Archive for January, 2011
GM China sales up 20% in January
Shanghai GM staff are probably going home content this Chinese New Year after learning that Shanghai-GM sales are up 20% over January 2010 (In January 2010 sales were up 137%). GM sold over 200,000 vehicles in January even after it was estimated that sales would fall flat due to government incentives being canceled and also [...]
Daimler sees China as biggest market
From The China Daily: China is expected to be Daimler AG’s biggest market by 2015, and the German automaker promised to increase investment in the country by 3 billion euros ($4.2 billion), said the company head. “We expect China to be our biggest market by around 2015. And it could be earlier if the market [...]
Luxgen SUV spotted in China yet again
Luxgen is a sub-brand of Taiwanese car maker Yulong, Yulong recently signed a joint venture deal with mainland company Dongfeng to set up a production facility to produce Luxgen vehicles in the Chinese market, the first vehicle to be produced will be the Luxgen SUV. This SUV has been spotted out testing yet again in [...]
Kia Optima aka K5 will launch in third quarter, priced from 170,000rmb
Kia are taking the car market by storm with a whole new range of cars that have now been renamed into the K-series of cars. Kia will be launching a K2, K5, K7 and a future K9 sedan this year and will no doubt hit a few home runs with their new line up. The [...]
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-30
Visited Spirra today, awesome company. Looking forward to seeing the new models! Also organising track days with rival cars at Tianma! # Awesome to see that the US Dept of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy are big CCT fans! Keep up the good research, guys! # Do airline pilots deliberately fly their planes into turbulence [...]
Gleagle SC5 spotted out testing
Gleagle, which stands for Global Geely, is Geely’s international brand for export and will be on roads across the world in the next few months if everything at Geely’s global center goes to plan. The next model to be added to the Gleagle line up is the SC5 compact sedan, the SC5 was on display [...]
Kia Rio to become Kia K2 in China
Kia are playing the numbers game in China, the Optima has become the Kia K5 and the the Cadenza has become the K7, this leaves the Rio to become the Kia K2 for the Chinese market, of course Kia are also planning for a K9 further down the line. The above Rio was spotted out [...]
GWM’s Hover H6 to launch in first quarter of 2011
Greatwall Motors are still pushing ahead with their plans to considerably expand the Hover line up of vehicles to include a greater range of SUV’s both large and small. The H6 will be one of the flagship vehicles in the range and is a break from the Hover H3 inspired vehicles with it being a [...]
Chevrolet Camaro gets green car subsidy in China
The Chevrolet Camaro is set to officially launch in China in the first quarter of 2011, although since it jumped to fame as Bumblebee in the Transformer movie franchise plenty of yellow Camaro’s have been available in China through unofficial channels. The starting price for the 3.6L model is expected to be between 400,000 and [...]
Red Flag C131 – an Audi A6 in Hong Qi drag
Audi and Red Flag have a relationship like Jake and Elwood, if Audi make it in China you can be sure that there will be a Hong Qi version down the line. The C131 has been planned for several years but rumors of arguments between FAW and Audi regarding the last generation of Audi A6 [...]
Toyota Suffering in China
Toyota is still the leader of sales all over the world, but not in China. Facing an average growth rate 35% of China’s passenger vehicle market in 2010, Toyota’s rate 19% is so poor. Toyota sold 846,000 cars in the past year, while VW sold 1,924,000 units and GM sold 1,201,000 units excluding local brand [...]
97# gas to rise to 8rmb a litre soon
Chinese luxury car drivers will have a greater headache soon, the price of 97# gasoline that is usually used in higher end models is soon to rise to 8rmb a liter as oil continues to rise on the international market and stays about $90USD. The price of gasoline at the pump is expected to raise [...]
testt
esttest AshAsh came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world’s biggest [...]
Zhejiang Jonway Auto: An American car company in China
The American automotive company, ZAP, recently completed its purchase of Zhejiang’s Jonway Auto. The merger was announced by ZAP’s CEO Steve Schneider at the Chengdu Auto Forum in late 2010 and is the first instance of a Chinese automotive company being majority owned by an American company. ZAP took 51% of Jonway Auto’s stock which [...]
BYD offering better deals to dealers
It is no secret that BYD have serious dealer problems in China, the massive growth that BYD witnessed in 2009 did not carry over well into 2010 but it was too late as BYD had already given its dealers incredible goals, this lead to mass defections of BYD dealerships to other brands especially in Western [...]
JAC Eagle SUV gains Audi style grill for 2011
JAC’s Eagle SUV is based on the Hyundai Sante-Fe which they gained from their former joint venture partner Hyundai. Oddly enough the IPR for the last generation Eagle went over to Hyundai’s other partner, Hawtai, but the molds for the Sante-Fe body and also the interior went to JAC. Did Hyundai pull a trick here? [...]
JAC produces Rui Yue Electric car – sells 60 in first day
When you think of Chinese electric cars, you think of BYD as leading the pack – in fact the figures show that Chang’an and JAC are leading the way in terms of full car sales. JAC are now adding to their electric car range with the JAC Tong Yue pure electric sedan. The Tong Yue [...]
Brilliance SUV sighted out again – this time looking dapper
Brilliance have some classy looking vehicles in their current line up, so the first pictures of a forthcoming SUV that we posted last week came as bit of a shock. The below pictures show the new SUV sans-camo and clearly has much improved lines and looks to be similar to the Skoda Yeti in terms [...]
BYD planning another compact sedan
BYD built their company on the back of the BYD F3 and have since rolled it over into other guises such as the L3 and G3 sedans, but they are developing a completely new compact sedan that is expected to take the place of the rapidly aging F3 in the next year or so. According [...]
No Shocking news: GM sells more cars in China than it does in the USA
The Chinese car market was vital to GM’s survival in the past few years, it was clear that without positive revenue streams from a red hot Chinese market that GM would have suffered a great deal during the turmoil of 2008 and 2009 in its mature markets in Europe and America. GM’s China sales hit [...]
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