At the beginning of the year, we reported on the joint venture car companies that will account for the majority of foreign ownership after the complete lifting of the restrictions on foreign ownership of passenger cars this year, including GAC-Stellantis (formerly GAC FCA, a joint venture between GAC Group and FCA).
This is also the merger of FCA and PSA to form Stellantis, the first "big move" in the domestic market. Later, the British media Reuters reported that Stellantis intended to introduce the Opel brand through DPCA.
Opel Insoya
This is easy to understand, after all, Opel Insignia's re-label car Buick Regal and Astra's bid-changing car Buick Veyron are still selling well in China.
Opel Yada
Although Stellantis' three brands: Jeep, Citroën and Peugeot are all marginal brands in China, Stellantis does not seem willing to give up the big cake of the Chinese market.
However, what we did not expect was that after the merger of FCA and PSA, among the 14 brands under the new group Stellantis, the first to attack the domestic market was Abarth!
1
Who is Abbas
Abbas is an auto parts manufacturing and mass-produced car modification company founded by Karl Abarth in Italy in 1950. Like Porsche, Abarth is named after its founder. In fact, the Abarth family had a very good relationship with the Porsche family, and Carl Abbas had helped manage the Porsche company and even participated in the rescue of Porsche founder Ferdinand Porsche from prison.
The scorpion on the Abbas shield logo comes from Carl Abbas's constellation, Scorpio, and the red, white and green stripes at the top of the logo represent the color of the Italian flag. Interestingly, however, Carl Abbas was born in Austria, not a native of Italy, and chose the color of the Italian flag out of his strong sense of identification with the Italian automotive industry.
After its establishment, Abbas also undertook part of the car modification business, mainly fiat small cars. For example, Fiat's Fiat 600, introduced in 1955, was modified by Abbas to increase its displacement by 0.75 liters and reduce weight to enhance handling. By the time of the Fiat 850, Fiat even sent unpaid vehicles directly into Abbas's factory for modification.
By 1971, Fiat formally acquired Abbas and took it under its wing. At the same time, Fiat's sport models are still produced under the abbasid name.
From here, it can be seen that Abbas is somewhat similar to Mercedes-Benz's AMG, but the difference is that Fiat's sports models will directly replace Fiat's logo with Abbas's logo, rather than placing the small AMG logo next to Mercedes-Benz's huge trident logo like Mercedes-Benz models. Abbas is an independent car company, not a division of Fiat.
In addition, the founder Carl Abbas was a motorcyclist before entering the automotive field, and motorsport was deeply engraved in Abbas's genes. At the WRC, fiat 131 Abarth won the overall championship in 1977, 1978 and 1980.
It should be mentioned that in the past, it was customary to refer to Abarth as "Abate" because "h" was not pronounced in Italian, but in the official website of the Stellantis Group, Abarth was translated as "Abate". Unless you're dealing with an Italian, it's better to pronounce Abarth as "Abbas" in most cases.
2
Abbas will import the entire line
Although Abarth is very niche in China, it also has its own circle of car friends, and the most famous owner in this circle is "Brother Mantou".
Mantou bought a Fiat 500 in 2012 and converted it into an Abarth, but fell into Abarth's uncontrollable situation and began to introduce Abarth in 2014. For a long time, most of the European version of Abarth in China was imported through Mantou Ge. At present, it is preparing to establish delivery centers in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Zhuhai.
Mantou brother offers two models, self-selected pre-order and live car sales, and the models that can be booked at present include the 145 hp ABARTH 595 and ABARTH 595C convertibles; the 165 hp ABARTH 595 TURISMO and ABARTH 595C TURISMO convertibles; the 167 hp ABARTH F595; the 180 hp ABARTH 595 COMPETIZIONE and ABARTH 595C COMPETIZIONE convertible; as well as the 180 hp ABARTH 695 ESSESSE and ABARTH 695 For Ferrari ABARTH.
Speaking of this, it is necessary to mention the car series built by Abbas based on the Fiat 500: at present, Abbas is selling two large car series of 595 and 695, plus the earliest 500 car series, and the three car series correspond to the three positioning of entry, main and extreme power.
The 595 basic model is equipped with a 1.4T four-cylinder engine with Fiat T-JET technology, a maximum power of 121 kW (165 hp), a peak torque of 230 Nm, matching a 5-speed manual or 5-speed semi-automatic transmission (AMT), and an acceleration time of 0-100 km/h in 7.3 seconds (manual). Of course, if you're willing to spend money, you can also opt for the 595's power option to 180 horses. Its front and rear suspensions are equipped with anti-roll bars, and the front and rear shock absorbers are also damped and adjusted.
595
The 695 series increases the base power to 180 hp, the peak torque to 250 Nm, and the acceleration time from 0 to 100 km/h to 6.7 seconds (manual). There's also a Record Monza exhaust pipe to help you "turn power into sound." The front and rear shock absorbers were raised to KONI, and the brake system was supplied by Brembo.
695
Another Abbas parallel import car that has attracted media reports is Deman Outu Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. in Shandong Province, which announced this year that they will import all Abbas models, but they do not accept personalized options for customer deposits. Currently, the 145 hp regular 595, 165 hp 595 Turismo, 180 hp 595 Competizione and 180 hp 695 Esseesse. The body is available in both hard-top and soft-top constructions, while the transmission offers a 5-speed manual + 5-speed sequential semi-automatic.
Whether it is Mantou Brother or Shandong Deman Outu, the introduction of such a niche hardcore sports model has to be praised for its courage, and I hope that the domestic automobile market in the future will have more and more personalized cars to choose from.
As for users who like this type of sports car, if they have the ability to place an order as soon as possible, Fiat said last year that Abbas will start to electrify in 2024, and BMW has also announced that MINI will be electrified in 2025.