Visit To The Sinogold Dealer In China

And that day in the summer of 2018 I visited a Sinogold dealer in Tai’an in Shandong Province. Sinogold became instantly famous in 2018 when they launched the full electric GM3, an MPV that looked way too much like the Citroen C4 Grand Picasso.

The Sinogold shop was in a dealer area far out of town. It was housed in an enormous building with large posters of the GM3 behind the windows. There were three cars outside and another three inside.

One poster showed two GM3’s in front of a fancy building with a sky scraper city in the background.

The GM3 was near-similar in size compared to the Citroen. Back then, we called this kind of Chinese cars ‘clones’. There used to be lots of clones and that was good fun. These days the clones are largely gone. Chinese car makers increasingly trust their own design and development capabilities, so clones are not a necessity anymore.

Size GM3: 4615/1845/1655, and wheelbase was 2840.
Size Picasso: 4597/1826/1652, and wheelbase was…. 2840 as well!

I was the only customer, and almost the only human being. There was a man in a camouflage t-shirt, seen on the left. He was very friendly and told me I was the first foreigner to visit the shop. He followed me around and answered my many questions the best he could. The second person was a woman, seen sitting behind the desk. She totally ignored me, checking her phone. Later on, she simply left and exited the building.

There was a nice fenced-off area for the kids to play, with a slide and a rocking horse. But no kids in sight.

The cars looked fine enough. Well-put together with some nice design details like the blue stripe over the grille. In China, blue is the unofficial color for new-energy cars, instead of green, like in the rest of the world. Hence, many Chinese electric cars have blue detailing and/or blue trim.

The interior was spacious but the plastics appeared to be somewhat cheap. The dash had a central digital instrument pad atop the dashboard and an infotainment screen in the center stack. The drive selector was mounted on the steering wheel column. The cars looked and smelled brand new, and the gentleman in t-shirt told me they had arrived just a week earlier. He also told me they had sold 10 cars already. That was great, if true.

This is a five-seat car. The GM3 was also available with six seats, with a third row of seats and a 2/2/2 setup.

The stairs in the background led to the second floor, where they had office space. But I didn’t see any movement there, nor did I see anyone go up or down the stairs. The door led the the outside. Note the fire extinguisher on the right of the door. These things are obligatory in any Chinese car dealer, and they usually have a lot of them standing around.

The lady had left.

The counter with a Sinogold logo and brand name. No computers, A fake palm tree and fake plants. A black fan for cooling. It was a hot day, and very hot inside the building. Lots of glass, no air conditioning. Sweaty shopping!

The building looks impressive with its pillars and glass and marble floors. But in China, a building like this takes about a week to build. A lot of it is pre-fab and there isn’t much piping and wiring. After half a year or so, it’ll look like a decade old. Building a new building is so cheap that many owners simply don’t care for maintenance. Too old? Crush it down and go again.

The GM3 was made by a company called Sinogold Auto (国金汽车). It was a provincial-state owned company from Shandong Province. The Sinogold GM3 was their first and only car, marketed for just one year in 2018. How many were sold is unknown. A search on one of China’s largest second-hand car websites results in only two offerings.

The company had plans for a sedan but it never materialized. They got into financial trouble and were unable to expand their dealer network. In 2019, the company was gone. But in China, car makers never totally die.

Sinogold had a precious car-making license so it was only a matter of time before they popped-up again. And indeed they did. In 2021, pictures appeared of a Sinogold SUV based on an older Chery Jetour X70. So far, this has come to nothing. But don’t be surprised if the brand returns once more in the near future.

The GM3 was powered by a single electric motor at the front. Output was 163 hp and 250 Nm. Buyers could choose between a 55 kWh battery for 350 kilometer NEDC or a 66 kWh battery for 400 kilometer NEDC. Charging from 20 t0 80% took 1.5 hour for the 55 and 45 minutes for the 66. These specs were pretty good for 2018, especially for a car this large. It wasn’t expensive either, pricing started at only 241.800 and ended at 271.800 yuan. Too bad it didn’t pan out for Sinogold.

The classy Singold Auto badge.

The GM3 badge.

The rear door was very large for easy access to the booth. The rear light units were big and connected with a strip, as was the trend in 2018.

Mr. T-shirt opened all doors for me. Very nice. I doubt he really thought I actually wanted to buy a car. I told him I was from Beijing and just visiting. Perhaps he enjoyed the chat. I sure did.

The Sinogold logo is blue inside.

Well, it was then time to take my leave. I had many other shops to visit and cars to see. I came away rather impressed. Yes, design wise it was a shameless clone. But build-quality was good, much better than I had expected. However, I was worried too. Chinese car shops are usually lively places. I stayed in the shop for about 30 minutes, and saw no other visitors. Not a good sign. And sadly, it didn’t end well for Sinogold and the GM3.