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Archive for May, 2008

Renault Twingo and Laguna are coming to China!

Published by Ash May 31st, 2007 in Chinese Car News. 0 Comments

twingo.jpgWe at China Car Times always wondered why the Renault Twingo wasnt already in China, it was a hit in France, so why not in China where superminis like the Chery QQ, Honda Fit, etc are hot stuff? The Renault Twingo will formally enter the market on July 15th this year. The Renault Laguna will also enter the Chinese market in September this year.

Renault automobiles dont appear to have a Chinese joint venture partner (their Renault Trafficmaster vans do though) so we expect the Twingo to be mega expensive, just like the Beetle, and MINI are in China. So much for battling with the Chery QQ and Honda Fit then.

Dodge teaming up with SouEast Motors

Published by Ash May 31st, 2007 in Soueast Motors and Chinese Car News. 1 Comment

Dodge is teaming up with SouEast Motors (no typo on that name) to bring the Dodge Caliber, and the Dodge Caravan to China. SouEast will also be producing several Dodge models for Dodges China line up, although it is unclear which. Dodge hope to have 60 or more dealers in China by the end of the year. The Chinese appetite for the American automobile is not likely to be quenched anytime soon - GM are making more money in China than they are in their home country. The Chery-Dodge probably wont be affected, several Japanese/Western marks have joint ventures with two or more Chinese partners.

Lifan planning to expand its range of cars rapidly?

Published by Ash May 30th, 2007 in Lifan and Chinese Car News. 17 Comments

new-lifans.jpg

Lifan, the Asia worldwide known manufacturer of motorcycles, and more recently automobiles, has plans to bring out a new range of cars over the next four years. The new cars, as with Geelys upper class models may come as a bit of a surprise to China Car Times readers. Lifan were going to buy a state of the art factory in Brazil, and then take it to pieces, shipping it all back to China and rebuilding it in Chongqing (does that ring any bells) We’re not sure what (if anything) came of that proposed deal. Lifan were also mentioned on China Car Times here, with this memorable quote from the managing director of the Lifan sales company in Turkey

Continue reading ‘Lifan planning to expand its range of cars rapidly?’

MG Dealerships open in China in August 07

Published by Ash May 29th, 2007 in Nanjing MG and Chinese Car News. 6 Comments

From the information that we’ve acquired from the Chinese language media, the first dealer for Nanjing MG vehicles in China will open in August this year - the dealer, known as a ‘4s store’ in Chinese (the four ’s’ being: sales, service, spare parts, and survey)

The 4’s store in question, Jiang Su Ning Feng Jun Hao Car Sales Company (江苏宁枫君豪汽车公司) will begin formerly selling the MG range of cars from August 2007 onwards. The 4s store will be sending its employees to the Nanjing MG factory in Pukou so they gain a deeper understanding of ‘MG culture’ and MG history.

We look forward to seeing the Qingdao MG 4s store - We’ve heard rumors of its where abouts, but we’ve yet to see it. Perhaps if we’re lucky, we’ll get invited to the official opening of the Nanjing 4s store (hint hint hint)

Where to mate? Geely TX4 to be definitely used in China

Published by Ash May 29th, 2007 in Geely Automobile and Chinese Car News. 0 Comments

Move over you dirty old VW Jetta and Santana taxis, theres a new taxi cab in town and he means business! The Geely TX4 which was made under contract by Geely for the UK Taxi firm, Magnesium Bronze. According to news reports the TX4 will be first sent to Hong Kong and then it will gradually be used in mainland cities from 2008 - just in time for the all important Olympic games then - should make British tourists feel right at home when they get taken the long way round and charged 10 times more than the fare should have been.

Geely reckon the cost of producing the cab in China to be half the cost of making it in the UK, but they will still cost an arm, and a leg, and drivers will most definitely have to go the long way around to recoup the 40,000GBP that they will cost in the UK.
Magnesium Bronze have set up a joint venture agreement with Geely to make around 10,000 taxis per year, this is in comparison to the 2,500 units that Magnesium Bronzes sub company, London Taxi International, can produce in the UK. In addition to the usual black cab, Geely plans to produce several different colors as well as altering the TX4 for domestic use. We cant wait for the day when we can take our families out in a TX4 - just like in the movie, 28 Days Later.

Update: Yes, we know our spelling is awful.

Unsurprisingly Chinese auto manufacturers make loads of dosh

Published by Ash May 29th, 2007 in Statistics and Chinese Car News. 0 Comments

Chinese automobile manufacturers profits are soaring, but we already knew this didn’t we?

CHINA reported nearly 70 percent soar in profit of auto industry during the first three months of this year, said the country’s Ministry of Commerce yesterday in Beijing.

The country’s several major auto makers harvested a combined profit of 12.75 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) in the first quarter, jumping by 69.9 percent from a year before, the ministry said, citing figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, China National Heavy Duty Truck Group and Chery Automobile Co Ltd made most contributions to the growth.

Geely, the Chinese company which bought British manufacturer Manganese Bronze in 2006, reported almost 30 times of profit growth in the period on a yearly basis.

The Hong Kong-listed company sold 51,135 cars in the three months, up 5.6 percent from a year earlier, and equivalent to 21 percent of its annual sales target.

