GM may have snapped up Brad Pitt to market Cadillac’s in the Chinese market, but Beijing Auto have collared Nicholas Cage into being the official spokesperson of its new range of Shen Bao vehicles.
The Shenbao range is largely based off the Saab range of vehicles which Beijing Auto purchased the rights to from the then ailing Saab in 2010.
Beijing…
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When I was a younger man, I was nonchalantly walking down Qingdao’s Minjiang road (possibly after drinking the local hooch) on a summers night when the ground disappeared from under me. I didn’t have much reaction time but I did manage to stick my arms out just enough to stop me from falling down an open manhole cover. The manhole lid kindly swung around…
Read More →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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Volvo China recently uncovered a network of dealers who were actively reporting higher than reality sales to the Volvo China Headquarters in a bid to gain cash rebates from the Swedish brand according to a Reuters report issued on Friday:
Swedish…
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Via Reuters:
China imposed long-debated stringent fuel economy standards on Wednesday, making life tougher for cash-strapped small domestic brands that are already struggling amid a slowdown of the world’s biggest…
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Ford are going SUV crazy this year, the company has only just launched the Ecosport and the Kuga SUV offerings but now they are readying the Explorer to add to the Edge, Ecosport, and Kuga range. As an imported model the Explorer is not expected to be cheap, initial pricing is being quoted by Chinese media as circa 520,000RMB or 90,000USD.
Ford will…
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Geely have finally pulled back the covers on their new proposed 1.3T engine which will find its home in a new EC7 sedan and hatch later this year. The new engine is good for 180Nm of torque between 2000-4000RPM which should make for a powerful little engine in the city center.
Later this year Geely are also expected to push its flagship EX8 SUV and…
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Volkswagen’s DSG headache in the Chinese market has been building for a number of months, VW received a beating at the annual March 15th Consumer Rights Day televised Gala where affected Volkswagen car owners took to the stage to complain about their DSG gearboxes.
Owners complained that the DSG gearbox, developed by BorgWarner, suffer from a break…
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Ford have launched their latest Ecosport SUV into the Chinese market yesterday evening with pricing from 94,800RMB to 127,800RMB for the new model.
Initially Ford has launched six models, five variations on the 1.5L engine with manual and automatic transmissions being offered and the range topping 1.0L engine coming with just a manual for now, although…
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JAC have finally launched their much awaited S5 SUV as of yesterday evening, the new compact S5 comes packed with a 1.8T engine which was domestically engineered by JAC and also carries a dual clutch gearbox. In addition a 1.9 Turbo Diesel all wheel drive version is expected for the end of 2013 along with a 1.5T version.
Two years ago Qingdao city opened the world’s longest overseas bridge that connected the city’s downtown area with the development zone in Huangdao, subsequently Huangdao seemed to have a vast improvement in terms of infrastructure as more people decided to move over to the other side of the bay where traffic was better, life was cheaper and the environment…
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Mitsubishi has had mixed fortunes in the Chinese market, the Japanese brand entered China relatively early when compared to its Japanese rivals and gained a great deal of market share only to see it be dispersed by fast moving rivals. Mitsubishi established multiple joint ventures in the Chinese market for both parts and cars, but it seems that only…
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DS vehicles are a rare sight on Chinese roads, previous reports on China Car Times indicated that DS had sold below expectations so far and sales were in the low hundreds. DS are going into production via the Chang’an-PSA joint venture in Shenzhen later this year with the DS5 expected to be the first production car to roll down the lines, followed by…
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According to a Reuters report Geely have pulled out of buyout talks with the troubled EV car maker Fisker due to Fisker’s substantial obligations to the US government which would have likely delayed any return on investment. However,…
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The Central Government has issued a revised standard for its car purchasing plans, previously the government was pushing for a majority of Chinese brands being bought by government organs but it seems that this rule has been relaxed to 50% of all cars bought must be Chinese brands – which will be easily achieved through commercial vehicle purchases…
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March 15th is China’s National Consumer Day where disgruntled consumers are given a nationwide televised platform to air their grivences, real and perceived, with companies they have dealt with or bought products from over the past 12 months. We media folk refer to the day itself as “???” or basically: Blackmail Day, some media have threatened…
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Volvo announced today that as of February 7th it had received official approval from China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) for the development of a new production plant in Daqing, Heilongjiang province, and also an engine factory in ZhangJiaKou as well as a new R&D center in Shanghai. Volvo’s factory in Chengdu already received its…
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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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Two Octavia’s for one nation. Skoda plans to sell both the last generation and the latest generation of Octavia in the Chinese market to cater to two different types of consumers, those that appreciate the lower price of the older model and those that prefer the latest and greatest looks.
