Archive for December, 2011
China Pulls the Plug on Foreign Capital in Auto Industry
China’s Ministry of Commerce and the National Reform and Development Commission (NDRC) issued a cryptic statement today stating that support for foreign capital in the auto industry will be with drawn in 2012. What does this mean? We are not quit sure yet, but looking over the market condition it is obvious that China’s Auto [...]
China pulls support for foreign capital in car industry
From BBC via Xinhua: China has said it will withdraw support for foreign investment in the country’s car industry to encourage domestic carmakers, according to state media. The Xinhua news agency cited a joint announcement from the Ministry of Commerce and the National Reform and Development Commission. The report did not provide details of what [...]
Wulin Gaowa takes up the reigns at GM China’s Advanced Design Studio
Wulin Gaowa is making strides in the automotive design world, she is the first female design director to take the reigns at one of GM’s Global Design centers, she will be top man – or rather woman, at GM China Advanced Studio in Pudong, Shanghai. Gaowa is no newcomer to the automotive design world, she [...]
North Korean Police Rolling in BYD F6 Cop Cars
North Korean car producers are few and far between, Reverend Moon of the Moonies did try to set up a car company in North Korea which assembled rebranded Chinese cars such as Brilliance’ and a few pick up trucks under a DPRK only Pyeonghwa Motors brand but it is unclear at what stage this car [...]
Buick Encore SUV spotted in China
How many SUV’s does GM make in China. Answer: 1. GM is synonymous with large trucks and gas guzzling cars, however the American company has only just introduced a single SUV into the Chinese market as a locally produced vehicle, the Chevrolet Captiva was first introduced in 2008 as a Korean built vehicle but was [...]
Saab 9-3 BAIC C70 sedan seen ahead of production
BAIC’s C70, a Saab 9-3 based vehicle, has been spotted out testing ahead of its initial production run this month in Hubei province. BAIC bought teh rights to the 9-3 and 9-5 platforms in late 2010 for 195 million USD for use within its own line up. BAIC plan to build 20 new platforms for [...]
FAW’s B90 Fast Approaching Production Stage
FAW’s Besturn B90 is a sedan that is expected to make it high in the governments fleet procurement lists in a bid to ween civil servants off their Audi fix over 2012, several years ago the government decided that if it was going to spend billions of Dollars each year on car procurement it might [...]
Roewe E1 or possibly MG 1 seen road testing
The Roewe E1 electric vehicle concept was unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in 2011, however since then the car has remained largely at the concept stage like nearly every other Chinese made EV, however the EV1 has been seen out testing on a number of occasions, each time the E1 has been sporting an [...]
China Sets Up Own GPS Rival
China flicked the on switch on its new Beidou Global Positioning Satellite system, a home grown series of satellites that has been launched into space since 2003. China started working on the development of Beidou in the early 2000′s and currently consists of 10 satellites which are able to cover China only for now, but [...]
Three Door BMW 1 Series Leaked Ahead of Time
The new BMW 1 Series continues on where the old one left off, except it has been improved considerably, added interior space and a wider choice of engines including twin turbo units, and as the only rear wheel drive small car on the market the 1-series has developed a certain niche for itself. So what’s [...]
500kph train sees light of day in Qingdao
Qingdao’s Sifang Locomotive Company have been busy over the past few years developing China’s high speed rail services where trains regularly go above 200km per hour. The current fastest train in China is the 300kph Shanghai-Beijing railway line that debuted earlier this year but was plagued by issues in its early days. The new train [...]
Skoda Fabia Scout to hit the market soon
The Fabia Scout will hit the market in the first quarter of 2012 according to recent media reports, the front wheel drive only hatchback has already been shown off at the Guangzhou Auto Show across from the Polo Crossover earlier this year. Pricing is expected to be in the 120,000rmb area, engine power will come [...]
Renault preping Safrane for China
Renault are actually gearing up to take on the Chinese market in 2012 with a ramp up of offerings, currently Renault offers a mixture of its European and Korean made cars in the Chinese market, the Koleos has been by far the most popular in terms of sales, although the recently introduced Latitude has the [...]
SouEast Motors to give V3 slight makeover for 2012
The V3 is keeping the wolf from the door at SouEast Motors, without the popular model the Fujian based company would likely find itself in a much worse situation. The V3 is based on the sixth generation of Lancer, and as such is actually quite a decent drive in itself, under the hood a 1.5L [...]
AMG G-Class SUV sighted in China
The AMG G-Class SUV has become a minor cult vehicle, China’s rich and celebrities what want the looks of a rough and ready SUV mixed with luxury and power have been flocking to the box shaped SUV in recent months. The externals of the 2012/13 G-Class haven’t changed too much aside from the addition of [...]
Renault to Sign Joint Venture with Dongfeng
The Dongfeng-Renault joint venture has been long awaited, however the two companies have failed to reach an agreement on multiple occasions. Renault originally had a joint venture with Sanjiang Aerospace where they built the Traffic and also the original Espace (albeit in a very small number), Renault pulled out of the joint venture and ultimately [...]
Infiniti to see production in Dalian
China’s luxury market is largely cornered by Audi, BMW and Mercedes in alphabetical order, other manufacturers have tried to take on the market and have had some success but Infiniti can be considered one of the least successful right behind Acura, in 2010 the luxury car market in China looked a lot like this: Audi [...]
BMW aiming to be number one in the Chinese market
BMW has big aspirations for the Chinese market, but can aspirations be turned into a reality? Its nearest rival, Audi, is already several light years ahead of BMW in terms of sales and market share however there is a large amount of growth left in the Chinese luxury car market and BMW seem sure footed [...]
Dongfeng rumored to be interested in fallen Saab assets
With Saab’s demise into bankruptcy being confirmed in the week before Christmas the automotive vultures have started to emerge, as with MG-Rover’s death in 2005 multiple parties have emerged expressing an interest in buying the remaining assets of the stricken company. Youngman are expected to receive the lions share, but an outsider – Dongfeng Auto [...]
1 million vehicle a year to build FAW-Volkswagen Empire
FAW-Volkswagen held a 1 million vehicles ceremony in the 2nd assembly plant in Changchun. Mr. An Tiecheng, the director of BoD as well as general manager of FAW – Volkswagen, said in his speech, from the early days with a single product Jetta to the current product line of two brands Audi and Volkswagen with [...]
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