Archive for March, 2011
Dongfeng B20 Crossover to launch in Shanghai later this year
Is it an MPV, is it an SUV? We’re not quite sure ourselves, but we do know that China is currently crossover crazy, anything with slightly inflated suspension and black plastic cladding seems to fly off dealer forecourts than any so called sports sedans, thus the future is going to be slightly more crossover than [...]
Ford investigating ‘Where lost fingers come cheap’ factory
Having a supplier that mistreats its workers is bad for business, just ask Apple what effect worker suicides at its contracted assembly factory had on its brand image, now Ford is facing similar accusations. Earlier this week a report was produced the by Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights issued a new report entitled [...]
Brilliance SUV sighted yet again
The forthcoming Brilliance SUV has been spotted out testing once again and it seems to shedding its camouflage in the warm up to summer. Previous shots of the SUV have been camo heavy, but in the below shots you can easily make out the borrowed BMW styling under the black tape, the lines around the [...]
Renault says spy case was probably a hoax
Renault have faced an embarrassing about turn earlier this week when it was revealed that their apparent corporate espionage case was probably a hoax, but it seems that the damage has already been done. French fingers were all to keen to blame unnamed Chinese parties before any solid evidence was found and this nearly caused [...]
Discuss: China has too few good cars
Matthew Debord, over at Bnet.com recently posted the below article in which he says there is not a problem of over capacity in the Chinese market but a problem of poor quality cars. Let us know what you think via the comment box. The global auto industry isn’t satisfied that it’s actually recovering from the [...]
Shenzhen looking at congestion charges
From People’s Daily: China’s southern economic powerhouse Shenzhen is studying the possibility of collecting congestion fees and further raising parking fees to unsnarl its clogged roads. Huang Min, director of the Shenzhen Traffic and Transport Commission, said the city is working on a package of measures to cub traffic jams, including further improving the management [...]
Bentley CEO bullish on Chinese market
Wolfgang Dürheimer, chairman and CEO of Bentley, said in an interview on the sidelines of Geneva Motor Show that Bentley will hold its global dealer conference in China this May, and he is bullish on Chinese market. Mr. Dürheimer believes that China’s luxury auto market is not saturated as many dealers think, and he is [...]
BAIC’s Saab based C60 spotted on the back of a truck
BAIC are planning for big things with their Saab based series of vehicles, one of their master plans is the addition of a pure electric C60 sedan. Stats on the electric C60 are still thin on the ground, but you cannot deny that this old Saab is still quite the looker: AshAsh came to China [...]
MG5 spotted out
The MG5 will be based on the Roewe 350 compact sedan but will be carrying the fastback styling of the larger MG6 and will be the third new MG in the second generation of MG products. The MG7 and MGTF still linger on in MG showrooms but the addition of the MG6 and the soon [...]
FAW abandons Brilliance takeover
Brilliance Automotive maybe a small player in the Chinese car market but it does produce a coherent series of vehicles under a much valeted brand, something which the state owned auto makers have been unable to produce, and furthermore it has its own range of MPV’s under the Jinbei series which sell extremely well in [...]
FAW’s Besturn B90 spotted out
The big goal for Chinese car makers now is the government procurement lists, so it comes as no surprise that Chinese companies are building big sedans. Chery are producing the Riich G6, Geely have the EC8 and FAW are working on the below Besturn B90. The Chinese media are reporting at that the B90 is [...]
Polo sedan sighted in China
The VW Polo is one of China’s favorite cars, the latest mark5 version has only just launched via the Shanghai-VW joint venture and is already enjoying good sales. Engines in the Chinese market are limited to just 1.4L and 1.6L engines, although TSI engines are expected to be offered soon. VW are also planning to [...]
A Grease Monkey in China
Grease Monkey is the quintessential American car care brand and now is in China offering similar services to the Chinese aftermarket as it does in the US market. The Chinese automotive aftermarket is on the verge of serious expansion. Coloradan Chris Wachendorfer saw that the Chinese market was a wide open expanse for automotive car [...]
Alfa Romeo coming to China
Sports car maker Alfa Romeo will look to China for future growth, brand CEO Harald Wester said at the Geneva Auto Show. “Most probably we will be in China pretty soon,” Wester said, without specifying a time frame. The brand’s strategy would be to import cars, he said, so “we don’t have to do a [...]
BYD sales down in February
BYD are reporting that sales fell to just 26,521 vehicles in February, almost half the amount that they sold in January 2011. Sales are down due to the two week holiday that saw the vast majority of dealerships closed across the nation. BYD wouldn’t give February 2010 sales to Reuters, but China Car Times has [...]
Brilliance preparing mini ‘BMW 5-series’
Briliance’ replacement for the aging BS4 was codenamed the A4 sedan, we’ve shown several pictures of it out testing several times before, but each picture shows a car draped in camouflage that makes it difficult to see what the car is all about, but now we can show you a final picture of the car [...]
Great Wall may not be Jaguar-Land Rover’s Chinese partner just yet
Wang Fengying, president of Great Wall, recently denied the media report that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) would partner with Great Wall by saying that Great Wall had no intent on opening a joint venture. Media reported previously that the related personnel from JLR had visited Great Wall’s Baoding headquarters and Tianjin-based production site this February. [...]
SAIC launched new brand Maxus for vans
Iveco and Ford Transit must be alert to their new competitor. On Feb. 28, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. launched a new brand Maxus (Datong in Chinese) for light commercial vehicles. Like Transit, Maxus was a series of vans, minibuses and chassis produced by a British van maker LDV, which was bought by SAIC in 2010. [...]
Porsche to produce Cajun in China
When rumors of Porsche producing a car outside of its Stuttgart stronghold it’s a big deal, when rumors circulate of Porsche producing cars in China its a major deal. So what have we learned about the Cajun in China over the past few weeks? Porsche were all too eager to denounce the rumors that Cajun [...]
GM shows good growth and a small fall in a short February
Dealers were shut for half of the month due to the the Chinese New Year, when the Chinese populace takes to the road to get home in time for the Chinese new year and come back in the second half of the month. Car sales were expected to have negative growth in February but GM [...]
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