Brilliance Auto may have to suspend its plans to export vehicles to the European market for not reaching new European Union (EU) emissions standards, according to The Economic Observer.

Cars must meet the new Euro V emissions standards from January 1, 2011 for the registration and sale of new types of cars before they can be approved for sale in the European Union. 

Qi Yumin, chairman of Brilliance Group once told the ee.com.cn that the company had been exporting a small amount of Brilliance Zhonghua sedans to Europe, but whether the project will continue in the future is hard to say.

According to Qi, Euro V is a challenge hard to overcome in short period for all the Chinese automakers that aim to export to Europe.

An official of Brilliance also claimed earlier that the company has no immediate plans of entering the European market again. "We might give up the plan in the end for not reaching the emission standard."Brilliance's advance to Europe didn't go well with the "crash event", and the bankrupt of its European agent, he explained.

Brilliance had claimed to export 158,000 sedans to Europe over a five-year period four years ago, however, the outcome was not as optimistic. JATO Dynamics, a U.K.-based market research company said Brilliance only sold 502 units of its BS4 and BS6 models from 2007 to 2009, and 46 units of its BS6, 181, and BS4 models last year in the European market.

Euro V emissions standards is the most strict emission standard at present. Particle, carbon dioxide, and NOx emission is halved in Euro V compared to Euro IV.