Archive for November, 2011
BYD working on 1.2 and 2.0 TID engines
BYD has received a lot of press attention this year and last, largely due to their rapid fall in sales which practically mirrored their massive increase in sales in 2009, but this has not put BYD off the car making game. BYD entered the car business in a similar way to Hyundai in the late [...]
Auto Sales Drop in China in October
October has been a poor month for the Chinese auto industry as a whole, leading the down turn are of course commercial vehicle sales. In year on year sales the Chinese market dropped 1.1% from a year earlier to 1.52 million units sold according to statistics from CAAM. Commercial Vehicle Sales fell by 9.9% in [...]
Citroen C5 to get much needed 6 speed auto in China
In my personal opinion the Citroen C5 is without doubt the classiest mid size sedan on the market in China today, sure you have the Buick Regal with its 2.0T pushing 220bhp, or the Ford Mondeo with its 240bhp, or the super cool Kia K5 with its daily running lights and futuristic alloy wheels, but [...]
Luxury manufacturers heading inland to where the real money is
As the editor of China Car Times I often get asked by small scale sports car manufacturers if they can enter China, I usually answer in the positive, then they ask me which cities they should target as their opening gambit, I nearly always answer with something along the lines of Chengdu, Chongqing, Wenzhou (pre-banking [...]
GM sales reach new highs in China
GM’ is China’s biggest car manufacturer, mostly due to its three way tie up between SAIC, GM and of course Wuling itself. These minivans have become the back bone of the rural economy in China, tasked with taking upto 7 people or loads of pigs, vegetables and whatever else you can fit in the back [...]
Range Rover Evoque launches in China, priced to win
Under the slogan of ‘Hello Beijing‘ Land Rover’s most fashionable car to date rolled out from under the curtain and positioned itself to take on the Chinese market. The Evoque has been priced at just over 620,000rmb for the five door and 630,000rmb for the three door version, as Chinese consumers generally have a terrible [...]
China’s car sales go from peak to a valley
What China’s auto industry has experienced in 2011 is quite similar to what happened seven years ago, when the industry cooled down in 2004 after soaring growth in the previous year. This year’s auto market has three major issues: Changing policies, disputes over joint brands, and challenges faced by Chinese local brands. With regards to [...]
GM shoots down Saab sale
Does anyone still remember Saab? The ailing company seems to swing from disaster to disaster as fast as Tarzan can swing from vine to vine, as soon as newsreaders say the words “Saab” viewers at home can fill in the blanks with “… in the proverbial again” before the newsreader has finished his or her [...]
BAIC signs letter of intent with Daimler for new energy vehicles
BAIC Group and Daimler Group signed a letter of intent on promoting their relationship to an all-round strategic partnership on November 2. The letter of intent covers group-level partnership, and promises support to each other’s further investment, discussion on further technology support and their partnership in the new energy vehicle field, in an aim to [...]
Infiniti to make 8 cars in China
Infiniti announced last week that they would move their global HQ to Hong Kong and see their cars produced in China in the next year. Japanese luxury brands such as Infiniti, Lexus and Acura have not taken off in China with the same gusto as they have in the USA, Chinese consumers seem to prefer [...]
This is the MG5 in its rendered glory
The MG5 has been a much talked about car in the Chinese media, we’ve already seen what it looks like in concept form when it stole the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this year as it was literally in your face as soon as you entered the door. So why is the media so excited about [...]
BYD’s S6 Dual Mode SUV to hit the market in 2013
BYD’s S6 SUV is already a popular model in the Chinese market, September sales ran to some 7000 units and may cause some worry at Greatwall, Zotye and Chery – all of whom already have best selling SUV’s in the market. BYDs’ entry into this segment did not come as a surprise but the cars [...]
Citroen C4 saloon – aka C-Quatre – gets face lift in China
The Citroen C4 has been a popular model for Citroen in China and could be credited with turning Citroen’s fortune in the world’s largest auto market. The C4 hatch became known as the C-Quatre due to the number 4 sounding far too much like the word for death, and on the world’s most dangerous roads [...]
Dongfeng’s A60 is Nissan Bluebird Sylphy based – spy shots
Dongfeng’s own brand of vehicles has so far made only a slight splash in a big automotive ocean in the Chinese market, its Fengshen series of vehicles are based on older technology from its partnership with PSA but they are selling, now Dongfeng have used the Nissan Bluebird Sylphy as a base for the A60. [...]
Ford sales jump 9% in China to date
Although the automotive market is undergoing a certain amount of change in 2011 Ford have bucked the trend with a 9% increase in year on year sales through the January to October 2011 period. Ford cleared sales of 426,814 units from January to October this year, whilst Ford sales are at 40,857 units in October [...]
Pangda spent 6 billion RMB in six months
This piece of news from the similarly titled, but not related, WantChinaTimes, indicates that Pangda burnt through a six billion RMB fund over the past six months which has had speculators doing their usual thing of speculating that the company maybe relying on leasing to forward car sales. Shareholders and securities analysts are scratching their [...]
China’s appetite for BMW’s boosting BMW profits
Earlier this week we reported on the Chinese premium market and Audi’s growing rivals in the segment which could potentially shrink their market share in the long term, now it seems that the proof is leaking out with BMW’s profit being boosted by the Chinese market. From Reuters: German premium carmaker BMW’s (BMWG.DE) third-quarter earnings [...]
Lotus hoping for big sales in China
Lotus made a smart move when it moved into Beijing, the local car culture is probably among the best in China, the downside is that to get a license plate for your car you need to win a lottery, nevertheless Lotus are gearing up for a major push in the Chinese market over the next [...]
Over capacity a major issue for Chinese auto industry
Its no secret that car manufacturers in China are rushing to build more factories, but seemingly seem to be ignoring slow downs in the market. Either manufacturers are ignoring the data to hand, or they know something that we don’t. Interestingly, some of the international manufacturers are moving to further localize by introducing engine and [...]
Lotus SUV/MPV Crossover seen yet again in more detail
The Lotus SUV spy shots that we posted several days ago were clearly misleading, the forthcoming SUV from Lotus is actually an MPV/SUV crossover in the same vein as the Dodge Journey or the Mercedes R-Class, just a lot cheaper. The crossover will be using a 3+2 seating set up to provide more space. On [...]
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