Chana Green i concept

Chana is one of the biggest winners in the rapidly-changing Chinese car market. With sales up 92 percent in 2009 to 518,000, they're the best performing domestic brand now with the entry-level Green Star being a top-selling model. There's long been an association with Italian design houses, coordinated from their European studio in Turin, headed by design chief Luciano d'Ambrosio, but talking with him he confirmed that the Green-i concept was designed purely in the China studio.We liked the tough, bulldog-like styling to this concept and the way the upright A-pillars roots the car directly to the front wheels. It's a stance that some designers we spoke to reminded a little of the Peugeot BB concept from Frankfurt, although the Green-i is less extreme in terms of surface language and front screen angle. Adding to this stance is the lean-forward rear end and the neat way the roof dips sharply under the rear spoiler to emerge as the top plane of the vast rear lamps. While the styling is commendably bold, the longer we stared at it the more the packaging seems unconvincing. The steering wheel is placed mid-way along the door with a vast IP in front of it, forcing the seats a long way rearward, so far that the occupants' heads are aft of the B-pillar – so much so that the roof needs that blown bulge simply to provide headroom.
The pale blue and gloss white interior features a simple floating door pad and bright blue illumination behind it, an intricate printed circuit pattern in the seat fabric and a pale oak finish to the small rear trunk shelf and the cabin floor. With less extreme packaging and better detailing, this could have been one of the stars of the show.