Archive for December, 2010
Second tier cities hitting peak traffic problems
From Xinhua: When the evening rush hour comes, taxi driver Tao Xingzhong rolls down the window and lights a cigarette. He smokes to kill the time while crawling along in traffic jams in this eastern China city.“More and more cars, more and more congestions,” Tao sighs. “I just cannot understand why so many people still [...]
BAW’s new SUV spotted out, looking harsh
BAW’s first self developed SUV in the past 40 years was spotted out testing recently, perhaps it was the harsh light or the low quality of the pictures, but it appears that this SUV really isn’t quite as nice as the concept car that came before it in Beijing. According to information received, this SUV [...]
2.0L Trumpchi to launch at years end
Guangzhou Auto Company (GAC)are readying their Alfa Romeo based sedan to the market at the years end and will first offer a 2.0L engine, although other engines are likely to make an appearance soon after. GAC are among the last state owned car manufacturers to have launched their own car brand, although they seem to [...]
Volvo and Geely talking new plants
From AFP: SWEDISH car maker Volvo and its new Chinese owner Geely are in talks over new plants in China, a Volvo spokesman said on Friday, amid a report that Volvo and its owner were at odds over expansion.Geely, which acquired the Swedish car maker from US giant Ford in August, said in September it [...]
Geely’s Emgrand EX7 SUV spotted out
At the Beijing Auto Show, Geely’s PR department were eager to point out that the vast majority of their 20+ cars on show that day were not actually concepts but production ready cars, including this EX7 SUV. The EX7 will be Geely’s mid size offerings and will be on the market from early next year [...]
Greatwall’s Tengyi C50 sedan spotted out testing
Greatwall Motor’s Tengyi C30 sedan has already gotten off to a great start in the compact motor segment (despite the initial complaints), GWM plans to expand the line up to include the larger C50 and then an even larger model at some point in the future. Spy pictures of the C50 have already been leaked [...]
FAW to revive Hong Qi brand with five new sedans
It seems that in the rush to produce joint venture cars with Audi, Toyota, GM and Mazda, FAW left its trusty Hong Qi (Red flag) brand by the wayside, although that is set to change under a new Hong Qi revival program that FAW is about to instigate. FAW first debuted the Hong Qi brand [...]
Chinese train reaches new top speed of 486kph
The new generation of Chinese bullet train has today reached the world record for worlds fastest train. The train was developed in by Qingdao’s Rolling Stock company which also has a joint venture with the Canadian company, Bombardier, although the train was self developed. The new generation of train is known as the CRH-380A, and [...]
Ford sells 56,000 vehicles in November alone, up 35% on November 2009
After opening 40 new dealerships last week as part of its ongoing expansion in China, Ford Motor China today announced it sold 56,829 vehicles in November, a 35 percent increase from November 2009. For the first 11 months of the year, Ford sold 525,100 units in China, an increase of 39 percent compared to the [...]
Chery’s heavy trucking dreams
As well as a compact pick up truck, Chery also has plans to introduce mid size flat bed trucks and also heavy trucks into its Chery and Karry line ups. The Karry brand was set up to become Chery’s super cheap, super economical trucking range in the Chinese market, although these spy shots and also [...]
Chery’s big truckin dreams – spyshots
Chery have long wanted to produce a compact pick-up truck, in fact spy shots of one pick up truck have already been leaked to the internet. According to sources, this truck carries a 1.9l diesel engine from its own ATECO range. According to internal sources from Chery, Chery is working working on a whole range [...]
Chevrolet Spark gains Chinese name, ready for launch
The next generation of Chevrolet Spark is ready to launch in China and has finally been given a Chinese name. The Spark was recently christened before its baptism of fire in the Chinese market and will be known as 斯帕可 (Si Pa Ke), a phonetic translation of its English name Spark, hardly the most original [...]
Luxury car shortage is driving up the price in China
In Western countries most consumers would just prefer to wait for the car to arrive, in China you get the option to jump the queue by paying the dealer a few extra thousand RMB, VW dealers added as much as 30,000rmb to early buyers of its Tiguan SUV, but luxury car manufacturers are getting away [...]
GM to hit sales of two million cars in China in 2010, Chevrolet and Wuling leading the way
GM’s successful partnership in China with Shanghai GM is without doubt what saved the American automotive giant through its dark days in the past decade, the partnership has come to fruit with GM becoming the first global automaker in China to sell more than 2 million vehicles per year. By the end of November GM [...]
Toyota sales rise in China by 17% in November
Toyota currently has two joint venture partnerships in China, one in the north with First Automobile Works (FAW) and one in the south with Guangzhou Auto Company (GAC), the two JV’s are in a perfect position in which to cover the major geographical bases in China, this method seems to be paying off quite well [...]
Audi A6L king of the complaints list according to study, other luxury models also perform poorly
As Toyota discovered in the USA, being biggest is not always the best. Audi have become the leading luxury car producer in China, largely thanks to clever platform sharing with VW that allows them to bring in new cars faster than their German rivals, but also thanks to Audi entering China much earlier than both [...]
Volvo to recall 18,848 vehicles in China
From Xinhuanet: Volvo and Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co. said they would recall 18,848 vehicles in China beginning Monday to repair problems that might pose safety problems. The recall will cover Volvo XC60, C30 2.0, S40 and S80L models in China due to airbag, software, and cooling system defects, said the General Administration of Quality [...]
Beijing Auto to produce C30 sedan
Beijing Auto may have become a staid old dinosaur in the past few years, punching out a few Soviet era jeeps here and there for the People’s Liberation Army use but they have had an awakening and plan to become once again one of the major players in the Chinese market. With their recently purchased [...]
BYD S6 SUV to launch this month at Guangzhou Auto Show
Having seen many BYD M6 MPV’s on the roads in recent days, its safe to say that BYD’s plan to take their brand further up market appears to be taking off in the early stages. The next few additions to their brand raising campaign are going to be the G6 sedan and also the S6 [...]
Is the MG5 or the Roewe 350 hatch?
Under Nanjing Auto’s rule of MG, the MG5 was set to be the MG ZS, a truly old car that was coming back from the dead but thanks to SAIC’s merger with Nanjing Auto the MG ZS never came to be under the MG5 moniker. SAIC developed the AP platform for use on a compact [...]
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