Chery Automobile Co. is a privately-owned Chinese car manufacturer that produces the QQ, a little city car that sells for less than RMB 50,000 or USD 6,000.

Late last year, US auto giant GM took Chery to court, alleging that the design of Chery's QQ car was ripped off from GM / Daewoo's Spark model.

Now comes the news that an American entrepreneur wants to sell Chery's cars in the United States. CNN.com reports:

DETROIT (AP) -- The man who brought the Yugo and Subaru to the United States has a new project -- becoming the first mass importer of low-cost Chinese-made cars.

Chery Automobile Co., owned by the Chinese government, has signed a deal with auto entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin and his privately held Visionary Vehicles LLC of New York to sell Chery's cars in the United States, Visionary announced Sunday...

...The company will aim at selling vehicles well below the price of models now available while matching the quality of Japanese carmakers...

...No brand name has been selected. Visionary will invest $200 million in new Chery products for the U.S. market...

...Chery is China's eighth-largest automaker. It was founded in 1997 and sold about 90,000 vehicles in China in 2004...

...The exclusive distribution agreement is for five new Chery models that would go on sale in January 2007 -- a compact sedan, midsize sedan, car-sport utility crossover sedan, sport/luxury coupe and an SUV.

A China Daily article about the GM / Chery court case, with photos for comparison, is here. The CNN article about the new deal for American distribution is here. Chery's website is here. Visionary Vehicles is here

You can see a print advert for Chery's 'Oreintal Son' car on Danwei here.

UPDATE: Investment website The Motley Fool is not impressed :

Snake Oil From China
This unoriginal concept is the latest bit of self-promotion from well-known automotive opportunist Malcolm Bricklin, chief executive of Visionary Vehicles, who surfaces about once every half decade with yet another answer for America's commuters. If there's one thing he knows how to do, it's generate buzz on a slow news day...

...While some view Bricklin as a true prophet, others -- including those who believed in his mid-'80s electric car company, or lost big bucks in his abortive, late '90s electric bike scheme -- view him as more of a snake oil salesman...

...Yes, Bricklin started his career bringing Subarus to the U.S., but keep in mind that he left in 1971, well ahead of the success. From there, he founded a company that sold a few thousand sporty, well-liked gull-wing "Safety Vehicles" long before DeLorean produced his similarly fated stainless steel loser...

...But Bricklin's greatest fame in the U.S. is as the importer of the junky neo-FIAT Yugo, which made a big splash in the '80s, mostly as a punch line for late-night TV hosts. You can count on similar jokes tonight and later, should these cars hit the shores.