Featured News
Excelle the best selling car in China? Yes, and mostly no.
by FrankF
Over 8000 New Energy Cars Sold in 2011
by Ash
Year-end bonus: Jealousy, Envy and Hate
by Pierce GengIndustry News»
Excelle the best selling car in China? Yes, and mostly no.
January 26th, 2012 at 07:01 pm-
Opel Talking with SAIC Regarding China Sales ExpansionOpel’s sales in the Chinese market have always been on the slow side, the German brand has big competition...by Ash on January 25th, 2012 at 10:01 pm -
MG6 to join British Touring Car in 2012MG will be seeing its MG6 off to the race tracks later in 2012 with the MG6 GT (the fastback in the UK) joining...by Ash on January 25th, 2012 at 08:01 pm -
MINI Recall Reaches ChinaEarlier this year BMW announced that it was to recall over 235,000 MINI vehicles due to a faulty water pump which...by Ash on January 25th, 2012 at 06:01 pm
Commentary»
Year-end bonus: Jealousy, Envy and Hate
January 17th, 2012 at 09:01 pm-
State Owned Manufacturers Are The ProblemThis article by Auto News China’s Yang Jian brings quite the argument to the privatization of China’s...by Ash on January 17th, 2012 at 11:01 am -
10 ministries gathering to discuss New Standards for School BusesJanuary 5, 2012, led by the National Development and Reform Commission, 10 ministries including Ministry of Industry...by Pierce Geng on January 15th, 2012 at 06:01 pm -
2011 in Review – the good, the bad, and the forthcomingThis week is statistics week, luxury auto manufacturers totted up their 2011 China sales last week as their volumes...by Ash on January 9th, 2012 at 08:01 pm
Spy Shots»
SouEast V5 to launch within the year, spied out testing
January 24th, 2012 at 09:01 pm-
JAC Starts Crossdressing its Yue YueThe Yue Yue small car from JAC has not been a top seller when compared to the BYD F0 or Chery QQ, both of which...by FrankF on January 19th, 2012 at 09:01 pm -
First look at Luxgen 5 hatch testing in ChinaTaiwanese car maker, Yulong, may have hit a home run with their new Luxgen brand. Luxgen haven’t yet entered...by Ash on January 19th, 2012 at 09:01 pm -
Next Generation Roewe 750 Seen Again (and again, and again…)The next generation 750 is still firmly under its camo wrap but the final shape and style of the vehicle is finally...by FrankF on January 19th, 2012 at 08:01 pm
Recent Articles
Excelle the best selling car in China? Yes, and mostly no.
Foreign automotive media were eager to announce that the Buick Excelle was the best selling car in China in 2011 yesterday, the truth is yes – it’s a popular car, but no it wasn’t the most popular. The problem here being a translation issue, the China Assosciation of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) did announce that the [...]
FAW-VW Sagitar (aka Jetta) to launch in March 2012
The latest generation of VW Jetta will hit the market in March 2012 according to recent Chinese media reports, the new Jetta will be sold under the Sagitar name plate as with the last generation of Jetta as of course the second generation Jetta is still on the market in China. The new Jetta will [...]
Ferrari F360 dies in Hangzhou
Hangzhou City is sort of a mecca for super cars, Shanghai maybe the epicenter of China’s financial matters but 300km to the West Hangzhou seems to have become a playground for the super rich. Ferraris, Aston Martins, Bentleys and Rolls Royces are common sites on the banks of Xi Hu Lake. At 3am on the [...]
Modified MG3 Makes Me Wish I Bought One – Pics (plus dead chicken)
Late last year I test drove an MG3 and found it to be a great little car, a few days later GM tossed me the keys to a new Chevrolet Aveo (Sonic elsewhere) and put the review up on China Car Times, a few days later I received several emails asking which was best, it [...]
Opel Talking with SAIC Regarding China Sales Expansion
Opel’s sales in the Chinese market have always been on the slow side, the German brand has big competition in the Chinese market, and that big competition comes from its parent company, GM. GM has already introduced several Opel made models in to the Chinese market, the Buick Regal and Buick Excelle are both based [...]
MG6 to join British Touring Car in 2012
MG will be seeing its MG6 off to the race tracks later in 2012 with the MG6 GT (the fastback in the UK) joining the British Touring Car race series in 2012 for a period of three years. Jason Plato and Andy Neate have been signed up as drivers for the new cars and will [...]
