Spy shots of the lastest cars spotted out and about in China
JMC are planning a new compact SUV according to these pictures leaked to the Chinese media, the new SUV is called the N330 and will be powered by a 2.0T engine that is also shared with JMC’s foreign partner Ford. The N330 appears to be a compact SUV in a similar vein to the current Forda Kuga (Escape in North America), the front is overly sporty but…
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The latest W213 was unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this year and now it is road testing ahead of a launch later this year, likely via the Guangzhou Auto Show. When compared to the all conquering Audi A6L and the ever improving BMW 5-Series the E-Class is playing catch up, however this latest model which drops the ‘dual headlights’ look is…
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Last week AutoCar aired pictures of the first car from the BMW-Brilliance joint venture’s new sub brand: Zhi Nuo. Zhi Nuo is the JV’s plans to create a range of new energy vehicles for the Chinese market, the first of which will be based upon the current BMW X1 which is made in China. The first Zhi Nuo X1 was sighted just over a week ago, but now we…
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The Ford Transit Connect didn’t come to China in its first generation, its larger Transit cousin did however and has become a big seller for the partnership between Ford and Jianglin which focuses on Ford’s commercial vehicle products. The Transit Connect has unofficially aired via the Chinese patent office where it seems to be showing both aspects…
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The 2014 Buick Regal GS is nearly upon us, it has already been aired at the Shanghai Auto Show along with the refreshed Lacrosse, of course the GS is practically upon us.
GM kept its 270BHP motor behind the curtains for its own Cadillac models rather than giving the Chinese made GS the big boy it had to make do with the regular 2.0T with just 220bhp…
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Our friends at Indian Autos Blog have yet again scored a scoop with the spotting of Great Wall’s Hover SUV. The Hover SUV has already been on the market in China for a number of years where it was launched as the original…
Read More →Foton apaprently have big plans for the Indian market, not only does Beijing based company have plans to build a factory in India for commercial vehicles, they are also planning…
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It has been rumored for some while that JAC are planning to create a rear wheel drive SUV that will be focused on the luxury segment, what we didn’t know was that the new SUV would take some styling cues from the master of luxury: Mercedes Benz.
GAC’s big brand aspirations seem to going to plan, perhaps slower than expected but certainly on track. The state owned corp bought the last generation Alfa Romeo 166 platform which it quickly recycled and redeveloped it into a handsome midsize sedan and then an SUV with the SUV becoming a strong seller. Next up to obtain the Alfa DNA is this new GA3…
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The MG5 arrived in concept form in early 2011 and give us a taste of what a compact MG might look like, sadly the MG5 didn’t live quite up to MG’s sporting expectations thanks to a soft ride and a weak engine. The forthcoming MG5 with a 1.5T and a dual clutch will likely live up to all that is required from any car that carries the MG label. The turbo…
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Geely are planning to push their sub brands hard this year, the Emgrand brand has already proven itself to be a popular brand with Chinese consumers as has the Gleagle but the Gleagle is lacking somewhat in terms of products. This year the economy brand focused Gleagle range will receive the below GV5 MPV:
BMW have thrown down the gauntlet to their luxury rivals with the launch of the X1 SUV and stretched and short wheelbase 3-Series, both models have contributed considerably to BMW’s rapid sales in the Chinese market over the past few months. BMW currently offers the 3-Series in a domestically made stretched version which is sold alongside a short wheelbase…
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Sichuan Yema, which means Mustang, are based in Chengdu city down in South West China. The company bought in Austin Rovers Maestro platform which they put into production fairly quickly two years ago, they then announced a quick round of soon to arrive concept vehicles which mimicked vehicles we had seen before from existing brands. Now the company…
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The MG CS SUV concept may have headlined at teh Shanghai Auto Show last week but this week we can share the cars specification with MG’s legions of fans. The first SUV to come from MG is to be powered by a 2.0T engine capable of producing 150kW of power and having 280Nm of torque on tap, taking it from zero to 100km/h in just 7.8 seconds, top speed…
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Are Honda planning to learn from other manufacturers to sell older models alongside new models to increase sales? We only need to look at the success of the Ford Focus twins to see what a combined model duo can do to boost sales, in March Ford shifted 38,000 Ford Focus models, a mixture of ‘Classic’ and New Focus models. The same sales trick happens…
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The New VW Jetta has been out on Chinese roads for a few weeks now along with the New Santana which look virtually indistinguishable from each other and look fairly similar to the larger Bora and Lavida, the only real differences being the FAW-VW and SH-VW badging on the rear of the car. Autohome.com.cn are running with spy pictures of a ‘poverty specification’…
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The Chery A4 has already aired at the Shanghai Auto Show as as the Alpha concept car but it seems the car is well underway and doesn’t seem overly far from full production judging from these road testing pictures…
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It was in China that I transformed from spotty faced youth to a handsome man (still debatable), the Toyota Yaris seems to be going through its own period of transition with a puberty that has brought it green skin and a silver handlebar mustache.
