Hello sailor

The V240 will be sold here. Photo / Supplied

Chinese cars will go on sale in Australia in June, arriving in New Zealand shortly after says Rick Hull, MD of distributor Ateco Automotive.

The first cars to arrive will be the SA220 Sailor and the V240 Wingle (pictured), a four-door crew-cab two- or four-wheel-drive ute with a 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and five-speed auto.

Both are built by Great Wall Motor Company, the first privately owned Chinese car company to list on the Hong Kong stock market and already exporting to Europe, South America and Cuba.

The GWM launch was expected last October but was deferred, Hull says mainly because of the Australian dollar collapse. But poor press from crash testing of a different Chinese brand may have affected the decision.

The Brilliance BS6 sedan scored a one-star rating when tested to EuroNCAP standards, reportedly lifting to three in a subsequent Spanish test. However, Germany's largest automobile club, ADAC, recently retested the car to EuroNCAP's now stricter rules and it failed to garner even one star.

Hull says there's no such concern with Great Wall.