Archive for November, 2011
Nissan’s Venucia sub brand to bare child at the Guangzhou Auto Show
Nissan announced the Venucia brand nearly a year ago, but the brand has not yet sired its first model. The brand will be using the older Nissan Tiida platform for its first car and is likely to reskinned, although the below pictures seem to indicate that the first Venucia will look rather like the Tiida [...]
Guangzhou Auto releases Trumpchi SUV sketches ahead of GZ Auto Show
The Guangzhou Auto Show is just a few days away from opening the curtains but auto makers are preparing for China’s third biggest auto show with an early release of a set of drawings of their forthcoming X-Power SUV. The X-Power SUV has been seen before in concept form at last years Guangzhou Auto Show [...]
Chinese made electric Honda Fit to be shown in Guangzhou
A recent foot in mouth announcement by an American Senator over GM’s proposed production of the Chevy Volt got right wing American press riled up over the possibility of giving technology to the ‘commies on the other side of the Pacific, in the meantime Honda came out and announced it was going to build an [...]
Brilliance FRV facelift for 2012
The FRV was Brilliance’s life force over the past two years, the mini car has certainly raised Brilliance’s profile in a major way by being their bread and butter vehicle in some hard times. The company followed up the launch of the FRV with the oddly proportioned FSV saloon which was not as popular as [...]
Suzuki SX4 gets bling update for 2012
The SX4 started the mini crossover craze in the Chinese market when it entered China in 2008, the chunky little car got Chinese consumers hooked on crossovers in a major way and sparked a trend that saw other manufacturers jack their hatchbacks by an inch or two and coat them in black plastic cladding. The [...]
VW Bora to get ‘GP Edition’ in late 2011
The FAW-VW Bora will be joined later this year by a GP edition according to media reports, the joint venture company between FAW and VW developed the new Bora in house to satisfy a demand for a low cost vehicle with premium content. The Bora sells relatively well in China, although it does have competition [...]
Geely’s IG concept heading for the production lines, gullwing doors included.
After years of seemingly running around in the automotive desert making odd car after odd car, Geely got its act together and announced they were buying Volvo, but with great automotive brands comes great pressure, they set up the Emgrand, Geely Global Eagle (Gleagle) and Englon brands within China and slowly but surely pushed the [...]
Hong Qi’s C131 interior spied
The Hong Qi C131 is being called the ‘Audi Killer‘ by various Chinese automotive media outlets, but is it really? According to our sources that have seen the car in the bare flesh ahead of its production run it seems the C131 is a bit of a let down and seems far away from taking [...]
Lifan’s next generation 520 has had an overhaul for the better
Lifan have not made a massive reach inside China but they have made a massive international reach, whilst Chinese auto makers fight amongst themselves for a scrap of the Chinese auto market pie Lifan have quietly made a name for themselves from Iraq to Iran to South Africa to Ethiopia (where they have a factory) [...]
Chang-an’s B501 mini car looks set to dominate
When it comes to making low cost mini cars, Chinese car manufacturers reign supreme, when it comes to make high end mid priced mini cars foreign car companies reign supreme. See the Chery QQ, compare that to a Ford Fiesta. No competition. QQ wins on price, Fiesta wins on just about everything else. But then [...]
Chinese Automobile Companies go West
Considerable attention has been paid to the Chinese automotive world, as the worlds biggest and at the same time fastest growing market, being a topic in newspapers all around the world. However, recent export attempts to Western countries as well as high-profile international acquisitions and take-over attempts by Chinese automobile players have shifted media attention. [...]
Chinese cars running on WTO road Part 1 – Regulations
On 11th Dec, 2001, after 19 years of efforts, China became the 143th member of the World Trade Organization, this was a great turning point for the Chinese automotive industry. Chinese automotive market began to be opened up step by step, according to WTO’s regulations. The car import tariff in China was very high. It [...]
This is the next generation VW Santana NF in rendered form
It will be a sad day for Chinese taxi drivers and low level government ministers all over China when the current mid 90′s Santana is finally killed off, but the good news is that VW are working on a replacement. The new Santana has some big shoes to fill indeed, the Santana is a solid [...]
Why, despite the sales down turn, BYD is back on top form
Not long ago I wrote an article for China Car Times on how I believed that after a few missteps, BYD would ultimately prevail. We now have partial confirmation that I was on to something. It has been reported that BYD’s Q3 profits are up an astonishing 582% with the Q4 outlook even more positive. Granted, [...]
Hatchback Honda Civic confirmed for Dongfeng-Honda
Honda’s product line up is clearly not wide enough for its demanding Chinese partners, the southern joint venture between Guangzhou Auto and Honda must fight with its central competitor Dongfeng-Honda for Honda models, but the fact remains that Honda’s product portfolio is somewhat narrow. The Euro market Honda Civic hatchback will be produced by Dongfeng-Honda [...]
Guangzhou Auto to air SUV in Guangzhou
Earlier today I was driving some 150-200 meters behind an unusual white sedan, not quite sure what the sedan looked like I hit the accelerator to catch up with the mysterious car, it slowly took shape, square headlights at the rear, a Toyota Camry like shape, perhaps it was a gray import Scion? Some random [...]
Woman confuses accelerator for brake, goes through parking lot wall
When women get behind the wheel of a car, stereotypes are enforced. It’s the same all over the world, well except for possibly some Middle Eastern countries where women are not allowed to drive – probably due to stereotypes. Something makes me think that this Guandong based gentleman will no be allowing his wife behind [...]
Brilliance 1.5T SUV to see production in Mid Nov, possible show casing at GZ Auto Show
At the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show BMW were rather upset with Brilliance’s plans to show the V5 SUV ahead of BMW’s plans to show their Chinese made X1 SUV, so Brilliance called off the launch. The BMW X1 is expected to launch at the Guangzhou Auto Show later this month and there is a small [...]
QQ3 sports out in the open
The QQ3 is undergoing a reinvention in the form of a new generation of vehicle, of course this means that the current version that is nearly ten years old has to hang around for a bit longer. So what do you do with an old car? You facelift it and hope the car buying public [...]
Infiniti to stretch M-Series sedan for Chinese market
The Chinese executive auto market is red hot, you only need to see sales statistics for the Audi A4L, A6L, Mercedes E-Series and BMW 5-series for proof, but Japanese luxury car manufacturers such as Lexus, Infiniti and Acura have failed to make a dent in the market so far. Infiniti have decided to take a [...]
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