Archive for December, 2011
China’s Auto Industry Has Benefited from WTO Entry
From the China Daily: When China wrapped up 16 years of hard bargaining to secure long-awaited membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Dec. 11, 2001, Chinese firms were probably more alarmed than relieved. With tariffs to be slashed and restrictions on foreign rivals to be eased, a shaky future seemed to loom for [...]
Tired of small resolution Red Flag C131 pictures? Here’s the full thing
For governmental users the Hong Qi C131 is going to be one of the most anticipated cars of the year, the central government is pushing ministries at all levels to buy local brands rather than their usual Audi’s and VW’s, this is something that central government has been pushing for many years, however local manufacturers [...]
Chinese cars on the WTO Road Part 3 – Price
This is part three in a multi part series on the effects of China’s ten year entry into the World Trade Organization, Part 1 Regulations , Part 2 Sales. At the end of 2002, Honda Accord 6th generation was still a bestselling model in the Chinese market, 3 years after it rolled off the production line [...]
Hong Qi C131 to see the market in 2012
Hong Qi’s C131 has been spotted many times testing, but has yet to hit the market. We can now say that the C131 is likely to be put into production towards the middle of the year and is being pitted against the Audi A6L. In the past few months the Chinese government have been pushing [...]
JLR: no time to hesitate
When Jaguar Land Rover and Chery joint venture submitted an application to the National Development and Reform Commision earlier this year, informed sources were able to reveal to reporters that Chery and JLR are going to build a luxury car based on the Jaguar platform and possibly put the Chery, or the Jaguar logo on [...]
Beijing Gas Stations adding electric charging facilities
The Beijing Municipal Government put the brakes on the local car market in 2011 by only allowing 20,000 cars to be added to the roads each month, effectively they killed the local car market but where one animal dies another takes its place, at the same time Beijing Govt also announced that hybrid vehicles and [...]
Dongfeng’s A60 – the old Nissan Bluebird Sylphy hits the production lines in Jan 2012
January 10th 2012 is the day that the Nissan Bluebird Sylphy comes down the production line at Dongfeng, albeit with a Dongfeng badge instead of a Nissan one. Nissan signed the platform, engines, and transmission (actually, Aisin transmissions) over to Dongfeng for use within their own new Fengshen brand. The A60 was unveiled at the [...]
Luxgen launches Luxgen5 sedan, with Android power
Asia’s latest auto brand, Luxgen, showed off its latest Luxgen5 sedan earlier this week just months after launching the popular Luxgen7 SUV. The Luxgen brand was developed by Yulong Motors, Taiwan’s biggest automotive company, Yulong and Dongfeng from the Chinese mainland established a joint venture in China which has already resulted in the Luxgen7 being [...]
Codenamed B73: Citroen’s new C4 sedan for China
If it wasn’t for the introduction of the C4 hatchback and saloon into the Chinese market, Citroen would be in a very different position now, the French company may have made early gains with the introduction of very popular models such as the Citroen ZX, but they failed to follow up with any models that [...]
15 Nissan Leaf’s delivered to Guangzhou Government
Guangzhou’s Huadu District Government took the keys to 15 new Nissan Leaf cars earlier today, the Leaf is expected to launch in China in the first half of 2012 as an imported model, but by first giving cars to fleet users in China, Nissan will be able to have a greater understanding of the needs [...]
MG UK sell just 7 MG6′s in Britain in November
The UK’s SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) released its monthly figures for the UK car industry yesterday where it was revealed that MG UK sold just seven units of the MG6 in November, which made its October sales of 15 units look rather good. SAIC’s and MG UK’s decision to launch the MG6 [...]
One Country Two Camry – 7th Gen Camry Launches in China in Two Flavors
China is no doubt a strange auto market, in the Eastern Cities you have a GDP which is on par with Western countries but further inland you have cities with a GDP that is on par with many African territories, that is reflected in the auto market where a two tier market exists. Manufacturers are [...]
Jaguar possibly planning sub brand with Chery
If you want to make cars in China you have to give a little both ways, it is not as straight forward as ten years ago when you could announce that you had a local partner and begin making cars, now the government wants to see some hard up investment in China to secure long [...]
MG5 naked and uncovered
When we first posted pictures of the MG5, commenters both here and elsewhere compared the MG5 to Marmite, they either loved it or hated it with very little in between. The 5 will share a platform with the Roewe 350 to keep down costs but will come in hatch form only (although, perhaps a rebadged [...]
Pang Da Group to watch Saab go – or not
Pangda’s problem: ‘The bride to be married, the groom is not me.‘ According to the report of December 4th of Reuters, Saab Automobile will be jointly held by a Chinese bank (not Bank of China) and Youngman Automobile, with holding shares less than 50%. Saab’s new ownership structure is that the Swedish car company SWAN [...]
Chinese model Gan Lu Lu upstages the Nanning International Auto Show with low cut dress
Chinese model come part time actress and Gucci spokesperson Gan Lu Lu made a visit to the Nanning International Auto Show which opened on Dec 3rd. Usually the Nanning International Auto Show barely registers on the Chinese automotive calendar, but this year it made headlines thanks to Gan Lou Lou’s low cut dress. Lu Lu [...]
Facelift Roewe 550 with minor nip and tuck spotted out testing
In 2012 the Roewe 550 will have been on the market for four years, in that four years on the market it has managed to turn the tables on the Chinese car market, for the first time a Chinese car appeared that was just as every bit as capable as its foreign competitors and had [...]
Pangda still in the game at Saab take over talks
Yesterday we reported on Bank of China’s involvement in the ongoing Saab-saga, but it seems that the banks name was lost in translation and rather than being the Bank of China it is just an anonymous ‘Chinese Bank’ which could be anything from the smallest local city bank to a national level bank, the banks [...]
Shanghai-VW’s next generation Santana spotted out testing
If you’ve been to China at some point in the past 15 years its likely that you have sat in a taxi, and there is at least an 80% chance that you have sat in a VW Santana taxi. The Santana grew from the 1000, to the 2000 to the current 3000 and Vista models, [...]
GM posts strong sales increases in November with 20.4% increase
GM’s China sales have risen by an impressive 20.4% in November making it GM’s third best sales month in 2011, according to a press release issued by the company. 237,130 vehicles were sold in November, Wuling vehicles saw growth of 40.4% which boosted November sales to 119,133 units, an all time November high for the [...]
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