The naturally aspirated 1.6L Octavia is expected to be priced…
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How many small cars does Volkswagen need for the Chinese market? The German auto maker is readying another small hatchback for the Chinese market along with its partner Shanghai Volkswagen. SH-VW already produce the Lavida sedan, which sold nearly 35,000 units last month, and are plann
Toyota had two big announcements to make today, firstly the GT-86 hit the market and secondly the launch of a new brand from FAW-Toyota: Ranz. FAW and Toyota announced the brand and its focus today at a 10 year celebration of the two companies co-operation.
How many brands are enough for the Chinese car market? Toyota believes…
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Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Mr. Wan Gang dropped his official sedan during the National Congress last week and moved over to a BYD E6 electric vehicle. Wan Gang is no stranger to the automotive industry, he has worked for Audi and also at Tongji University where he led research into new energy vehicles. Mr. Wan made it to the top post…
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According to figures from the Chinese Car Dealers Association, car dealerse on average sold 901 cars in 2012, a decrease of 9% over 2011′s average of 990 vehicles per year. This year with 21 million cars expected to be sold dealer sales could drop to 860 units due to the ever increasing number of dealers being added to sales networks. American dealerships…
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Even late in the the afternoon of the first Press Day, it was evident that the World stand was generating quite extraordinary interest – there was barely standing room, and queues to sit in the two 3 sedans. By comparison,the adjacent Mercedes Benz and BMW stands were like ghost towns. The Chinese and Israel Corp. top brass who were at the press conference…
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How much is a Shanghai license plate? 80,000RMB as of this month, that’s 12,865USD for two slices of blue painted tin, or basically four Chery QQ’s. Would you pay it? I wouldn’t. The Shanghai Daily has a report…
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Joint venture partners BMW and Brilliance are set to create their own sub brands according to reports from Chinese automotive media, according to other reports the basis of the sub brand will be the last generation 3-series platform.
Chinese automotive media are basing their reports on the registration of a new brand by the BMW-Brilliance joint venture…
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Ford haevve pushed forward a surprise sales improvement in February 2013, Ford’s wholesale sales reached 105,209 units compared with 71,954. Focus sales nearly doubled in February, with 24,734 wholesales sold compared to 12,592 in February last year.
On the heels of the introduction of the highly anticipated all-new Kuga, Ford launched the Focus…
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It’s not quite the birth of a nation, but the launch of a significant new brand is a rare occasion, and the crowds were out in force at Qoro’s 9:45 press launch at the Geneva Salon this morning.
Much has been said about the cars already, particularly the Qoros 3 (nee Q3) sedan. The Cross Hybrid and estate debuted, the first bolstering the brand’s…
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The Chinese New Year has claimed another victim in GM, the short month of February coupled with the long Chinese New Year holiday crippled auto sales with nearly every manufacturer posting lower sales. GM announced today that its February 2013 sales were down by 10.6% over February 2012.
To get around the short sales month, manufacturers like to…
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The words ‘made in China’ are almost a given these days as the country has become synonymous, and hugely successful, with manufacturing. Why, then, is it a surprise when Chinese cars are released onto the fiercely competitive motoring market? The truth is that Chinese cars are actually rather good. So much so that they’re set to gain impressive…
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Maxus was born from the ashes of LDV, another arm of the British Leyland empire that was spun off in a bid to become more profitable but inevitably crashed, burned and fell into Chinese ownership. LDV burst back into life under the Maxus name at the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show in three modified forms including a Short/Long wheelbase, a school bus, and…
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Former Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao opened the 12th Annual People’s Congress earlier today by giving key statistics on the rise of the Chinese market under his watch from 2003 to 2012. The former premier told assembled crowds that car ownership had grown to 21.5 vehicles for every 100 households, an increase of 15.5 vehicles over 2007′s figures.
Picture…
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Chery’s marketing plan is going through another round of adjustment. The Anhui based brand hadn’t launched a new car under the Chery nameplate for more than 2 years until the launch of the new QQ last week, the last new model to roll out of Chery’s Wuhu factory came in 2009 and since then Chery attempted to focus its energies on Riich, Reely and Karry,…
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According to a report from McKinsey & Company, China is already the second biggest market for premium cars after the USA with sales of 1.25 million premium vehicles last year. McKinsey’s figures indicate that China’s premium car sales could reach 2.25 million vehicles by 2016.