MINI Recall Reaches China
Earlier this year BMW announced that it was to recall over 235,000 MINI vehicles due to a faulty water pump which could potentially catch fire, the recall was of course a global one and has finally reached the Chinese market. BMW will recall just 3,406 cars in the Chinese market,with the recalled vehicles including the [...]
Introducing: Chinese Car Designers
The words ‘Chinese car designer‘ for too long have been synonymous with Xerox machines, for a while it seemed the Chinese manufacturers skipped the design and R&D stages and went straight to the nearest foreign auto manufacturers dealership to buy a best selling model and then put it into production themselves under their own brand, [...]
SouEast V5 to launch within the year, spied out testing
What is happening at SouEast? The Fujian based company seems to have been on a slow march over the past few years despite the market going from cool to warm to red hot and back to cool again, despite the firey sales record for all Chinese companies over the past three years nothing much seems [...]
Happy New Year!
So why aren’t we updating China Car Times as often this week? Because its Chinese New Year of course. What does this mean? It means cheap beer, fireworks, dumplings, never ending television galas and going to see relatives you really cant remember. Sound great? Actually it’s not that bad. Previously when I lived in the [...]
Shanghai VW Developing New Sub Passat Sedan
Chinese media reports from earlier today indicate that Shanghai-VW, the joint venture between Shanghai Auto and Volkswagen, will build a new sedan that will sit under the Passat in terms of sizing. FAW-VW will soon release the latest generation of Sagitar (Jetta in overseas markets) and it seems that Shanghai-VW require their own sub-Passat side [...]
2011 China Auto Sales in Revew
When the Chinese auto market got its wheels spinning in early 1995 the market was spit down the middle quite evenly, you had a fairly constant 60-40 split of commercial vehicles and passenger car vehicles, in the early days it was companies buying trucks and government departments buying cars, later on as incomes improved regular [...]
Youngman to bid 730 million USD for Saab
The seemingly never end Saab drama took another turn yesterday when it was revealed that a Swedish Government delegation had visited Youngman in China prior to the start of the Chinese New Year to talk about selling Saab to the Chinese bus and car manufacturer. The Swedish Daily Dagens Industri is reporting that a person [...]
Friday Fun: You know you’ve been driving in China too long when…
So its the last Friday before Spring Festival, plus its nearly lunch time which means that you will spend the next five hours doing practically nothing. So why not tell us about your China driving habits: Speed signs are no longer mandatory, but have become suggestions Parking on the sidewalk is a suitable solution to [...]
JAC Starts Crossdressing its Yue Yue
The Yue Yue small car from JAC has not been a top seller when compared to the BYD F0 or Chery QQ, both of which regularly see sales of over 10,000 units per month. So how do you get a car to sell more in China? you increase the suspension height, attach plastic cladding and [...]
First look at Luxgen 5 hatch testing in China
Taiwanese car maker, Yulong, may have hit a home run with their new Luxgen brand. Luxgen haven’t yet entered other countries other than the Taiwan-China markets but will likely do well when they expand outside of China’s borders. The first Luxgen to be made in China was the Luxgen7 SUV, the sedan is expected to [...]
Chinese Auto Exports Get Their Wheels Turning in 2011
Chinese automotive exports have been long threatened but have not materialized, Western automotive media have been issuing ‘The Chinese are Coming!!’ headlines since 2003, but barely any Chinese cars have made it to Western roads in that time – aside from the London taxi, which ironically is now majority made in Shanghai and shipped to [...]
BYD’s Xia Zhi Bing lands at Zotye
Xia Zhi Bing left BYD in a media storm, the former sales director left just before a round of mandatory lays offs in BYD’s sales department which saw 1000 white collar workers without a job. Mr. Xia was responsible for the rapid expansion of the BYD sales network which eventually lead to unsatisfied dealers leaving [...]
Next Generation Roewe 750 Seen Again (and again, and again…)
The next generation 750 is still firmly under its camo wrap but the final shape and style of the vehicle is finally starting to take place. The 750 is reportedly riding on the same Epsilon II platform which came from Shanghai Auto’s joint venture partner, GM. This same platform underpins the majority of GM’s best [...]
Swedish Government Delegation in China Visiting Youngman
Although Saab is officially out of business, a Swedish delegation is reportedly in China visiting Youngman according to reports from both of the Swedish Daily and also China Daily, the Swedish government is obviously eager to sell off any outstanding parts of the Saab automobile company and Youngman is still appears to be in the [...]
Twitter!