It’s not yet clear if Toyota were aiming for the mustachioed female segment when developing the new…
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Early this month we reported JAC was bringing a new compact sedan (A0) to the Shanghai Auto Show; a car named JAC HeYue A20. Today, more details emerged along with new renderings and a picture of its interior.
The dimensions are set: 4250mm long, 1690mm wide, 1505mm tall and a 2490mm wheelbase. This places it to compete against the Chang’an YueXiang,…
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Foday (“Fudi” in Chinese) is a small Chinese automaker and parts supplier based in Guangdong province. Their lineup consists of small pickups and SUVs, powered by old Mitsubishi and Toyota engines.
Last year, renderings of a new SUV codenamed NHQ6480 were leaked onto the Internet. Yesterday, the first spy shots…
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The MG6 came and it impressed, it didn’t sell overly well when compared to rivals such as the Ford Focus, but it impressed. Then the MG3 came and brought volume to the MG brand. Then the MG5 came and everyone wondered what went so wrong, the Five had the front end of the modern MG range but it lacked the MG feel, likely due to its anemic engine choice…
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The Roewe 550 was an incredible car when first announced in 2008 but rolling into 2013 the car looks a little long in the tooth on the outside and inside, but that is set to change with the introduction of the below model. The 1.8T and naturally aspirated 1.8L K-Series derived engine is still going to be installed in the 550 but instead of the Aisin…
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Lifan are a plucky Chongqing based automaker that was one of the first Chinese car companies to export in any serious numbers, their models have already found strong sales in developing nations in the Middle East and South America but they haven’t found too much success in the home Chinese market. At this years Shanghai Auto Show Lifan will launch a…
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Jonway UFO are a small scale manufacturer that is more famous for its takeover by an American company ZAP! than its product range. Jonway started its car making business in 2005 in Taizhou, an area famous for its entrepreneurs, their first car was a Toyota RAV4 styled vehicle available in first three door and then later 5 door arrangement which have…
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Earlier this year Haima unveiled their plans to launch a new compact SUV by late 2015, codenamed Haima SC-01.
The SC-01…
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Fiat have been tight lipped about the new C-Hatch that is expected to launch at the end of 2013 according to the latest tips from the rumor mill, however this latest image leaked from Fiat’s HQ indicates that Fiat are quite ahead in their plans for the new car. The new model is apparently based on the Fiat Viaggio which was designed specifically for…
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The Jeep Compass has become a popular model in the Chinese market despite the car being a North American import, the most recent incarnation has sold well and has given many Chinese a taste of the Jeep lifestyle. The Compass comes in 2.0L and 2.4L form mated to a CVT gearbox, now that gearbox is being given the hump in favor of a six speed gearbox via…
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The Shanghai Auto Show is just a few days away with Chery expecting to field some brand new cars to change the direction of the ailing company that has overspent on brands and underspent on new models. The A4 is one of those models, the compact sedan will be shown to a world wide audience on April 20th and will bring a new Chery family design to light….
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The E400L is going to air at the Shanghai Auto Show on April 20th, but why wait until the 20th when you can see it right now on China Car Times thanks to the splendid guys at auto.sohu managing to get some spy pictures in early this year. The E400L is likely to be the E-Class that makes some headway against the seemingly unstoppable BMW 5-Series and…
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Porsche are doing big business in the Chinese market, hence the willingness to launch new models in the Chinese market first to satisfy local demand for the Panamera and Cayenne models. The facelift models shown below are two different models judging by the wheels offered. One question remains, has the car been stretched to allow for more rear seating…
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The MG5 is already out on the market but not making a huge impact in the sales charts, the Chinese media road tests were not entirely favorable to the autobox and weak engine offerings but the forthcoming turbo and dual clutch model might change media perceptions.