But how does McKinsey define a premium car? According to its own definition…
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Qoros are having their big airing at the Geneva Auto Show tomorrow where they will unveil the 3 Sedan and plans for the Euro market, but here’s a shot of the new sedan ahead of the official airing.
The new Chinese-International car company comes backed with Isreali capital, Chinese man power and international power. Based in Changshu,…
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As anyone who has lived in China and bought a car from new in the PRC knows, Chinese dealerships charge an absolute fortune for simple repair services. How much does it cost to change 4 spark plugs on a 2007 VW Passat at a VW dealerships? 1200RMB (192USD) according to one of my friends who is lamenting having to pay so much. The problem is that dealerships…
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The Chinese New Year period sees the Chinese populace shut down shop for a period of upwards of two weeks, with dealership staff heading home for the holidays dealer operators have no choice but to shut up shop as their workers bid farewell. Dealerships are closed for anywhere between seven to ten days and run on a skeleton crew of staff until the end…
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The Chinese New Year dates have again played havoc with sales statistics. Chinese New Year goes by the lunar calendar and as such rebounds between January and February each year, last year CNY fell in January so January 2013 sales were at an all time high. This year CNY fell in February which means sales are going to be down considerably as the country…
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The much needed MG5 Turbo will hit the market soon according to recent media reports, the Shanghai Auto Show is being cited as the official launch date on April 19th this year. The 1.5T engine was developed in partnership between SAIC and GM as part of a 2010 deal which saw the two work together to develop 1.0L to 1.5L engines which would included direct…
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According to Forbes contributor, Kenneth Rapoza, Chinese consumers aren’t looking to EV’s or hybrids due to a lack of government subsidies:
The Chinese government is trying to protect its…
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Beijing Auto’s forthcoming D280 sedan, aka the C70G, which is underpinned by Saab’s 9-3 technology will be priced from 165,800RMB (26,000USD) for the base 1.8T model which is very competitive and clearly aimed at government procurement lists. Three engines are on offer, 1.8T, 2.0T and 2.3T with the top of the line 2.3T expected to be in the 235,800RMB…
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China’s hot hatch market has another competitor in town with the introduction of Ford’s high octane ST. The ST produces 250bhp which is sent through the front wheels which will send the car from 0-100kph in just 6.2 seconds, and the 360Nm of torque is likely to give new cars owners the fun option of having to buy new front tires on a regular basis….
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Despite PSA’s early entry into the market the company failed to benefit from China’s Golden Years from 2008 to 2011 when the market was at its peak. PSA seemed to have turned a corner in the past two years with strong models such as the Peugeot 508 and Citroen C5 entering into the market to give Chinese consumers a choice other than the usual Japanese…
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Shanghai license plates continue to be called ‘Tin Gold’ by the media due to their rapid rise over the past five years. During February’s auction prices rose by an average of 8300RMB over January’s auction, in February 9000 plates were put up for auction with the lowest selling plate being sold for 83,571RMB. In comparison a license plate in February…
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The National Development and Reform Comission (NDRC) increased the price of fuel across China earlier this week by 300 yuan ($47.77) for gasoline and 290 yuan ($46.18) for diesel. Prices at the pump subsequently grew by 0.23RMB on average.
Fuel Prices in the Chinese market fluctate over a 22 window period, if global prices change by upwards of 5%…
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The new Jeep look was unveiled late last week and over the weekend, its a brave new design for Jeep now that they are under Fiat’s…
Guangzhou’s Trumpchi brand hasn’t lifted off in the ways that many people expected, despite the strong design and Alfa Romeo based platform the Trumpchi GA5 hasn’t sold in major numbers as of yet. The GA5 sedan initially launched with 1.8L and 2.0L engines but has now been joined by a range topping 1.8T.
