Archive for May, 2011
GM’s compact pick up for China
GM recently got into the truck making business in China with First Automobile Works, but they are not making American style mid to large size trucks in China, instead they are working on compact trucks. Tucked away on the FAW stand at the Shanghai Auto Show was GM and FAW’s first pick up truck offering [...]
China creating a protective umbrella for EV parts industry, pushing foreign companies out
Making cars in China is not an easy business, every foreign car company that wishes to build in China has to partner with a local company. Early arrivals such as Volkswagen snapped up the best with First Automobile Works and Shanghai Auto Industry Corp, other later arrivals such as BMW had to make do with [...]
Pangda shares surge on Saab news
From AFP: Shares in Chinese car distributor Pang Da Automobile Trade rose Tuesday a day after it said it would help rescue struggling Swedish automaker Saab.Shanghai-listed Pang Da closed 3.44 percent higher at 35.17 yuan ($5.41), compared with an overall 0.13 percent rise in the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index. The company’s shares had surged as [...]
Facelift Roewe 350 for 2011
Do you want to know what the next GM Epsilon II based Roewe 750 will look like? The Roewe 350 appears to be giving the game away. For 2011 and 2012 the Roewe 350 has had a slight nip and tuck to give it a more sporting stance, gone are the square fog lights, instead [...]
Kai Li logo and first model unveiled
The Kai Li brand and the FV7002 first appeared on our radar last week, the new sub brand was the first sub brand that would focus on solely on pure electric models, where as other sub brands from Honda, Nissan and GM were focused on recycling their old technology for economy buyers. The greatest thing [...]
Hawtai’s new proposed SUV in sketch form – tears at Kia this week
Hawtai are back in the spotlight today just a few days after they were dumped from their 9 day old joint venture with Saab, early drawings of their forthcoming compact crossover were leaked to the Chinese media from the national patent office who have subsequently published them online. The drawings are unmistakeably inspired by the [...]
Mitsubishi Colt seen testing in China again
The Mitsubishi Colt has been sighted out testing more times than we care to remember, the first sighting occurred in 2009 and has been spotted out numerous times since then, it is one of those cars that might possibly make it to China or perhaps the SouEast factory staff just use it for lunch time [...]
Mazda to increase dealership network by 20%
From Reuters: Mazda Motor Corp will expand its dealership network in China by 20 percent this year to take advantage of a growing auto market and lay the groundwork for the planned release of the Mazda3 sedan there in the October-December quarter, the Nikkei business daily said. Mazda, which has a network of 312 dealerships, [...]
Brilliance 530 to launch in June
Brilliance are readying their fourth sedan for the Chinese market after the successful BS6, BS4 and the FSV sedans. The 530 was recently shown at the Shanghai Auto Show on a stage which was noticeably missing the Brilliance A3 SUV, the big selling point for the 530 will be its 1.5T engine that was self [...]
Chery E5 to launch in June, priced from 70,000rmb
The E5 has only just been shown off at the Shanghai Auto Show but Chery are eager to get the car to the market, the E5 is expected to hit the market in June and will be priced from 70,000rmb and rising according to media reports. Two engines are being made available for the E5, [...]
More information on the Kai Li from VW
The Kai Li brand is VW’s latest brand for the Chinese market, it is expected to be a pure electric brand but others say that its first model is likely to be electric but the rest of the models could be regular gasoline models but attached to a low cost brand. The first model from [...]
JMC to work with Ford to produce SUV’s in China
Ford’s Chinese product up line up has some obvious short comings, despite the obvious compact SUV craze that has been running throughout China over the past few years Ford has not yet been able to produce its own compact SUV offerings in China, they have relied on imported models such as the Ford Maverick and [...]
VW’s Foshan plant construction under way
For Volkswagen, their new factory in Foshan is a major project, so important that the head of VW Germany came to Beijing himself to talk about VW’s plans for their first factory in Southern China. The Foshan factory will be VW’s major entry in the lucrative Guangdong market where the majority of car buyers are [...]
China’s drink drive limits to stay as they are
After a series of lethal car crashes at the hands of drunk drivers, the Chinese government instigated a new crack down on drunk driving, which has already claimed several victims including a high profile singer who was recently sentenced to six months in prison. The most recent update to the law books were introduced ahead [...]
Greatwall to launch new brands in second half of 2011
Greatwall are planning to launch their new three brands towards the end of the year according to media reports, the company will also return to the stock market after a brief respite in June at the earliest. Greatwall Motors (GWM) are planning to split their current line up into three distinct product lines that will [...]
Auto sales likely to be low in May
The Chinese car market in April saw its first dip in car sales for 27 months when the car market actually shrank by 15% month to month but only 0.25% lower than April 2010 sales, now industry experts are predicting that the car market will also be down in May. Various reasons are being touted [...]
Why Pangda is Saab’s best opportunity, as its a Beijing Auto induced partnership
Last time I said the Hawtai-Saab deal would fail, and I was right, this time I’m predicting that the Saab-Pangda deal will be a great success. Let’s take a look at Pangda, they’re a dealership group with over 1100 dealerships under their belt, they offer the classic ‘4s‘ service (Survey, Service, Sales and Spare Parts) [...]
Saab signs 50:50 JV with Pangda Automobile Trading Co
Saab has found yet another savior from China just a few days after it had undergone a shotgun wedding and subsequent divorce from Hawtai. Saab’s new partner is Pangda trading company. The two will set up a 50:50 sales company and a 50:50 joint venture company to produce the Saab range of vehicles in China. [...]
Chinese Transformer built from old Jiefang truck
The Transformer franchise might be turning stale in the West but its still a big interest story in China, hence the ability of yet another Chinese made Transformer to grab some headlines. A Chinese-bot rolled into Shenyang City earlier in May, his mission was not entirely clear but it was in close contact with a [...]
Chinese don’t look to America for luxury marques
From the Freepress: The luxury market in China has been growing more than twice as fast as the overall auto industry, but Detroit automakers lack a credible entry.With Ford’s Lincoln brand out of the Chinese market, General Motors represents Detroit with its Cadillac brand, positioned above its popular Buick brand to access the burgeoning number [...]
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