Author Archive
MG5 spy pictures show China’s first possible hot hatch
China got into the hot hatch phase late last year when the Golf GTI hit the market, it was followed up by the Skoda Octavia VRS (actually just called RS in China due to V being unpronounceable by most) and other car makers are readying their own little cannonballs as the Chinese media likes to [...]
GM’s pick up truck hits the market in China
GM are famous for its pick up trucks, in fact America is famous for its pick up trucks full stop. Other countries manufacturers have tried to make them, but without a logo from one of the Big Three American companies they appear to be a bit limp at best. Urban Cowboys across China are lapping [...]
Can SAIC tackle India?
For many Chinese car companies the Indian market displays a great allure, but can they tackle it using the same methods to entice China’s 1.3billion consumers? It seems that the odds are stacked against them, but if perhaps they can manoeuvre themselves into a strong position by inking strategic deals with the right partners. From: [...]
Luxgen SUV to launch in China next month
Taiwanese car maker Yulong and mainland Chinese car maker Dongfeng Auto have put politics aside to produce the Luxgen range of vehicles in the Chinese market, the two signed together in early 2008 and received rapid approval for the first cross straits full car project between the mainland and Taiwan. The Luxgen SUV has already [...]
Global Automotive Forum to be held in Chengdu this year
Last year’s Global Automotive Forum was held in Chengdu and was a major success for the organisers and attendees. The forum brought the leaders of the international and Chinese automotive industry, policy makers and local governments together under one roof for a special two day event. The forum covered various different topics that were affecting [...]
BYD F3 facelift model shown to the ‘net ahead of time
BYD’s sales figures have gone south for yet another month, and it appears that one why plan to counter the sales nose dive is with an improved F3. The F3 was China’s best selling car at one point, but it did get old fast. BYD later introduced the L3 and G3 models which were further [...]
Driving the world’s longest sea bridge in Qingdao (two times!)
In the past week I’ve received a few emails via China Car Times that basically said we’ve dropped the ball on various issues, we didn’t report on Wen Jia Bao’s visit to the UK where he launched the MG6 Magnette (aka, the MG6 sedan) and we didn’t report on the grand opening of the World’s [...]
BAIC’s Saab 9-5 based cars to see production at years end
Beijing Auto Industry Corp (BAIC) bought the rights to the last generation Saab 9-3 and Saab 9-5 in late 2009 in a deal that was worth some 193 million USD, however this amount of money was clearly not enough to assist Saab in its hour of need. Although Saab is currently circling the plug hole [...]
Saab in the proverbial yet again – lacks funds to pay workers
Despite the recent major deals with Youngman and also Pangda Saab has advised its workers that they may not get paid this month due to a lack of funds in the Swedish company’s kitty. The deals with Pangda gave the company a brief loan of 30 million Euros which likely wasn’t enough to satisfy the [...]
Booth babes should be on the look out for ‘yellow T-shirt man’
Yellow T-shirt man has become a popular person on the Chinese blogosphere this week due to his brazen attempt at taking a picture of a car models cleavage at the Wuhan Auto Show last week. The yellow T-shirt has only added to his fame in China, yellow is largely seen as a color set aside [...]
Jeep to launch 2012 Compass and Patriot into China at months end – already seen in China
Jeep already showed its facelift Compass and introduced the Patriot into China at the Shanghai Auto Show last month, but now they are preparing both of them for sale, a launch date for the end of the month has been set aside. The Patriot had its China premier at the Shanghai Auto Show but it [...]
Why Pangda is Saab’s best opportunity, as its a Beijing Auto induced partnership
Last time I said the Hawtai-Saab deal would fail, and I was right, this time I’m predicting that the Saab-Pangda deal will be a great success. Let’s take a look at Pangda, they’re a dealership group with over 1100 dealerships under their belt, they offer the classic ‘4s‘ service (Survey, Service, Sales and Spare Parts) [...]
Chinese Transformer built from old Jiefang truck
The Transformer franchise might be turning stale in the West but its still a big interest story in China, hence the ability of yet another Chinese made Transformer to grab some headlines. A Chinese-bot rolled into Shenyang City earlier in May, his mission was not entirely clear but it was in close contact with a [...]
MG5 production version spotted out testing
Late last week we got our first look at the production ready MG5 thanks to our friends at Sohu, but we had to wait until this morning before we could share them with the rest of the world, it made for an antagonizing weekend to say the least. The MG5 concept was first shown at [...]
Why the Saab-Hawtai deal is likely to fail
On May 2nd, Saab announced that it had come together with Hawtai to form an alliance that would see the Saab 9-3 produced in China and Hawtai make some serious investments in Saab’s European operations that would help to keep the wolf from the door. A hastily organised press conference was announced for May 3rd, [...]
Are you a journalist? Did you attend the Shanghai Auto Show? We need your help.
Are you an automotive journalist? Did you attend the Shanghai Auto Show? We really want to hear what you thought of the show from a journalists prospective. We’ve made a little survey that can be found here, it would be great if you could let us know what you thought about the show from getting [...]
Shanghai Auto and VW to cooperate on development of large sedan
According to media reports VW and Shanghai Auto are teaming up to make a large C segment sedan that will be aimed at the local high end market and will be produced by Shanghai-VW. The Phaeton is already on sale in China but has had a limited success when compared to the equivalent Audi A8 [...]
Jaguar Land Rover still in discussions with Chinese partners on local JV
On a recent visit to Great Wall Motors over in Baoding, I had a chance to press their PR man on the possibilities of a partnership with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), no firm answers were given and the coy grin kind of gave away the meaning behind the answer “They [JLR] are talking with lots [...]
Geely’s Li Shu Fu has peons cast aside to inspect new cab
All was good on the second day of the media days in Shanghai last Wednesday, well it wasn’t all good as most of the stands had immediately shifted from PR/Media day to Sales Mode by lunchtime and not too many Chinese companies had press kits available, which is pretty typical of Chinese car companies – [...]
Shanghai Auto Show – Day One.
The Shanghai Auto Show kind of started yesterday, exhibitors have been allowed in for the past few days and plenty of new cars have been sighted going into the back doors of the Pudong Exhibition Center. Initial impressions are that the Shanghai Auto Show is going to be BIG this year, every stand at the [...]
Twitter!
