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Archive for May, 2008

SAIC has a penny to spare

Published by Ash March 30th, 2007 in Nanjing MG, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, Roewe - Rong Wei, Nanjing Automobile Corporation and Chinese Car News. 0 Comments

Which is always good.SAIC seems to be doing great when compared to its Nanjing based neighbour, Nanjing Autos, who are on government welfare too rub salt in Nanjings wounds, one of their bigger joint venture partners, Fiat, seems about ready to jump ship.

SHANGHAI Automotive Co, China’s largest car maker, has announced that 2006 profits rose 29 percent.

The result came after it bought stakes in General Motors Corp and Volkswagen AG ventures from its parent and sales more than quadrupled, Bloomberg News reported.

Net income rose to 1.42 billion yuan (US$184 million) from 1.11 billion yuan a year earlier, the Shanghai-based auto maker said in a statement to the city’s stock exchange yesterday.

Sales rose 377 percent to 30.5 billion yuan.

Shanghai Auto bought 19.1 billion yuan worth of assets from its parent including stakes in car-making ventures with GM and Volkswagen in December, giving it a larger share of China’s fast-growing vehicle market.

The company has also added its own-brand Roewe sedans as its aims to beat an expected 15 percent rise in China’s vehicle sales this year.

Chery to take on the MGTF in the domestic market?

Published by Ash March 30th, 2007 in Chery Automobile and Chinese Car News. 1 Comment

Lets face it, Nanjings newly created MGTF is by far the finest Chinese sports car on Chinese Roads, none of the competition even come close in terms of looks and performance, well not unless Chery put this concept drawing into production:

chery_leisure.JPG

The above car, named the ‘Shooting Sport’ is one of 30 cars (including concepts) that Chery will show at the 2007 Shanghai International Car Exhibition. China Car Times will be there, will you?

chery_leisure1.JPG

The Shooting Sport seems to be a mixture of both coupe come station wagon according to the Chinese media, however we would liken it to the new Subaru Impreza

chery_leisure2.jpg

We think the Chinese market is in desperate need of some decent domestic made sports cars that can compete in international races, perhaps this ‘Shooting Sport’ could make the grade on a rally field or a tarmac track, bringing more fame to Chinas Chery.

Geely Heading For The Hinterlands

Published by Ash March 29th, 2007 in Geely Automobile and Chinese Car News. 3 Comments

We at China Car Times think Geely is onto quite a good thing - the east of China has already developed pretty well and the car market is starting to become a little saturated, dont get us wrong, China Car Times still sees a lot of growth in this market. Geely are heading west into the Chinese inland provinces which are also prospering but not at the same rate as the east coast, Geely has a potentially huge market thats a big neglected by the other big names:

Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd said yesterday it has set up two joint ventures with a sister company to build and sell economy cars in inland provinces where labor costs are low and sales are just beginning to take off.

In a notice to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Chinese mainland auto maker said the ventures were planned to tap continued strong growth in demand for “fuel-efficient and easy-to-maintain economy sedans,” according to The Associated Press.

Geely Automobile, based in Zhejiang Province near Shanghai, said it plans to spend US$75 million on each of the ventures to be built in central China’s Hunan Province and in Gansu, in the northwest.

The Hunan venture will be 53.19 percent owned by Zhejiang Haoqing, a Geely subsidiary, and 46.81 percent owned by Centurion Industries Ltd, a holding company registered in the British Virgin Islands that is wholly owned by Geely.

Nanjings Oklahoma Plant Plans Down The Pan?

Published by Ash March 29th, 2007 in Nanjing MG, Nanjing Automobile Corporation and Chinese Car News. 1 Comment

According to this they might just be:

Developers and state officials are casting doubt on a National Public Radio report saying plans to build an MG Motors plant in Ardmore have been scuttled.

An NPR story Wednesday featured an interview with an employee of NAC MG in China who said “there are no more plans for the Oklahoma plant” and that he didn’t believe “there was anything on the table for Oklahoma at the moment.”

The person spoke on the day that Nanjing Automobile celebrated the first MG to roll off its assembly line in China. The company bought bankrupt British automaker MG Rover Group in 2005 and has been working to revive the brand.
The Oklahoma plant was announced with much fanfare last year. At the time, state officials said the facility would create about 500 jobs and represent a $30 million payroll.

Responding to the NPR report Wednesday, the state, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, City of Oklahoma City and Ardmore Development Authority issued a joint press release denying the deal was dead.

The statement said the person who spoke to NPR was “not a senior member of the team working with Oklahoma Global Motors and is not currently involved in moving the project forward.”

We’ll keep you updates on this one!

