Archive for December, 2011
Top Gear Filming in Cold Cold Beijing
Beijing is cold, and gray, and foggy, it’s basically Beijing as per usual but with unusually bad pollution this week which has led to the airport being shut down for a few days and hundreds of flights being cancelled, basically, Beijing’s air has turned into a thick diesel soup. So it’s not exactly a great [...]
The Ultimate Stretched Machine – BMW’s lengthened 3 Series for China
BMW have lost major ground to Audi’s in the fight for the compact luxury car, except there is nothing compact about the fight, its all about being stretched for the rear passengers legs. Audi launched the A6L in China in 2005 which gave Chinese consumers which at the time were mostly government users with chauffeurs [...]
Audi to boost China production capacity to 700,000 units per year
From Bloomberg: Audi, Volkswagen AG’s luxury-car unit, will increase capacity in China to as many as 700,000 vehicles a year, backed by a second assembly plant. A new factory in Foshan, in the southern province of Guangdong, will have a capacity to build about 150,000 to 200,000 cars from 2013, adding to output of a [...]
Roewe E1 Concept sighted out testing
Roewe’s E1 concept car was unveiled in 2010 and sat quite forlorn over on the Roewe stand away from the then recently unveiled Roewe 350, the E1 has been sighted out before with a steering wheel borrowed from the MG3 which sparked the rumor that the E1 would be an MG for European markets, which [...]
SouEast V5 Concept spotted out testing
What is happening at SouEast? Nobody knows. The once famous partner to Mitsubishi is obviously falling behind in the race for a slice of the China market pie, SouEast and Mitsubishi once had a fairly good stranglehold on the Chinese market with the Freeca, Delica, and old Lancers. Mitsubishi injected some life into the joint [...]
Bank of China to enter car making business by partnering with Youngman over Saab
The Saab story has taken yet another turn as of Sunday evening, it seems that Pangda have grown tired of being in the car making game before they actually made it into the car making game and have subsequently pulled out of the deal. Pangda originally signed with Saab to buy their produce for the [...]
GM overwhelm Pang Da and Youth to cut down equity ratio
Stuck in an impasse, the takeover of Saab by Pangda and Youngman lotus might usher in a new turn. Recently, a source close to Pang Da Group was quoted by the First Financial Daily, regarding the acquisition of Saab, Saab Automobile restructuring officer Guy Lofalk went to Detroit for a face to face talk with [...]
Seat’s China goal is relatively easy
Seat’s sales for China in 2012 has been set at 4,000 units, this is not exactly an ambitious goal for SEAT in their starting year. China is the largest car market in the world, and some models are claiming sales of 4000 units per week so obviously there is plenty of scope for Seat to [...]
BAIC’s 2.0T engine producing 206bhp comes down the line
BAIC’s automotive division maybe a little bit of a mess from an outsiders point of view but the company are making big gains in their Saab based cars. The first of the Bei-aab’s are set to be produced this month with the C70 sedan being one of the first to hit the production lines, the [...]
Next Generation Roewe 750 spotted again
Either SAIC likes to show off its cars way ahead of their launch, or they are very bad at hiding their new cars, the next generation of Roewe 750 has been spotted out testing yet again but this time its giving away the most about its future styling. The new 750 apparently shares its platform [...]
Toyota’s Nov Sales down 1.3%
Toyota’s goal of selling 900,000 cars in China this year seems slightly out of reach for the world’s biggest auto producer, the Chinese market delivered 81,800 vehicles in November which was down 1.3% over the same period in November 2010. Total yearly sales for the first 11 months have reached 775,500 which was an increase [...]
Black Tires are Boring, Qingdao Company Starts to make Colored Tires
Car tires have been black since the car production began, of course North America and to some extent the rest of the world went through a white wall craze but that tapered off eventually, so why are tires black? Why can’t we have red tires, pink tires, or fruity loopy colored tires? These are the [...]
Qoros: Say no to Chery, Say Hi to Volkswagen and Toyota
Aiming to be an “International Brand”, Qoros, a joint-venture established by Chery and an Israeli group with half-half ownership ratio, held its unveiling ceremony in Shanghai earlier this week. After the failed alliance between Subaru, and an unclear joint venture with Jaguar Range rover, Qoros, may be a incentive to thrust Cherry into the premium [...]
GM unsure of Chinese Saab Rescue
From Market Watch: General Motors Co. GM -0.47% said Wednesday it remains skeptical about a Chinese rescue plan for Saab Automobile even as one potential Chinese investor said taking control of the troubled Swedish car maker isn’t its main goal. GM, which owns the technology on which several Saab models are based, doesn’t believe that [...]
Smart ForSpeed concept leaks from leaky Chinese patents office
The Chinese patent office seemingly has more holes than the Titanic, this time the Smart ForSpeed concept has been leaked ahead of a possible launch. However, let’s think about this in real times – the Chinese market is now the world’s biggest market and also the world’s most notorious market for having your car ripped [...]
Riich X3 sighted yet again
The Riich X3 compact SUV may share a name with a more famous American made, Bavarian branded SUV, but the rest of the design is relatively unique when compared to other Chinese designed and developed SUV’s. The X3 has been codenamed T21 in the Chery internal naming system and should be launched in 2012 at [...]
Chery M16 compact sedan to make 2013 appearence
Chery are getting serious about their brand positioning for the Chery brand, of course they have Riich and Reely but they have failed to make a major dent in the market so far, Chery want to make the M16 into a compact sedan that is capable of taking on the likes of Hyundai, Kia and [...]
Ford Escape to be sold in China, along with 2.0T Edge
According to Chinese media reports from earlier this morning Ford are planning to bring the 2012 Ford Escape into the Chinese market as early as next year as an imported vehicle. Ford are eager to boost their China line up, but will be relying on imported products to boost their dealer offerings in the short [...]
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