example are fully interchangeable.
JM Star called their car the Meilu, or pretty deer. It was available in sedan and hatchback form. In 2003 Geely bought the company and renamed it Shanghai Maple Automotive (SMA).
The car we have here was likely produced just after Geely stepped in. It has the Shanghai Maple badges and the JM Star badges. Designation is SXE7130. It was a fine looking car with some nice design elements, such as the notch back-style fastback and the big sporty spoiler.
Power came from a 1.3 liter four-cylinder petrol engine with 86 hp. The engine was mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. Price in 2003 started at a very cheap 63.900 yuan.
Dongfeng-PSA eventually sued SMA but the case was settled out of court. Production of Shanghai Maple branded cars continued, with many variants and updates, until 2010 when Geely replaced it with the Englon brand. But in China brands never really die, and in 2020 Maple made a comeback as a brand for affordable electric cars.
Characters on the right: Huapu (华普，Maple). JmStar badge on the right. Bottom right the designation SXE7130. I have a lot of Maple’s in my database, so stay tuned more cars of this fairly unknown brand!
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