Brilliance BS4 Crash Test Pics - Part Two

Published by Ash March 29th, 2007 in Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto and Chinese Car News. 10 Comments

Carrying on from our BS4 crash test pictures in part one of this article, we’ve posted the side impact crash test:

brilliance_side1.jpg

Click continue reading to see more pictures:

Continue reading ‘Brilliance BS4 Crash Test Pics - Part Two’

Brilliance BS4 Crash Test Pics

Published by Ash March 29th, 2007 in Chinese Car Crash Tests, Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto and Chinese Car News. 5 Comments

The Brilliance BS4, recently exported to Germany, has gone through the European NCAP crash tests, here are the results:

brilliance.jpg

Click ‘Continue Reading’ to view more pics:

Continue reading ‘Brilliance BS4 Crash Test Pics’

Landy is coming

Published by Ash March 28th, 2007 in Chang'an Suzuki and Chinese Car News. 0 Comments

Get ready for Landy! No, thats not the name of some hippy from the 60’s its Suzukis new MPV for the Chinese market.

landy_1.jpg

This month will see its debut on the Chinese market, aimed at families who joint combined incomes is around 100,000rmb per year. A great car no doubt for Chinese families who want to take out both sets of in laws plus their kid. Those seats must come in great use, but imagine trying to turn a corner in the Landy at speed, it seems too be too high and not broad enough, like those little Suzuki jeeps that were famous for rolling over on corners.

We think the car looks really cool from the front, however its a bit long overall. Still, it is a cheap multi functional MPV - it can be used to carry people or it would make for a great cargo carrying vehicle. Smaller than a Ford Transit and probably a lot cheaper.

The Landy will cost 80,000 - 100,000rmb, and unlike the other Landys available in Japan the Chinese Landy will come equipped with a tiny 1.4 16v engine. The Japanese version contains a much more powerful 2.0l engine.

Chang’An CV11 comes down the line

Published by Ash March 27th, 2007 in Chang'an Motors and Chinese Car News. 2 Comments

The Chang’An CV11 rolled off the production line, although we fear its announcement may have been overshadowed by Nanjing MGs little tea party. This is did not deter the Chang’an bosses, and out the Chang’An CV11 comes.

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We’ve posted about the CV11 not so long ago so be sure to read that article, also it seems the Landwind Fashion - a very close cousin of the CV11 didnt appear to be all that it is when tested by UK car magazine Autoexpress

So what happened at the big Nanjing MG conference?

Published by Ash March 27th, 2007 in Nanjing MG, Nanjing Automobile Corporation and Chinese Car News. 0 Comments

Well, China Car Times didnt get invited :(

But we did watch a live stream of events over the internet, and it wasnt all that interesting to be honest. There was speeches from various chairmans, business leaders, and politicians - namely John Prescott, the UK’s deputy prime minister he sent this message via letter to Nanjing MG:

China and Britain have reached a consensus in many aspects in the field of industry and have close ties. In 2005 Nanjing Mg acquired the assets of MG Rover, I hope the people of the United Kingdom and South steam already established friendly relations with the friendly relations between Britain and China. and as a very important part of which is constantly extend and sustainable development. MG were in the airport at the same time, I also look forward to seeing you later this year in the British Longbridge plant and successful operation. Looking ahead, we face many common areas of strategic challenges and a lack of resources, global warming, in the design and development of the next generation of cars will have to address these issues, and this is our future areas of cooperation.

Nanjing Auto has started a very ambitious overseas development strategy on this basis. I sincerely hope to further extend our already established friendly relations and cooperation. Here, I would also like to wish the next 60 years of development in Nanjing achieve greater success!

Nice touch, John.

As predicted Nanjing MG have released the the MGTF and the MG7 series of vehicles, at the same time they also released the pricing for the MGFT which will be

The MG7 seems to have a different grill from the earlier pictures we posted:

mg7_grill1.jpg

Seems to look even more like the Roewe 750 now! How are domestic Chinese customers supposed to tell these two vehicles apart? Although Nanjing did release this car as well, perhaps this headlight arrangement based of the MGZT will be put into production instead of the Rover 75 style:

mgzt_gril.JPG

The MGTF seems to have stayed the same externally, internally however there has been some minor cosmetic changes but the MGTF’s released today are pretty much the same as the photos we showed you earlier.

We’ll post up pricing as soon as we know it ourselves!

Let your heart beat faster - Nanjing MG to launch fresh metal tomorrow

Published by Ash March 26th, 2007 in Nanjing MG, Nanjing Automobile Corporation and Chinese Car News. 0 Comments

Well here at China Car Times only my heart is beating faster, but maybe thats because I’ve just ate a bag of popcorn and two Snickers chocolate bars - hey I’ve been out on a business trip all day!

China Car Times advises its astute readers to keep an eye on the ever nice Nanjing MG website as well as China Car Times site for any news updates.

Seeing as Nanjing MG have already let slip via different news agencies that they will make the MG 7 (and a 1.8T MG7), and the MGTF but what about the Austin? Will they surprise us with anything else?

China Car Times readers, start your betting!

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