Archive for June, 2011
Will the Youngman-Pangda-Saab tie up actually work out?
From Bloomberg: Saab Automobile owner Spyker Cars NV (SPYKR)’s agreement to sell a 29.9 percent stake in the struggling Swedish company to Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. may not help the carmaker turn itself around, analysts say. Youngman may be too small a carmaker on the Chinese mainland to obtain government approvals to manufacture cars [...]
Great Wall Motors wows audiences in Sofia
On June 10th Great Wall had its debut in Bulgaria at the Sofia Auto Show where it showed off a range of 9 different products. Great Wall displayed the Haval SUV series, Wingle pickup trucks and Voleex range of sedans. The Haval H5, Voleex C30 and C10 and Wingle 5 were well received by visitors [...]
China importing more rubber to keep up with auto markets demands
From Commodity Online: Natural rubber demand in world’slargest auto market China continued to boost the commodity as the demand expected to climb by nearly 8 percent, analysts said. According to China Rubber Industry Association, country’s rubber demand is expected to hit to 2.89 million tons on strong growth in the vehicle market. Meanwhile, China’s rubber [...]
First Auto Works preparing for IPO
According to Reuters FAW are preparing to put the majority of their company into an IPO later this year, FAW of course has a series of succesful joint ventures with Toyota, VW, Audi, Mazda and more recently with GM (to focus on commercial vehicles) and does of course have its own sub brands – Hong [...]
Chinese suppliers continuing to expand
From China Plastics News: SHANGHAI (June 13, 2011) — In the middle of the financial crisis, when the rest of the world had stopped buying cars, China bucked the trend. Stimulus money and a growing middle class pushed China’s auto market past the US in 2009 when light vehicle sales reached 12.9 million units. Now, [...]
Dongfeng-Honda first sub-brand model to be called DB1
Dongfeng and Honda are working together on a new sub-brand, we have learned that their first car will be based on the current Honda Civic in China which is the eighth generation, the ninth generation is expected to hit the market in China in early 2012 and will likely be on show at the Beijing [...]
VW to launch Golf Cross, Cross Plus, Golf Wagon and R-Series into China
When VW brings a new imported model into China it’s usually to test the waters before going into production locally, if local buyers show a strong interest in the car but are put off by the import price on the car then you can bet your hat that VW will put it into production in [...]
Suzuki Splash finally ready for Chinese market
Suzuki’s joint ventures in China have been shook up recently by Chang-an’s buyout of the AVIC group’s auto making divisions. Chang-an’s parent company is a weapons company, AVIC are an aerospace company that also happen to make war birds and got into the car making business to make extra dollars when the central government was [...]
CAPSA – Chang’an-PSA’s new joint venture company
Yesterday Chang’an and French auto giant PSA announced the new name of their joint venture company that they recently formed, according to an announcement made on Weibo – the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, the company will be known as CAPSA which of course means Chang’an PSA. The joint venture company was formed in late 2010 [...]
Great Walls Up Class Sedan in rendered form
Great Wall are a company that are going places, their small car line up is proving to be popular with the Voleex C30 sedan being a major proponent behind GWM’s transition from cheap SUV maker to a world brand. For 2011 GWM are not sitting around, in fact they are planning to launch 11 new [...]
Volvo S60 1.6T coming to China soon
The Volvo S60 has already been responsible for boosting Volvo’s sales figures in the Chinese market, but Volvo are readying a 1.6T version which should take sales even higher later this year. The current S60 on offer in China is a 2.0T model producing 204bhp, but the smaller 1.6T is no slow poke either, the [...]
BYD’s bumpy road to Chinese IPO
from Reuters: Warren Buffett-backed BYD Co Ltd faces stiff headwinds raising the $330 million it seeks from its China share sale, with weakened markets and the battery and electric vehicle company’s recent poor performance scaring off investors. Some nine fund managers and industry analysts surveyed by Reuters said they would want to see BYD’s Shenzhen [...]
Chevrolet Malibu to be priced from 170,000rmb to 230,000, spied out testing again
Since the Chevrolet Malibu was shown off at the Shanghai Auto Show the Chinese automotive press has been continually following the progress of the cars development, so far the car has been spotted out multiple times road testing as the below pictures also prove. According to Chinese media reports the Malibu is likely to cost [...]
Pangda Group to join hands with Youngman Lotus to make and sell Saab cars
Pangda Group announced on June 13 that it has signed an MOU with Saab, Spyker and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. The two Chinese companies will seek government approval for investing in Spyker and founding two joint ventures with Saab for auto production and sales respectively in the Chinese market. According to the announcement, Pangda, [...]
Chinese Govt only gave a fraction of its subsidy budget away in 2010
The pilot operation of China’s subsidy program on new energy vehicles has been running for a year. By now, the number of new energy vehicles running on roads totals only 10,000-plus units, and the sales of new energy vehicles to private consumers reach only 100-plus units. An insider reveals that the Ministry of Finance’s subsidy [...]
China’s three auto groups earned 140 billion yuan last year
Two Chinese automotive industry associations recently revealed the net profit growth of the country’s top three auto groups last year. Their net profits for 2010 could be calculated based on the related statistics for 2009. SAIC Group’s net profits in 2010 soared 79.23% to 46.723 billion yuan. FAW Group’s net profits last year surged 83.82% [...]
Beijing Import Show to attract 200+ cars.
More than 200 new vehicles will be displayed at 2011 Beijing import auto expo which is scheduled to be held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6, organizer has said. The exhibition to be held at the China National Convention Center covers a floor space of 26,000 square meters. Organizer said on Friday that leading car [...]
Guangzhou Honda to introduce Pilot SUV next year
In the mid size SUV segment the Toyota Highlander has pretty much had a free reign in the Chinese market so far since its launch in late 2008. The Highlander was initially imported into China but then produced locally to satisfy growing demand for the car, now it appears that Honda and Nissan are planning [...]
Besturn aiming for the mid road but FAW to launch new brand as well
FAW’s Benteng brand will mainly target at the mid and high-end market priced above 100,000 yuan in future, and the Changchun-based automaker will launch a new brand to fill the wide gap between Benteng and Xiali brands, said Cui Dayong, deputy managing director of FAW Car Sales Company. FAW sold a record high of 132,000 [...]
GM wants to get its 1% share back from SAIC
From Automotive World: General Motors plans to exercise its option to buy back the 1% stake in Shanghai GM that it sold to partner SAIC last year, reports Bloomberg. GM chief executive Dan Akerson told shareholders of the company’s plans at its recent annual meeting in Detroit. Early last year, Chinese regulators approved the purchase [...]
Twitter!
