Ssangyong offices raided in SAIC technology leak?
Seeing as SAIC is a major stakeholder in Ssangyong (51%) why would anyone get upset about ‘leaking’ hybrid information to them?
CNN reports:
South Korea’s Ssangyong Motor Co. said Sunday it has never leaked hybrid car-related technologies to China’s SAIC Motor Corp.
“As core technologies of hybrid cars are being developed not by Ssangyong but by its partner companies, Ssangyong is not in the position to leak any hybrid technologies to SAIC (Motor),” Ssangyong spokesman Lee Kyo-Hyun told Dow Jones.
He was speaking in response to reports that prosecutors on Friday had raided the head office of its Pyeongtaek plant in an investigation into whether Ssangyong has illegally leaked hybrid technologies to SAIC Motor since 2005.
The spokesman confirmed prosecutors raided the Pyeongtaek office and had taken some documents.
In 2005, SAIC - a longtime partner of General Motors Corp. (GM) and Volkswagen AG (VLKAY) in Shanghai - paid about $500 million for a 51.33% stake in the sport utility vehicle-focused carmaker.
“As SAIC Motor already has technologies to mass produce hybrid cars, it is even considering transferring the technologies to Ssangyong,” said Lee.
Hybrid technology in question was a government/industry joint research project and was export-controlled. Ssangyong was prohibited from transferring this technology outside of Korea because it was paid for by tax money and developed with government R&D centers and other Korean automakers.
SAIC is free to transfer any Ssangyong technology developed and paid for by itself, but not technology developed with government funding and other Korean auto companies.
The negative consequence of this raid is that Ssangyong, and Ssangyong alone, will be barred from participating in any future government-initiated and funded long-term automotive R&D projects, while GM and Renault, along with Hyundai/Kia will continue to benfit from it.
What a lot of nonsense? China already has the hybrid technology and will be mass producing and even exporting to the world very soon. Please refer to the Auto Exhibitions in US & Europe last year. BYD for instance claims their battery in their hybrid models are superior to the others.
The truth is without the China market, South Korean Automobile makers will very soon be on the decline.
Good luck
> China already has the hybrid technology
Not a market-ready one, the one that could be sold in the US with a 10 year warranty. We are talking a “Toyota” grade market-ready hybrid tech here. Sure, a lot of companies are working on hybrid tech. But how many have hybrid tech that’s comparable to Toyota’s?
The reason other automakers had trouble with hybrid tech is not that the tech itself was difficult, but it was difficult to build the hybrid tech cheaply enough to be added to a vehicle for $2,000 extra. A dirty little secret is that hybrid tech is expensive to build and even Toyota loses money on Prius.
The goal of this industry-wide joint research project was to devise a common hybrid framework that would deliver the lowest-cost hybrid component designs and supply chain.
Chinese pirates must stop stealing technology from other countries
@ Pedro
Some are stealing, some are developing their own technology either indigenously or with help from British firms like Chery. BYD got their own battery technology on their own. Geely is doing their own homeworks for the new energy vehicles. Geely developed their own BMBS technology for their cars.
@mememe
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It is funny you mention Chery and BYD, the former and the current king of auto piracy. I don’t even have to repeat Chery’s history of piracy. Sure, BYD’s battery tech maybe its own, but not BYD cars themselves.
Sure Chery’s history is blemished with piracy with Chery QQ and Tiggo but after seeing their 2009 models it shows that Chery is trying to shake off that tarnished image. BYD fell in love with Toyota design, but the technology for their cars is of their own. BYD battery technology is something that most of other automobile makers around the world still cannot match.
@mememe
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> Sure Chery’s history is blemished with piracy with Chery QQ and Tiggo
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Actually Chery’s entire line up was pirated models, including Daewoo Magnus replica and Seat Toledo replica, and still use Matiz and Magnus chassis beneath new skin.
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> BYD fell in love with Toyota design, but the technology for their cars is of their own.
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Try to argue this in front of a US or Euro judge.
Chery aquired the Blueprints/Chasis of the 1993 Toledo from a Mexican dealership after authorization from SEAT
Chery Cowin which is based on Seat Toledo already has an authorization to market it in Europe along with Russia, and South America.
http://espaciocoches.com/2007/12/nuevo-chery-corwin-basado-en-el-seat-toledo.html
As you can remember recently Malcolm bricklin tries to sue Chery and he was narrating Chery’s history descriptively in his lawsuit but the issue of SEAT Toledo and Chery were never brought up. Chery did certainly had issues with VW but it was about the VW Jetta, not about the VW owned SEAT Toledo.
Now tell me if Chery Cowin has violated SEAT Toledo chassis then do you think Cowin would gain the authorization in Europe ?
plus Chery already paid VW millions of dollars damage for the problem with VW Jetta.
And if you still have doubt about what I said, China Car Times has the history of Chery, please go and read it up.
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