Borgward reportedly bankrupt, once more

Historic German automotive model Borgward is reportedly bankrupt once more, nearly eight years after its revival was introduced to the general public.

Automotive Information (subscription required), citing an announcement from Foton, the trendy Borgward’s Chinese language backer, reported final week a Beijing court docket in November had declared Borgward bankrupt.

Borgward is now within the strategy of looking for court docket approval to liquidate its belongings, in accordance with the report.

Foton is a business automobiles model forming a part of state-owned Chinese language automaker BAIC. It was the main supply of Borgward’s funding, however in 2018 the corporate already introduced plans to promote a 67% stake in Borgward to assist additional fund it.

Based on filings with the Shanghai Inventory Change, the place Foton is listed, Borgward misplaced 4.7 billion renminbi (roughly $676 million) in 2021 alone, or greater than the cumulative losses of the corporate from 2016-2018.

Even amongst auto fans, the Borgward title is not notably well-known. The unique Borgward was based in Bremen in 1890 and lasted till 1961. At one level it was Germany’s third-biggest automobile model, with spectacular fashions just like the Isabella of the Nineteen Fifties.

For the reason that revival, the trendy Borgward has launched the BX7, BX6, BX5, and BX3 crossovers. Nevertheless, gross sales slowed to a trickle in 2021, reaching simply 3,600 items, down from a peak of 55,000 items in 2019.