Borgward Brand Dies Again, Declared Bankrupt

Out of nowhere, Borgward returned to the automotive scene in the second half of 2015 after being dormant for more than half a century. However, its revival was not a direct successor to the old German company. Chinese automaker Beiqi Foton Motor, a subsidiary of BAIC Group, bought the rights to the moniker and logo in 2014 to create a new automaker. There were plans for a factory in Bremen, but those never materialized.

Borgward sold the BX3, BX5, BX6, and BX7 gasoline-fueled crossovers in China where an electric version of the BX7 was also offered. Sales peaked in 2019 when about 55,000 units were delivered before plummeting to just 3,600 units last year. From 2016 to 2018, the automaker suffered losses amounting to $564 million, and last year alone, it lost even more than that. Consequently, the company has been declared bankrupt and is now trying to get court approval to sell its remaining assets.

Borgward Group AG was technically based in Stuttgart, Germany, but all the manufacturing was done in China. There were attempts to increase the brand’s presence outside of the People’s Republic such as in Europe and countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council, but it never took off. The coronavirus pandemic was too big of a blow for such a fragile, newborn automaker, which wasn’t able to recover.

It should be noted that in 2019, parent company Beiqi Foton Motor sold a 67-percent stake in Borgward to Ucar, a Chinese ride-hailing and car rental company. Sales did pick up for a short while, but not enough to keep the troubled crossover maker afloat when the COVID-19 pandemic started to wreak havoc in the automotive industry.

When Borgward was brought back from the dead, it had planned to sell 800,000 units annually by 2020, but that obviously didn’t happen. Luxembourg represented its sole presence in Europe, hardly enough for a viable business in such a competitive industry with a plethora of reputable names going up against a relatively unknown company.