The 1.8T produces 177BHP and 237Nm of…
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Cadillac will launch their flagship XTS model tonight and hope to go head to head with the Audi A6L in the Chinese market. The new XTS has been much awaited by the Chinese press whom have reported on the new model considerably over the past 8 months since its launch in the USA, the XTS will first be imported into the Chinese market and then see production…
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The designer of classics such as the Porsche 918 Spyder, Boxster and Cayman sports car models has accepted a position at Chery Auto and will be based in Shanghai according to a recent…
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ZX Auto have proven themselves on the battle field as part of Libya’s unofficial cavalry, we even had a review of one ZX Auto by a Libyan user who took part in the Civil War to rout Gadaffi from his thrown. Chinese media were told to scale back their reporting on the role of ZX Auto in the Libyan civil war which didn’t give ZX Auto the big boost it…
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Qoros hasn’t yet opened any show rooms or launched its cars but that hasn’t stopped Audi from putting forward a motion to sue Qoros over the use of the letter Q. The Truth About Cars cites German media reports in the Der…
Read More →As soon as Chinese New Year ended Qoros showed its latest range of cars via the internet, the brand will have its global brand launch at the Geneva Auto Show where it will air its latest products to the global media. Qoros are eager to point out that they are not a Chinese brand but a global brand with global intentions. Qoros will launch a compact…
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Volkswagen’s Taiwanese partner, Beldare Motors, confirmed that the German automaker was considering building a production plant in Taiwan to manufacture 20,000 cars a year by 2015 to satisfy Asian demand for several of its car models. According to Chinese language reports, Volkswagen will move to produce the Passat Variant and Sharan MPV in the Taiwan…
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According to recent media reports from Chinese and foreign sources, Fisker executives have been in China over the Chinese New Year period in a bid to find an investor or partner for the beleaguered American electric car brand. Fisker has suffered from a series of issues over the past few months including battery supply problems, cash flow issues and…
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Did you miss China Car Times through the Chinese New Year Celebrations? We did. The initial plan was to take the site off line for a day or two to update the site design with a new one but we hit upon a few issues. Firstly the server kept filling up due to a lack of caching software (so many var/tmp errors) but we didn’t realize this until too late,…
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The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released sales data for January auto sales and production late yesterday. January production grew by 51.17% to 1.96 million vehicles over January 2012 figures. Vehicle sales grew to 2.3 million vehicles, an increase of 46.38% over January 2012 and up 12.41% over December’s figures.
January sales…
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Yesterday FAW-VW’s Vice President Mr. Qin Huan Ming revealed to Chinese press that the company is considering creating a new low level brand for the Chinese market. Mr. Qin revealed that FAW-VW were likely to create new brand based off the outgoing Mk2 Jetta where four new models would be created priced at 60,000RMB to 80,000RMB with yearly production…
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According to Chinese media reports and reports from Bloomberg, GM are apparently looking to buy into struggling Chinese auto manufacturers. By 2015 GM is expected to lift its China sales by 75% to roughly 5 million units per year, and by buying a Chinese brand they will be able to increase capacity relatively easy.
Despite joining the World Trade…
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The mk2 Jetta is a stalwart of the Chinese automotive industry,…
January 2012 was host to the Chinese New Year which sees 1.3 billion people head home for a once per year two week (or longer) break, that translates into less sales times for car sellers during the CNY period but strong sales ahead of it. With the New Year falling in February this year, almost all car brands are recording record sales (we say almost…
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Xi Jin Ping is the new boss in China and he’s grappling with corruption. Fighting corruption appears to be Xi’s main goal at the moment with many a official being sent off to prison for his misgivings, Xi has also ordered the military and government organs to cut back on the big dinners and booze spending and to remember the Party’s roots to represent…
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Earlier this month and in late December there was plenty of rumors that Beijing Auto and Daimler would create a new alliance to cement ties in China and Globally, facts were thin but rumors were strong. There is no smoke without fire, and preliminary investigation showed that there was a plan in the pipeline to create a partnership similar to Renault…
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Over the past few years we have seen a change in direction with Chinese manufacturers, for a time it seemed that they were in a continual race to the bottom with ever cheaper cars, see the BYD F0 and Cherry QQ series for strong examples. Cheap cars don’t provide too much in terms of profit, but they do provide volume. If BYD and Chery didn’t have vehicles…
Read More →Korea is a tough market for imported brands, but Fiat is more than up to the task. The Korean market, as you would expect, is dominated by local players such as Hyundai and Kia as well as GM’s local arm, and to a lesser extent Ssangyong. Japanese manufacturers have tried to tap the market but Korean’s remain loyal to local brands, Fiat is hoping to…
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The British have been putting up with yet another scandal over the past five days, this time it is…
On January 1st Chinese drivers came to face with the toughest rules to date, those that went through a yellow light were given automatic 6 point deductions from their license and red light jumpers faced the same punishment. The rule was enforced for a couple of days to set an example, some police forces said they wouldn’t immediately fine road users…
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The Nissan Murano ticked all the boxes for Chinese requirements, its big, its relatively imposing, it looks unique, on the downside that uniqueness along with the large 3.5L V6 displacement and 488,000 price tag did not win many consumers, in fact December sales seemed to have reached zero units whilst total sales for the year were just 936 units as…
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From China Daily:
Brilliance Auto Group aims to sell 770,000 vehicles this year, which would represent a year-on-year growth of 14.6 percent, according to a company report.
The company also plans to export 70,000 vehicles,…
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