Archive for May, 2009
Week Long Road Trip – Where to go?
China Car Times has just finished a 4 day long holiday that gave us a little time to relax on the beach and have some ‘me’ time, we hope everyone elses Dragon Boat Festival was a good one! Over the holiday I realized I actually have a week off at the end of July, followed [...]
Green CCT News Round Up
All the news from CCT Green: Shandong Lu Jun gets EEC sales badge – expect cheap electric mini cars to be sold in Europe before long! Beijing has clearest April in 9 years, thanks to traffic controls. Shanghai evokes Euro5 emissions standards ‘Green cars’ only for Beijing CCT Green is also looking for regular contributers, [...]
Chinese made Lancer to get 1.8L + 2.0L engines
The Chinese made Lancer is set to launch in the PRC, equipepd with 1.8 and 2.0l engines, the base 1.6 will also be available. Sadly the EVO will not be made in China, but will remain on sale via the import method oddly via BAW dealerships rather than their JV partner, SouEast. The new Lancer [...]
Geely V’s Chery – Why Geely is king, and Chery have lost the plot
For many years it was Geely that was the national laughing stock of the Chinese automotive world, they made cheap cars, they had a corny name (in English and Chinese) and at the time were getting completely blown away by their biggest rivals over in Anhui Province. Their rivals of course being the state owned [...]
Red Flag to make Oct 1st visit
According to Xinhua: CHANGCHUN, May 26, (Xinhua) — An official with FAW Car Co., Ltd. said Tuesday that one of the company’s sedans would be used in a grand military parade scheduled in Beijing on National Day, Oct. 1. “I believe that the National Day military parade will definitely use the Red Flag sedan,” which [...]
Farmers taking to the road in minivans
Although these little minivans are a major pain when they clog up the roads, they are pushing the Chinese car sales along rather nicely, and still these vehicles are much safer than the motorbikes that farmers usually use. Reporting from Chuzhou, China — Like everybody else in his farming village, Zhan Changchun used to get [...]
Honda SR-9 to take on Audi A4
Honda SR-9 The recently launched Honda SR-9 is set to take on the popular Audi A4 in the Chinese car market place after its initial launch at the Shanghai Car show last month. The SR-9 will be powered by a 2.0 and a 2.4l engine, which is the same as the Acura TSX. Pricing of [...]
BYD and VW Sign Up to make batteries, and the future
Perhaps the boss of Honda would like to take back his words now: FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) plans to explore the options for a partnership with China’s BYD Co (1211.HK) in the area of hybrids and electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries, Europe’s largest carmaker said on Monday. Volkswagen is the first major industrial [...]
Haima S9 SUV Spotted out testing
Chinese manufacturers are getting into their SUV sales to boost their market coverage, and take advantage of a growing segment. Whilst Geely are taking the home grown route, Haima are going down the road of buying in ex Mazda technology to make their own. The below S9 SUV was shown off at the Shanghai Auto [...]
Old Pollutin’ knackers not welcome in BJ
From CCT Green: In a major move to cut down on pollution in Beijing, the city government is going to start banning cars from it’s streets that dont have the official ‘green’ or ‘yellow’ badging that denotes a cars enviromentally friendly emissions status. Read the rest on CCT Green AshAsh came to China at 18 [...]
Beijing Auto shopping for Opel
Beijing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC) are swelling at the seams with cash after succesful joint ventures programes with Hyundai, Mercedes, and previously Chrysler, and it seems that BAIC are ready to start splashing that cash around. SAIC and Nanjing Auto have already been out with their chequebook to buy up bankrupt companies technology and branding, [...]
Greek Judge says Little Nobel is no Smart rip off
As we’ve said before two years ago, only the design is similar, but everything else about the Little Nobel is different than the Smart car, and dare we say it, a better designed car all around, but severely lacking in the quality dept: In March 2008, China’s Shuanghuan (SH) Auto presented the Noble to the [...]
More on the Guangzhou-Changfeng merger
The Guangzhou-Changfeng merger was sealed today by both company chairmen. The deal will see: Guangzhou Auto will become the largest stake holder in Changfeng Changfeng Auto parent co will own 21.98% Changfeng Auto will change its name to Guangzhou-Changfeng Auto Will produce 500,000 cars per year. Guangzhou Auto will invest 10 billion RMB in Hunan [...]
Great Wall Goes Xerox again
Another GreatWall Hatchback has been spotted out testing, albeit being towed from the back of a truck: The automotive website, auto.sohu.com, is reporting that this is the production version of the Greatwall i7 hatchback from several years ago. The overall design looks to be very similar to the current Toyota Yaris, which is made by [...]
Top Ten Chinese EV/Hybrid Cars!
CCT Green has an interesting article detailing the most interesting electric/hybrid cars from the Shanghai Auto Show. At the Shanghai Show, practically every Chinese manufacturer had a concept car, or a near production EV/Hybrid vehicle on show, which shows that the Chinese car industry is alive and kicking, and not at all overyhyped as recently [...]
Is the Chinese EV/Hybrid Industry Overhyped?
In a recent article on CCT, the Chinese hybrid/EV industry was labelled as being ‘overhyped’ by a company that clearly cannot see the forest for the trees. The Chinese central government, like the North Korean government, has it’s own sort of informal ‘Juche Policy’ where the country must be self sustainable to a certain extent [...]
Chery and JAC to be pushed together by the Govt
The two Anhui based automotive giants, JAC, and Chery have been rumored to be planning a merger for several years, even the Chery topman has mentioned once before that he believe Chery and JAC will come together naturally. We’re not quite sure if being pushed together by the government is considered natural or not, but [...]
Guangzhou Auto buys 29% of Changfeng Auto
In the first auto merger of 2009, Guangzhou Auto has announced that it has bought 29% of Changfeng Auto earlier today. Yesterday it was reported that Guangzhou maybe ready to take on upto 30% of Changfeng Auto, but the actual amount has come in at a slightly less 29%. Hunan based Changfeng Auto are currently [...]
VW Jetta to get the chop in 2012 too
In addition to the VW Santana ending production in 2012, it seems that the Jetta will be following it out of the door. Apparently, the VW Jetta will be replaced in China by a new Sagitar (the current Euro Jetta), which might push the current basic Sagitar 1.6l into a taxi role. The VW Lavida [...]
Peugeot 308SW to enter China market
Dongfeng-Peugeot are possibly planning to launch the 308SW wagon into the Chinese market to take advantage of the gap in the cheap wagon segment. Currently, the wagon segment is taken up by Brilliance BS4 Wagon, and the Buick Excelle Wagon (It’s currently unclear if the Buick Excelle Wagon is still in production, or if Buick [...]
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