The turbo version is likely to launch at the Shanghai Auto Show later this month, what…
Read More →The Chinese market has been kind to the Koleos where as the Euro markets were rather indifferent to the Korean made French car, without the Koleos the Renault brand would be in a dire situation in China as they really do lack a key volume product. The Koleos shown below seems to have had a minor nip and tuck around the front end to help keep it relevant…
Read More →The Chevrolet Cruze has been on the market for around four years already in sedan form, the hatchback was expected to launch shortly after the sedan version but it never arrived – instead Buick launched the Excelle Twins in hatch and sedan form which would have probably been under mined by the arrival of a Chevrolet Cruze hatch-sedan duo. According…
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Hawtai can’t be critizsed for not trying, their sedan and SUV range haven’t exactly lit up the sales charts over the past 12 months but they do have promising technology in the form of gearboxes and engines from VM and ZF which they have improved for their own application, their SUV technology is based on older IPR from Hyundai which is not going to…
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The BMW 535 has been a popular car for the Brilliance-BMW joint venture in Shenyang and has helped BMW claw back some of the ground it lost to Audi over the past ten years in the Chinese market, growth has been quick over at BMW China over the course of 2012. The 5-Series is due a minor refresh at this years Shanghai Auto Show and it seems that BMW…
Read More →The Chinese market hasn’t taken to the Dongfeng made Nissan March in a major way, it still lags behind its competitors in the sales leagues, but will the introduction of a 1.2T engine change consumer perception?
The Concept C sedan was unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show last year and is in an interesting position, its not quite Accord sized and not quite Civic sized. The ‘C’ is being developed in cooperation with Guangzhou Auto to take on the popular compact sedan segment in China where the Honda Civic, made by Dongfeng-Honda, is already a popular choice.
In the final days of MG-Rover the big bosses were looking everywhere for a volume product that could sell in the thousands with a little bit of MG and Rover tinkering to make it a British Car To Beat The World, they looked to Tata to source the City Rover and they looked to Ssangyong to source the Rexton. The MG-Rexton never came into being, thankfully,…
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The Hong Qi L7 is the civilian version of the state limosiune used by the previous President Hu Jintao on his reading of the troops in October 2010. FAW promised that a civilian version would soon be made available, and some three years later it seems that FAW are finally getting there in developing the model for potential buyers across China. The L7…
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Last year we approached on Great Wall’s plans to take the Haval range off into its own brand and possibly in its own network of dealerships. Why Great Wall wishes to do this is still a mystery, Chery previously set up its own sub brands which completely bombed and are in the process of bringing them back into the Chery brand.
Will Haval be a success?…
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The Chery E3 is coming as part of Chery’s redefined product plan to focus more on bringing high quality products to the Chery brand, last week we reported heavily on Chery’s plans to restructure its brands by killing several products and bringing them into the Chery line up. The E3 is a compact sedan that will likely replace the hopelessly out of date…
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The Besturn B70 sold quite strongly when it was first launched but the model lost ground in the face of strong competition from rival manufacturers products over the past few years. The Mazda6 based vehicle was designed in Italy and seemed to resonate well with Chinese audiences over the past few years, now the time has come for a new generation of…
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BAIC’s E-series hatchback launched last year signaled Beijing Auto’s ambitions to start selling cars under their own brand. It has seen modest sales numbers so far, but a sedan version is very close to hitting the market.
The sedan follows the same basic design of the hatchback, which some say closely resembles styling from BAIC’s partner Mercedes-Benz….
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Guangzhou Auto (GAC) is churning out new products under its own brand. The smaller sibling of the GAC Trumpchi, which had been previously seen was spotted out testing again.
The GA3 is expected to receive a 1.6L naturally-aspirated…
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The 7th Generation Golf GTI may have only just appeared on the floors of the Geneva Auto Salon but it is already in the Chinese patent office which indicates a launch isn’t that far away in the Chinese market. The sixth generation GTI was produced by FAW-VW in the Chinese market and regularly saw sales of 300 to 500 units per month which is not bad…
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The Chang’an XT is quickly becoming the car the MG5 could have been, and shows the strong design rise that Chang’an have had in the past few years. The former truck manufacturer hit a high point with the introduction of some strong models in recent months, especially with the introduction of the Eado sedan and then the larger Raeton sedan. This new…
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Xia Li’s range of vehicles isn’t exactly eye opening, most of the technology is based on the Daihatsu Charade or the new later range of Toyota’s Developing world models such as the old Vitos, Yaris hatch and sedan etc with extra boots. Xia Li’s range may not be particularly special to my own spoiled eyes but they are popular in the Tianjin locality…
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The Honda Concept C aired at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2012 and was set to give China a peak preview of what a future Honda developed specifically for the Chinese market might look like for the Chinese market.
The…
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The new 5-series and 3-series models seem to be popular in the Chinese market, both contribute considerably to the success found at the Brilliance-BMW joint venture. Late last year the company launched the 5-Series with a 2.0T engine also found in the BMW 3-Series. For 2013 the 5LI has been given a minor tip and tuck at both ends, the front end has…
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The Chang’an Eado sedan was aired in Frankfurt last year ahead of the Beijing Auto Show last year, now the company is prepping its handsome hatch version which carries the same naturally aspirated engine and a range topping 1.5T unit.
