Archive for September, 2011
Sports style in, frumpy business style out
Cars with overly sporty styling are gaining popularity in China’s auto market. Either small cars like Smart, Beetle, and Minicooper or luxury cars like Ferrari and Bentley define their new models as featuring passionate sports style. Such a trend also prevails in the B-class car segment It’s quite apparent in the newly-launched B-class models in [...]
Senator Debbie Stabenow claims China to take Ford and GM tech, GM + Ford say “Huh?”
American Senators are famed the world over for their brow beating patriotism, so it comes as no surprise to learn that Senator Debbie Stabenow was incensed after reading reports the darn’ commies in China were after her local constituents technology: Sen. Debbie Stabenow urged the Obama administration Wednesday to take steps to prevent the Chinese [...]
Fiat 500 hits the market in China
The funky 500 may have been big news in Europe for some time, and more recently in America, but Chinese consumers are only just able to get a taste of Italy’s mini car after Fiat left the Chinese market for several years. The 500 will be available in three different trims and will be priced [...]
China’s MIIT plans to reduce or replace excessive capacity of steel and automobiles
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published a 2011 summer operation report of China’s industrial economy on September 13, saying that the excessive capacity caused by repeated investment in the heavy and chemical industries in recent years affects the industry’s sustained and healthy development. Meanwhile, there is a certain amount of backward capacity in [...]
Polo GTI spied in China again, to hit the market at years end
The hot hatch market was flatter than [inappropriate metaphor] before VW introduced the Golf GTI as a locally made product late last year, they followed it up with the launch of the Octavia VRS which shares much of its architecture with the Golf, now VW are upping the anti yet again with the introduction of [...]
Chang’an in Frankfurt: Chang’an shows the EADO
Chang’an may have built an outstanding car, but it lacks an outstanding name – the EADO went on show late yesterday to an undecided audience. Brilliance and Geely have walked these halls before, but never really made a positive impact on the market but Chang’an appear to have arrived with a solid product. The EADO, [...]
JLR in talks with Chinese car manufacturer regarding China joint venture
The Telegraph are running a short story from the Frankfurt Auto Show on Jaguar LandRover’s China joint venture talks, the Indian owned British company has been in talks with a ‘mysterious’ Chinese partner for several months now, several Chinese companies have been fingered in the talks including SAIC, Chery and Greatwall. Ralf Speth, chief executive, [...]
Sales of homegrown brands continued with their spiralling fall in August due to policy issues
Dong Yang, vice chairman and secretary general of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, announced recently that the homegrown passenger vehicles are in a bad situation now. The sector not only saw year-on-year sales decline, but also will face huge challenges after the supportive policies expire. The CAAM statistics show that the August sales of homegrown [...]
Lifan 720 and next generation 520 to launch in Guangzhou
Lifan previously showed the Lifan 720 mid size sedan at the Shanghai Auto Show in concept form, we’ve also seen the sedan out testing quite a few times on China Car Timesso it comes as no surprise to learn that the car will be hitting the show in production form, what is a surprise however [...]
Nissan’s Leaf to be imported into China after Oct 1st Holiday
The Murano may have only just hit the market in China but Nissan are readying a car at the other end of the spectrum, the Leaf will hit the market shortly after the October 1st week long holiday according to media reports. Initial reports do not indicate the price range that the Leaf will fall [...]
What are Michelin doing with Double Coin in China
From Tire Review: Following confirmation of the news that Groupe Michelin and Double Coin Holding have entered into a China-based tire production joint venture, financial analysts shared their views about how this fits into the French tire giant’s wider strategy. According to Deutsche Bank, the new joint venture-run plant is already being built and is [...]
Fiat’s Marchionne says mature developed auto manufacturers are not equipped for the Chinese market
From Market Watch “The future of this industry is bound to lead to the elimination of marginal players,” Marchionne said. “Unless we retool or resize ourselves to try and deal with the scale ambitions of our own business, which are capable of competing with the Chinese, then we will not have a great future,” Marchionne [...]
Is the Besturn B30 going to be under a new brand from FAW
The Chinese automotive media are running new pictures of what was initially thought to be the Besturn B30 sedan, but are now saying that this model could be the first of yet another new brand. The new brand is of course named Ou Lai and we have reported on it before, what the brand exactly [...]
Saab getting ‘good signs’ from Beijing
From Reuters: Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile said it was getting positive signs from authorities in Beijing about its plans to invest in cash-strapped Saab, a Swedish daily reported on Saturday. Youngman and Chinese car company Pangda Automobile Trade Co Ltd (601258.SS) are seeking approval from China’s authorities to invest 245 million euros in [...]
Ford Explorer to come to China?
Ford’s China line up largely consists of their European models – the Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo, S-Max and of course the Canadian made Edge fill up the Chinese Ford network. The Edge was introduced in mid 2010, although its overly American styling with the giant radiator style grill may have put some people off it seems [...]
Will the Chery-Subaru joint venture get shut down before it even starts up?
Bloomberg are reporting that the Chinese government may veto any chance of Chery starting a joint venture with Subaru due to joint venture laws. China’s current joint venture laws state that foreign companies can have a maximum of two partners in marriage within the Chinese market, of course Toyota is already in a polygamous marriage [...]
BBC shows the MG6 coming down the lines in the UK
Ever wondered what the MG6 looks like when it arrives in kit form in the UK from China? BBC gives you the answers. Obviously MG’s Longbridge factory isn’t going to hit the peak of its glory days in the short term but it is a step forward and MG are well on their way to [...]
GM wins in China again on the back of its vans
GM’s July 1.8% sales decline was reversed in August on the back of mini van sales, sales in August increased by 13% over the same period in 2010 where the company sold 181,625 vehicles. Deliveries of light commercial vehicles at GM rebounded after the auto-maker introduced discounts to offset slowing sales earlier this year. The [...]
Nissan Murano hits the market in China – 488k or $76,000USD
For those that thought the Murano would hit the market in the middle 350,000rmb segment to fight off against the 3.7L Toyota Highlander, think again. The Murano launched in China yesterday with a price tag to match its high expectations, the sporty looking SUV will come in at a mighty 488,800rmb which roughly works out [...]
Toyota FT-CH Concept breaks ground in Chinese patent office
The Chinese patent office has been a great source of many future car plans over the past 24 months with many a car being leaked before their own manufacturers have had chance to post an official comment. However with China being the biggest car market in the world and being home to some of the [...]
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