Archive for February, 2011
BYD cuts prices and staff
Clearing inventories and laying off staff are typical scenes from a business that is preparing to close up shop but Chinese media reports are saying that BYD is undergoing a massive job-cut campaign recently, and most of the laid-off staff are the sales personnel, also rumors are circulating that Warren Buffett intends to dump his [...]
Honda’s Everus S1 to launch next month
The Everus S1 will launch in China next month – you’re not too sure on what the Everus is? The Everus is Honda’s own sub-brand where they will be placing older, re-badged Honda models under the Everus name. Everus launched in Honda’s Chinese back yard at the Guangzhou Auto Show in late 2010 as Honda’s [...]
Ninth Generation Civic to be built by Dongfeng-Honda
The Honda Civic has been one of China’s best selling compact sedans over the past two years and it seems that Honda are eager for the success to continue into 2011 and 2012 with the production of the 9th generation Honda Civic in China. For the US market the Civic will be getting a 2.4L [...]
Sonata Hybrid to launch in China in 2012
Hyundai are riding on a high wave of popularity in the Chinese market thanks to their new range of designs and decent pricing structure that has set them as being higher than local Chinese models but lower than Western or Japanese joint venture offerings. Hyundai are about to launch the latest generation of Sonata in [...]
China develops third generation of auto steel
From Peoples Daily: China Iron and Steel Research Institute Group announced that it took the lead in successfully developing the third generation of automotive steel and applied this technology into the industrial products trial stage. Mr Weng Yuqing an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering said “After the application of the third generation of [...]
Toyota recalls hit China again
From Xinhua: Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co. will recall 5,202 imported Lexus cars in China to fix a malfunctioning gas-pedal problem beginning March 23, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said Friday. Toyota’s announcement of its recall plans in China came one day after the AQSIQ, China’s quality watchdog, demanded an [...]
SAIC shares to remain suspended next week also
From Reuters Trading in the shares of SAIC Motor Corp (600104.SS), China’s top car maker, will remain suspended for another five working days from Monday, the company said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday. Trading in SAIC Motor has been halted since Feb. 14 after its holding company, state-owned SAIC Group, [...]
China will become world’s largest vehicle producer in 2011
From Canadian Business: China is expected to surpass Europe as the world’s leading vehicle producer in 2011, while Canada will have North America’s fastest-growing auto sector in the near-term, according to a Scotiabank report released Friday.The latest Global Auto Report from Scotia Economics estimates that Chinese assemblies will rise 17 per cent over the 2010 [...]
Land Rover Sues Geely for registering Land Rover trademark
Oh Dear: British luxury car maker Land Rover is suing a top Chinese trademark watchdog over a trademark dispute with Chinese auto manufacturer Geely, according to a court statement released Friday. The lawsuit against the Trademark Appeal Board under the State Administration for Industry and Commerce has been accepted by the Beijing Municipal No. 1 [...]
Volvo’s China plans announced
Volvo’s CEO, Stefan Jacob took to the stage today alongside Geely’s CEO, Li Shu Fu and made a joint announcement regarding Volvo’s global strategy and China strategy Geely acquired Volvo from Ford Motor Co earlier this year for $1.5 billion USD, China’s biggest automotive acquisition to date so far and China’s first take over of [...]
Toyota planning for its own sub-brand
As predicted on China Car Times earlier this year, 2011 is aiming to be the Year of the Sub-Brand, over the course of the past six months we have seen announcements from GM, Honda, and Nissan regarding sub-brands and now it seems that Toyota are planning to join the speculation along with Ford. Ford and [...]
MINI Countryman launched in China, priced at 358,000rmb and rising
The MINI Countryman launched in Xiamen, China last night with much fanfare, the Austrian built product is imported into China which gives it a high price in China. The Chinese market has been quite good to the MINI brand with it clearing over 10,000 sales in 2010 and is expected to do much better in [...]
Volvo to announce China strategy in February
Volvo is expected to unveil its business strategy in China for the next five years on the afternoon of February 25, and the company’s local production plan is undoubtedly the core content of the strategy. Volvo’s production site has been a hot topic for a long time. Dongguan, Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu, Daqing, Shanghai and Shijiazhuang [...]
Mazda HQ moving to Nanjing this year
The Beijing-based Chang’an Mazda Business Division, has always served as the headquarters of Chang’an Mazda, will be moved from Beijing to Nanjing later this year. The Business Division has five departments, including sales, market, service, parts and planning. After the removal of the Division, the market, parts and planning departments will all be relocated to [...]
Chinese car part companies entering India
From DNA: Imports from China are threatening to upset the joyride of local auto-component makers. The industry, which recorded a turnover of $22 billion last fiscal, expects a 25% growth this fiscal. While that’s a healthy clip, fast rising imports, especially from China, are significantly denting the competitiveness of the industry. “For the past 10 [...]
American Co selected to develop transmissions for Shanghai’s electric buses
From Detnews.com: Bill Klehm, a former Ford Motor Co. executive, sensed right away that he was seeing a valuable asset when he was shown the prototype for a transmission at Fallbrook Technologies, a California start-up that recruited him in 2004. When Rudy Schlais, a retired General Motors manager, heard about Fallbrook’s transmission five years later [...]
Chevrolet Cruze hatch sighted in China
The Chevrolet Cruze hatch has been one of GM’s biggest hits in the Peoples Republic of China, the Cruze alone was responsible for a substantial number of sales in 2010 and will continue to be in 2011. GM are planning to launch the hatchback version of the Cruze in China later this year with it [...]
This is the MG3 Photoblog
The MG3 has entered initial production and is looking smarter than ever, it was first unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show where I personally found it to be cheap looking. But looking at the below photos it seems that the MG3 is looking considerably better when compared with the show model, the shiny dashboard has [...]
Roewe W5 to finally launch at Shanghai Auto Show alongside facelift Roewe 550
Remember the Roewe W5? That’s the Ssangyong Kyron SUV with a new front end on it to bring it into the Roewe line up, we first saw it undergoing testing in May 2008 and every auto show since then we’ve speculated if it will launch or not in whatever year we happened to be in [...]
China-NCAP to improve safety standard
The China-New Car Assessment Program, established in 2006, is the sole organization that makes public announcements on new cars’ safety level in China. C-NCAP mainly includes 3 different tests with a same full mark 16: 100% overlap frontal test at 50km/h, 40% overlap frontal offset test at 56km/h, side impact test at 50km/h. Moreover, some [...]
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