The hatch variant measures in at (LxWxH) 4425/1815/1485mm and is 195mm shorter than the sedan version,…
Read More →In the past few weeks we have seen multiple new models from Chery’s team, the Chery A4 was spotted out just a few days ago and now it is being followed up with the introduction of the Chery A2. Chery announced late last year that it was planning to ‘kill…
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Previously we described the Qoros brand as a difficult sell, but perhaps it won’t be such a hard sell after all, especially if future models stay along these lines:
Chevrolet may have a new compact low cost MPV up its sleeve for the Chinese market if these spy shots of the Chevrolet Spin are anything to go by. The Spin is a Brazilian produced car for the South American market motor and is aimed at the lower end of the market, does that sort of market fit in with China’s current Chevrolet line up at all?
The first generation X-Terra has been on the market for a decade under the Paladin name, the second generation never made it to China but Nissan passed it onto joint venture partner Zhengzhou Dongfeng who make commercial vehicles on behalf Nissan, where the Paladin became the AoTing.
What’s the best way to road test your facelift car without it getting noticed by the general public who are armed with high quality cellphone cameras? Obviously not covering your car in eye catching camo is one method. The facelift Grand Cherokee has been spotted road testing in China ahead of a launch in March-April this year.
In the past few months we’ve seen a spate of up market bread vans, Wuling started it by grafting a car style nose onto the traditional snub nosed bread vans that span the bridge between cars and vans, Chang’an launched the Honor and now Dongfeng are here with their own model, the catchy named F505.
Tesla’s cars have become the byline for luxury electric cars, performance mixed with luxury but now a Chinese car company is planning to make its own ‘Tesla’
BYD’s current S6 SUV has already been a major hit, the Lexus inspired SUV gained huge momentum in the Chinese market…
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The eagle eyed editors at Auto.163.com realized earlier today that the ‘official pictures‘ of Yema’s future MPV was in fact a knock off of the Chang’an Honor, even using the Chang’an Honor’s official media pictures.
Let’s have a look at the…
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The Haima ZM3 has finally shown its face in full, the ZM3 was possibly based on the Yao concept that aired at the Beijing Auto Show earlier this year, but the ZM2 has also been shown on CCT before – so perhaps this is the ZM2 but now named the ZM3 or…
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In 2007 I declared the Roewe 550 was the best looking Chinese car to date. Autoblog disagreed. Five years later, the Chang-an Eado hatchback is on the verge of launching and has now taken the title of best looking Chinese car to date, the compact…
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Sichuan based Yema Auto have once again cloned another car, this time they’ve taken the Mazda5 and placed their own badging on the front and rear. From the outside the two cars look virtually the same aside from the lack of a sliding door which has been cut from the Yema version, likely due to complexity or to keep costs down.
Beijing Hyundai are apparently working on a new sedan:
Selling two or more generation of cars has become the ultimate trick in the Chinese car sales handbook. VW sold a few dozen different Passat’s alongside each other, and still does, Mazda has multiple 6′s and Hyundai offer up three different Elantra’s and Buick has three Excelle’s. Now Hyundai are planning to keep the first generation around a little…
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Jeeps are popular vehicles in the Chinese market, however some consumers are put off due to the imported status…
The Roewe 550 popped onto the market in 2008 and has seen strong sales since then, the 550 is in need of a major overhaul to push it forward against increasingly competitive rivals but this mild overhaul might be enough to keep the 550 relevant in 2013 and beyond. Under the hood the same K-Series derived 1.8T and 1.8L naturally aspirated engines are…
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JAC have been in the business of commercial vehicles for a numbers, they are relative new comers to the high volume high profit car making business but CV’s are still at the core of their business. The latest truck doesn’t look like a Ford F150 unlike their previous model, but it does look like a decent compact truck.
Remember the Maestro? MG-Rover sold it to the Bulgarians who sold parts back to the UK and EU markets, then they sold it to Qingdao based tobacco maker ETSong who tried to make a local car for Qingdao residents. Qingdao natives didn’t take to a 20 year old car in the year 2000 and ETsong soon ditched their car making plans in 2002, FAW picked up the…
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Remember GoNow? The Zhejiang based car maker was a plucky upstart in the early 2000′s with its export orientated methodology, but as other Chinese automakers saw opportunities overseas GoNow slipped from the limelight, then it was merged into the larger Guangzhou Automobile. News on GoNow has been slim on the ground in the past few years, under Guangzhou…
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