The new Brilliance-Shineray X7 MPV has been launched on the Chinese car market, looking rather good with a large grille, usable roof rails, sporty alloys, and racy red brakes. Price starts at 85.900 yuan and ends at 106.900 yuan. The X7 is positioned for some serious battle, right amidst the ultra hot mini MPV segment.

Names combining letters and numbers are not protected in China, so we now got five X-sevens on the market! The others are the  Hanteng X7, the Lifan Maiwai X7, the Landwind X7, and the upcoming Zotye Damai X7.

Brilliance-Shineray is a joint venture between Brilliance Automotive and Shineray Motorcycle Company, one of China’s largest motorbike makers. They make a range of minivans and mini MPVs under the Jinbei brand, which is owned by Brilliance.

SWM is a new sub-brand. It comes from the Italian motorbike maker SWM Motorcycles, which was bought by Shineray in 2014. That’s why the X7 has an Italian flag on the front fender.

SWM stands for Sironi Vergani-Vimercate Milano (SV-VM > SVVM > SWM), the names of the founders of SWM combined, with the two Vs combined to a W.

Sineray changed the meaning to Speedy Working Motors after they bought the company. But, surprise surprise, it has a new meaning again; it now means Start, Win More.

The Italian flag on the front fender.

There are two engines available: a 1.5 turbo with 156hp and 230nm, and a 1.8 with 137hp and 185nm. ‘Boxes: five-speed manual or six-speed automatic.

Size: 4710/1855/1770, and wheelbase is 2750.

The interior looks very good for the segment. Materials and quality are impressive. Color scheme a tad too dark in this car, but we bet you can get something lighter too. Eye catcher is the giant 12 inch touch screen that controls everything except the air conditioning.

Naturally the infotainment system shows the radio, which is the only thing 99% of Chinese car buyers uses the system for. They do the rest with their iPhones.

Second row with three seats.

Third row with two seats.

Rear end with mid-sized lights and a nice skid pad with integrated pipe.

That font looks very familiar! And Brilliance didn’t have to look far for the example, as they have the Brilliance-BMW joint venture with BMW. There is an Italian flag to the right of the 7, sure BMW likes that one a lot. Not sure what the M is for. There is no sport or M version in the lineup.

Brilliance claims that BMW is “assisting with quality control”. That is not impossible, but even if they do, it seems unlikely they would approve this badge-nicking.

The 1.5 turbo has a red Turbo badge with an extra fat T! I love that.

Same X7 M badge.

Very stylish SWM Motors badge under the rear window.

A dusty engine bay as usual.

On the engine cover: “Originated From Italy”. Grammar is wrong. And it is not true. SWM Motorcycles didn’t make any car engine. As far as we know the engine was developed in China by Brilliance. Maybe they ate pizza when they designed the pistons.

LED strips in the bumper are very nice.