This year, Geely said it aims to sell 240,000 cars under the Geely and Maple brands.

Sinotruck, the country’s largest maker of trucks bigger than 14 tons, sextupled its net profit in the period, said the association.

The Chinese partner of Volvo AB said in a previous report that it will invest 800 million yuan by 2010 to double its capacity.

The commercial vehicle manufacturing group aims to sell 125,000 heavy duty trucks by 2010, of which one-third will be exported to overseas markets.

Chery, the nation’s fourth-largest auto maker, reported 4.1 times of net profit in the first three months of the year.

It targeted to sell 400,000 units this year after it sold 300,000 units last year, a 60 percent jump from a year ago, according to a previous report.

The Wuhu City, Anhui Province-based car maker launched a 1.3-liter A1 compact car on May 18 in Shanghai, priced between 53,800 yuan and 59,800 yuan. The firm expects sales of 8,000 A1 cars this year.

Toyota opens THIRD factory in China

Published by Ash May 29th, 2007 in Chinese Car News. 1 Comment

Read all about it!

Toyota opens its THIRD factory in China, this time in Tianjin. It will have a monthly output of 200 thousand units!

TOYOTA Motor Corp officially opened the third factory of its Chinese venture yesterday, pinning high hopes on extending capacity and the new Corolla sedan in China to continue its lead against General Motors Corp worldwide.

FAW Toyota Motor Corp, the first Chinese venture formed by Japan’s biggest car maker and First Automotive Works Group, invested 3.6 billion yuan (US$467 million) in the new plant, located in Tianjin in northern China, with an annual capacity of 200,000 units, a statement from Toyota said.

Click continue reading to see the rest of todays news!

Continue reading ‘Toyota opens THIRD factory in China’

Chery - Dodge deal not dead yet?

Published by Ash May 28th, 2007 in Chery Automobile and Chinese Car News. 1 Comment

It seems the Chery Dodge love affair is not quite over despite all of the press coverage (including China Car Times) saying it was dead in the water, it seems there is life in yet. China Car Times is still wondering what will happen with the Chery Quantum deal.

China’s Chery Automobile Co. said on Wednesday a framework deal with DaimlerChrysler AG (DCXGn.DE) to build Chrysler-branded cars was still proceeding, denying a German paper report it had been halted.

Chery, which reached an initial agreement with Chrysler last year, wants to re-examine the deal, Handelsblatt said this week, citing a senior Chery executive.

The decision, the paper said, came after DaimlerChrysler agreed last week to sell its money-losing Chrysler Group to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP in a $7.41 billion deal.

But a Chery spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday that the newspaper had misquoted his colleague and that the earlier deal with Chrysler Group was progressing.

Under the agreement unveiled in late December, Chery would build small cars under the Chrysler badge for sale in Europe and the U.S., paving the way for the ambitious Chinese auto maker to sell its own-brand vehicles in mature markets eventually.

The Chery spokesman declined to elaborate on the status of that deal, which still needs Chinese government approval, or confirm whether Chery wants to renegotiate the terms with Chrysler’s new owner.

“I don’t think the deal will be called off,” said George Magliano, director of North American auto industry research at Global Insight.

“There’s a lot riding for both Chery and Chrysler in this,” he said, noting that this would be the quickest and safest way for the Chinese auto maker to tap the U.S. market, while Chrysler needed a small car.

Chery, a mid-sized but fast-growing player in east China, had made some inroads in emerging markets in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East, where pricing remains a critical factor to push sales.

However, it has had little success so far in breaking into mature markets in the United States or Europe.

Chinese Hummer to hit the market next year.

Published by Ash May 28th, 2007 in Dongfeng Automobile Company and Chinese Car News. 1 Comment

News fresh off the Chinese press - The Dongfeng Humvee that we talked about a few times previously will go on the market early next year, unfortunatly it wont be the full on army use one, but one aimed at the civillian population - so it will probably have leather seats, and a CD player. We’re waiting on more information, but we know the pricing already - a cool 1.4 million RMB

You can view our previous stories on the Dongfeng Hummer here, and here.

Beijing has nearly 3m cars!

Published by Ash May 28th, 2007 in Chinese Car News. 0 Comments

And people wonder why we hate visiting Beijing! Its bumper to bumper congestion from the airport to the inner city center everytime we visit. Perhaps we’re just unlucky, or perhaps Beijing really is full of cars! We wonder if Beijing will get Parking 2.0, just like Shanghai.

THE number of automobiles is sure to reach 3 million in Beijing by the end of this month, according to the Chinese capital’s Mayor Wang Qishan.

Wang has said that the number of newly registered automobiles in Beijing was growing 1,000 a day, Xinhua news agency reported today.

Wang just concluded an investigative study into ownership of automobiles in the national capital.

According to Wang, cars on the registration in Beijing had totaled 2.997 million by Wednesday, of which 2.18 million are privately owned.

“The fast increase in the number of automobiles in the city has not only brought along traffic congestion, but also posed great pressure to the city in fields such as resources and environment,” said Wang.

The mayor pledged to treat alleviation of traffic congestion as an important task of the governmental work and stick to the strategy of giving priority to the development of mass transit and making it more convenient, fast and comfortable.

Cant we all just go back to bicycles?

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