Archive for January, 2011
Volvo thinking of sending Chinese built Volvos to the USA
From WSJ: The new China-based owners of Volvo and the Swedish car maker’s management team are considering exporting Volvos assembled in China to the U.S.—a potentially risky move that might harm the brand’s Scandinavian identity and could make it among the first to bring China-made vehicles to the U.S.New Volvo Chief Executive Stefan Jacoby said [...]
BAIC’s 007 SUV pics released and priced
Beijing Auto are getting back into the auto game with the reserection of the Beijing brand, their second car to join the brand is the 007 SUV which is aimed at the compact SUV market. The 007 will officially launch on the 16th January but dealers are already accepting deposits for the car and will [...]
Tiguan R-Line comes to China, priced at 416,500
The Tiguan has been a popular model for VW, produced via its partnership with Shanghai-VW in Shanghai city, the Tiguan has become a regular in the best selling SUV list. The Tiguan was initially imported as a 1.8T and 2.0T model but later produced in China and gained an extra 10cm in the rear for [...]
Interview with Dr. Dietmar Vogger – Audi China’s president
Okay – this is not a China Car Times interview (it should be) but it is still a fascinating read. Dr. Vogger reveals some interesting information about the age range of Chinese Audi consumers: What are some of the things that surprised you about this market? In China everything is surprising. For example, we have [...]
2010 Green Car Round Sales Round Up
China is often touted as the savior of the green car industry with the majority of car manufacturers working on the development of electric cars, it seems that many of these projects may just be to win foreign investment and governmental support to gain greater access to markets. The Chinese market for new energy vehicles [...]
BYD still committed to the US market
From Shanghai Daily: Chinese auto maker BYD Co is committed to selling electric and hybrid vehicles in the United States even after plans to offer an electric crossover to buyers in 2010 didn’t materialize, the company’s founder and chairman has said. The US market remains important to BYD not just for selling vehicles, but for [...]
BAIC still looking for overseas expansion
BAIC’s products are still firmly in the early days, but they do have some very interesting products coming soon, particularly the Saab and Chrysler based sedans that they are working on right now, its not clear if they will be going global but they could well be. From Reuters: Even before it launches the first [...]
China’s auto sales may go into reverse according to Rao Da
Rao Da, if you haven’t heard of him, is one of the more respected automotive analysts in China, he is the head of the quasi-official China Passenger Car Association. During 2009 the Central Government put in place massive tax cuts for sub 1.6L cars and also introduced a cash for clunkers scheme to encourage people [...]
Korean Co, Mando, sets up joint venture with Geely
From the Chosun Ilbo: Korean auto parts maker Mando said Tuesday it has signed a deal with China’s Geely Auto to set up a parts manufacturer in China. Mando will hold a 65 percent stake and Geely 35 percent in the joint venture with capital of US$85 million. Construction of plants will begin in March [...]
Volvo aiming for strong ‘home base’ in China
Volvo maybe Chinese owned but they are fairly adamant about keeping their Swedish roots in Europe, however in their new Chinese home they are expecting to reach sales of 200,000 units within the Chinese market by 2015, in contrast in 2010 they achieved sales of just over 30,000 units. “I would say (China will be [...]
Stretched WagonR – pulled for your pleasure
The WagonR is getting its third make over to date to keep it rolling in the Chinese market, except this time it is not going to be the doe-eyed box on wheels that we saw in the last make over, as we mentioned before the WagonR is going to get stretched to give it more [...]
Peugeot 508 to launch in China
The Peugeot 508 sedan is set to launch in China and has entered the government approved list of cars prior to production, engine power is set to be the same as the Dongfeng-Citroen C5 with its 2.0L and 2.3L four cylinder engines, although a V6 wont be made available to the 508. The 508 will [...]
2011 Audi A6L launched in China
The 2012 Audi A6 may have only just been released at the North American International Auto Show, but for the Chinese market the A6 is getting a slight make over for 2011. The 2012 model is expected to launch towards the end of the year, although we might see it at the Shanghai Auto Show [...]
Brilliance SUV spotted out testing to launchin within the year
Brilliance are best known for their classical sedan cars that are well priced and are well within the reach of the every day consumer, they have long wanted to develop a small SUV to enter into the SUV segment which has so far been dominated by Chery’s Tiggo model and Hovers H3 in the self [...]
Emgrand EC7 gets 5 star result in CNCAP crash test
Geely really did turn a new page in 2009 when it decided to take its branding more upmarket and with an expanded product line up that did away with the older cheaper models that Geely had become synonymous with, and in the early days of 2011 we have seen the results of Geelys hard work [...]
Beijing’s 007 SUV to launch on 16th January
Beijing Auto are getting back into the auto game with their own range of self developed vehicles in 2011, first we saw the launch of the Beijing C30 MPV hatchback, and now we’re getting the compact 007 SUV. The SUV is expected to have the best of both worlds – a rigid platform but at [...]
Beijing built Sonata comes down the line, to launch in April
Beijing-Hyundai have successfully produced the sixth generation of Hyundai Sonata in China, according to early reports the car first came down the production line on January 8th and is expected to find its selling point on high technology but a lower price than Japanese and on par with some Chinese high end brands, initial pricing [...]
Chevrolet to launch 5 new models, including 1 high end model
Chevrolet are planning to launch 4 or 5 new models in 2011 according to media reports that indicate an inside news leak. A Shanghai-GM insider was quoted as saying “In December last year Chevrolet entered a new age”, it seems that the Chevrolet branding is getting the attention it deserves instead of being a dumping [...]
Upside of the Beijing license plate fiasco: Rental market blossoms
The Chinese rental market has long been considered rather flat, that is until the Beijing Government accidently threw it a giant bone in the form of restrictions on purchasing license plates, so how did Beijing’ers respond to this issue, did they give up their driving aspirations and jump back on their bicycles or take the [...]
Honda CRZ spotted in China
The hybrid market here in China has been less popular than regional independence talks, but that is not stopping Honda from bringing yet two more hybrids to China. Honda of course already imports the Civic hybrid into China where it was originally priced at 250,000rmb but fell to 160,000rmb to clear the car out of [...]
Twitter!
