Archive for November, 2010
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-11-14
Severely jet lagged, but back in China! # Where can you find matt black vinyl wraps for cars in China at a reasonable rate?! # Scotched eggs in China, who knew? Best_snack_ever # Any decent sized SUV's available sub 300k with enough room in the back to take a bike with its front wheel out?! [...]
Volvo factories to be placed in Chengdu, Daqing and Shanghai
As reported on China Car Times many moons ago, Volvo has plans to set up new factories in Daqing, Chengdu and Shanghai, which will give Volvo a good spread of factories across China’s biggest market areas. If you’re wondering why on earth Volvo would set up shop in Daqing, then the answer is simple: Daqing [...]
Auto sales up in Oct
From Auto Evolution: In October, a total of 1.2 million new cars were shipped to dealers across China. This marks a 27.1 percent rise over the 946,400 units sold in the same month of last year, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. In the previous month of September, the same 1.2 million cars were [...]
Chery’s new Riich/Reely SUV in rendered form
The below SUV is marked up as a Reely, but it is expected to fall into Chery’s other brand, Riich, when it is launched. The below Riich model is likely to be the Riich X6 SUV and will be Chery’s flagship four wheeler when it hits the production line in early 2011, the below renderings [...]
Chang-an’s sports coupe heading to production – renders reveal new car
At the Beijing Auto Show Chang-an had a concept car on show named Beautiful Fish (???????), despite its name it really was a good looking concept (pictured left). The Chinese press are already reffering to the below renderings as the Chinese Cruze and comparing the designs with the Chevrolet Cruze. The pictures shown below are [...]
A123 batteries to be used in SAIC vehicles, including Roewe’s
American battery producer, A123, have won a lucrative contract with SAIC to supply them with batteries for a forthcoming vehicle. A123 vice president, Jason Forcier, SAIC are planning to use them in a new vehicle, which CCT is guessing is the Roewe E1 concept or a plugin electric Roewe 550. From NY Post A123 Systems [...]
Emgrand EC8 Stretched for VIP use
Emgrand is Geely’s luxury marque that they hope will help it take on the joint venture produced cars, and also to get Emgrand into the government procurement list. One step forward for Geely into getting on the much coveted government procurement list (the Chinese government regularly spends 5 billion RMB on cars) is the addition [...]
They made it! Brilliance FRV Cross, with FASHION LINE
At the Beijing 2010 Auto Show Brilliance had a pure white FRV on display, complete with a white interior and a nice pink stripe down the side. Now that car has become a production model. Laughing at the pink carpets and other random pinkness aside, the interior of this FRV seems to have had quite [...]
BAIC’s Electric C60 – thats a Saab 9-3 to you
The most convincing electric car to date is out testing in Beijing, and its expected to be on sale towards the end of 2011, and of course that car is Saab 9-3 based. The Saab 9-3 is still a handsome car, even after all these years, BAIC are planning to improve on its looks and [...]
SAIC planning to buy into GM’s IPO
GM will soon have its IPO in a bid to pay off its creditors after declaring chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, the IPO is expected to raise around $10 billion USD in funds that will assist the worlds second largest automaker with overcoming its debt issues and piloting it towards a brighter future. The US [...]
New Sunny to replace Tiida models
The new Nissan Sunny is expected to take the place of the current Nissan Tiida models in the Chinese market, although a newer version of the Tiida has been released in various markets the Chinese one maybe facing the final curtain as the forthcoming Sunny becomes the new compact sedan at Dongfeng China. Should the [...]
Wuling’s BaoJun 630 in detail
The forthcoming BaoJun 630 sedan is a horribly kept secret at Wuling-SAIC-GM headquarters. The three auto giants have teamed upto develop a new car that will see a foreign owned, but Chinese designed and built sedan take on the rural markets that have so far been controlled by the self developed Chinese brands such as [...]
No demand for hybrids in China
Reports FavStocks: Only the government can spur hybrid interest in China I’ve been monitoring the hybrid and plug-in story in China for some time, and the most interesting thing about the Chinese hybrid story is that there is no story. Despite home grown lithium supplies and battery manufacturing capabilities, a stranglehold on the rare earth [...]
First draft: Roewe 750 replacement rendering
As mentioned on China Car Times before, the Roewe 750 is due for replacement in a couple of years time. The 750 first came out in 2006 under the Roewe brand and has faired fairly well sales wise although sales have obviously dropped off in the last few months with added sedan competition from other [...]
Boom time in auto industry is blamed for China’s worsening air quality
From AFP: China’s booming car sales have had a devastating effect on the environment, the national environmental watchdog has warned in its first-ever report on pollution caused by vehicle emissions. About a third of 113 cities surveyed failed national air standards last year as the number of vehicles swelled to 170 million, up 9.3 percent [...]
Jaguar-Land Rover to build cars in China, but who is the lucky JV partner?
The Chinese company that lands Jaguar-Land Rover as a partner will certainly be a lucky partner, as they could potentially learn a lot about making luxury cars which is something that Chinese car companies have so far failed to do. Chery is expected to be one of the leading companies in the race to land [...]
Diesel shortages across Chinese cities thanks to government policies
The case for diesel in Chinese passenger cars has never been strong, only a handful of automakers have put diesel models into production, Audi, VW and Kia have introduced diesels into China with marginal sales so far. Diesels have a long way to go in China especially as price per liter is on par with [...]
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-11-07
Testing testing 123. Four days back to the glorious PRC # Heading back to the Glorious PRC after a week in the grim north of England and two days in London… cannot wait! # London Shanghai plane went via Beijing thanks to thick Shanghai fog and a lack of fuel… # Powered by Twitter Tools [...]
SAIC says sales up dramatically
From Reuters: Top Chinese automaker SAIC Motor Corp (600104.SS) in October sold 28.8 percent more vehicles than a year earlier, extending a rebound from August bolstered by the peak auto sales season. SAIC, which runs vehicle manufacturing ventures with General Motors [GM.UL] and Volkswagen (VOWG.DE), sold 309,501 vehicles last month, it said in a statement [...]
Geely’s MPVs in rendered glory
Geely has grand plans for its Emgrand and Englon sub brands, the Beijing Auto Show earlier this year had a massive plethora of Geely concepts (although Geely were eager to point out that hardly any of them were concepts, and most were pre-production vehicles). The following MPV’s are expected to launch in 2011 and 2012 [...]
Twitter!
