Archive for February, 2011
Wobbly Server!
The China Car Times server had a wobbly day yesterday and as a result CCT was down for several hours whilst the data center worked hard on bringing it back. It seems that February is a sickly month in China with many people being sick, including myself. This was the first time that China Car [...]
300,000 people bid for 20,000 license plates in Beijing
300,000 people in Beijing apply for second round of number drawing, with a 5.7% chance of getting a license plate. The second round of application for passenger car quota in Beijing ended yesterday. There are 306,865 individual applications and 13,386 corporate applications from 7,108 enterprises. The chance of getting quota for license plate in the [...]
Polycentric city mode is remedy for Beijing’s traffic jam
Beijing’s traffic problem is getting worse, unless Beijing changes its singular CBD mode and does not rely on the ring roads too much. The Beijing municipal government has been always relying on ring roads to solve the traffic problems. The earliest No.2 ring road was built in 1960s. But the population and vehicles in Beijing [...]
Chang’an to produce crossover fighting SUV
Chang’an have turned from a sleepy backwater car manufacturer to a major threat to the worlds top five auto makers in less than a couple of years with its range of self developed cars. Chang’an produces mostly small cars and has a line up 8 models under the Chang’an brand which includes compact sedans, mpv’s [...]
BMW to unveil new M5 concept at Shanghai Auto Show
The 2011 Shanghai Auto Show is practically upon us once again, just a few months after the Guangzhou Auto Show which really goes some way to show the voracious appetite that the Chinese public have for cars. The Shanghai Auto Show will be host to BMW’s latest generation of M5 sports car. The new M5 [...]
China pushing the price of tires to a new high
From Tire Review: China has announced that it would put a cap on new vehicle registration in Beijing. It is the price the country is paying for its rapid economic growth. The high demand for personal vehicles has resulted in urban gridlock. It also has led to the inevitable rise in demand for more tires. [...]
Volvo has Chinese Characteristics
From The Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Report: Is the executive team leading Volvo Cars getting along with the Swedish auto company’s new Chinese owners? Is Volvo losing its Scandinavian identity and being turned into a Chinese brand? Those are questions being asked by Volvo enthusiasts and outside observers worried about the future of the [...]
Where are our wagons?
Wagons in China are a rare breed, although European designed cars are all the rage it seems the wagon has not caught on with the same passion as they have in Europe. Practically every car in Europe comes in hatch, sedan and wagon form, but in China we’re lucky to get the hatch form and [...]
Ford planning new budget saloon for budget consumers
Although Ford were actively denying any export deal for a future small car that they were planning to make with their partner Chang’an Motors, it seems that they are planning for a small compact sedan based on the mk2 Focus for economy buyers. It’s not clear if Ford will offer the car under the blue [...]
Daimler facing challenges in China
From Nasdaq.com Daimler, based in Stuttgart, Germany, makes the luxurious Mercedes cars. It also manufactures Freightliner trucks and other kinds of vehicles, making it the second-largest automaker in Germany after Volkswagen. In addition to automobiles, Daimler manufactures buses and provides financial services through its Daimler Financial Services arm. Daimler markets its cars globally under the [...]
Ford has great potential in China
Ford seems outside the mainstream of China’s car market. In 2010, Ford sold 582,467 vehicles. However, excluding the Ford Transit, Mazda 2 and 3 produced via their JV with Changan Ford Mazda, only about 300,000 passenger cars with the blue oval were driven onto Chinese roads, which means Ford grabbed just 2.2% market share of [...]
Besturn B30 sighted again
The Besturn B30 will be the cheapest model in FAW’s self developed Besturn line up, the B30 is sitting on top of the PQ32 platform, which is the VW Jetta platform – actually, the B30 is pretty much a VW Jetta in drag with its 1.6L engine from the Jetta (74kW/6000rpm – 145Nm at 3800rpm) [...]
2011/12 Opel Antara to launch in China
In case you didn’t know, Opel are actually in China selling under their own brand name, they are just not selling too much these days. According to the official GM China website, Opel currently sells the last generation of Astra, Vectra, Zafira and also the Antara SUV. The facelifted Antara SUV will launch in May [...]
MINI Countryman sighted in China
MINI are doing well in China with over 10,000 units sold in 2010 alone, to expand their line up in China which so far consists of the regular MINI, Cooper version and also Clubman, BMW are going to introduce the Countryman SUV into China later this year. The Countryman was shown off at the Guangzhou [...]
20,000 Chinese built Chevrolet Sails heading for foreign markets in 2011
The Honda Fit (Jazz) was one of the first Chinese built vehicles to hit the market in Europe and now GM are planning to follow in Honda’s foot steps and launch its Shanghai-GM built vehicles in overseas markets. GM launched the new Sail in January 2010 and became the first foreign branded car to retail [...]
Leaked French report fingers China in espionage case
You may remember the hulabalu that Renault got themselves into when they realized that a couple of their employees had been trying to sell electric car secrets to an unnamed party, of course China was fingered in the early days but it seems to be getting an even bigger finger pointed at it now. This [...]
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