Brilliance is the first Chinese carmaker to begin car sales in Germany of autos developed in China. The BMW partner announced on Thursday, July 17, that it had shipped 270 of its BS6 sedans to Bremerhaven, which have been received by the car importing firm HSO Motors Europe.

The reputation of Brilliance sedans was hit last year when the car was rated with only one out of five possible stars in crash tests carried out by the ADAC German automobile club. Simulated side-impact crashes found that a driver had almost no chance of survival due to deformation of the car's interior during impact.

The Chinese automaker reworked its security design and, this year, its sedan received a three-star ranking after crash tests were carried out by Spain's Idiada, an official test house with the European New Car Assessment Program, the company said in a statement.

Brilliance plans on selling its BS6 model in 17 European countries, including Switzerland, France and Spain.

HSO Motors CEO Hans-Ulrich Sachs told Reuters in March that he envisaged reaching annual sales of 200,000 Brilliance cars a year within 10 years, targeting mostly middle-income consumers.