SAIC’s own sub brands, MG and Roewe, saw a sales drop of 45.34% in January with total sales reaching just 11,001 cars in the first month of the year.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Chery:
As the sales leader of local brands, Chery continued on its conservative path. Maybe Chery believes one good production model is better than ten concept models, so they didn’t introduce any concept cars this year. Just one truly new model, the New Easter, was unveiled, while other new cars are face lifted or swapped brands. Cowin 5 is a facelifted old Eastar; E5 is a face lifted A5; and Riich Z5, a small coupe, had been unveiled as Chery A6CC at Auto Shanghai 2007. Besides, there were many EVs or PHEVs based on existing models.

Geely:
Although Geely said they would only introduce 6 all new cars, many concept cars or prototypes came again from 2010 or 2009 shows. As for Geely, the challenge is not how to design attractive prototypes, but how to put them into production. Gleagle GS and GS-CC are good-looking coupe and roadster. GC3, GC6, GC7 sedans, GV5 MPV and GX5, GX6 SUVs will complete the lineup of Gleagle sub-brand with existing GC2 and GX2. EC6-RV hatchback, GE luxury sedan, EV7, EV8 MPVs and EX7, EX8 SUVs will complete the lineup of Emgrand sub-brand with existing EC7 and EC8. Lastly, the SC7-RV hatchback, SV5 MPV and SX6 SUV will complete the lineup of Englon sub-brand with existing SC7, SC5, TX7 London taxi and some old models. (Editor note: That is a lot of numbers and letters!)

This sounds like a great plan, but it does appear that Geely are struggling to put all of the prototypes into production and how to differentiate the line up between its two main brands, Emgrand and Englon.

Brilliance:
Unlike Chery and Geely, Brilliance doesn’t have an extensive product lineup, which makes the premiere of all new 530 more important. The 530 is the successor of Zunchi (M1) and Junjie (M2) with a sharp outline. As a BMW Chinese joint venture partner, Brilliance will name its models using similar methodology to BMW. The 530 means a mid-class (5 series) car with a 3-box body. A future concept car from Brilliance may be named the 730 sedan.

BYD
As a famous electric car maker, BYD didn’t introduce any new electric car, but unveiled a new power train with a turbocharged direct injection engine and a double clutch transmission. Besides, the G6 based on existing BYD F6 and new S6 SUV (with its design inspired by the Lexus RX300) were also introduced. According to Dieter Zetsche’s speech at Mercedes’ press conference, the joint venture between Daimler and BYD will produce green cars in 2013. Details are still not announced.

Great Wall
The professional SUV builder is becoming an all-round carmaker. Haval, the SUV series, unveiled IF prototype, which may replace the models with old separate frame construction. Voleex, the car series, redesigned C50 and C70 prototype from Auto China 2010 as production models. Surprisingly, none of the existing small cars which hit the market 2 or 3 years ago came to Shanghai this year, because Great Wall want to claim it is no longer a low-end brand which is an incredible transformation for the company.

Gong Zai Yan

Gong Zaiyan is a researcher at the Center for Automotive Industry, School of Automotive studies, at the prestigious Tongji University.Going Zai Yan focuses on the study of the green vehicle industry in the Chinese market, he also focuses on policy and regulations in the overall market.

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The Wingle CL (CL standing for China Leading) is supposed to be at the forefront of any American invasion, the CL measures in at (LxWxH) 5.35 x 1.88 x 1.85 meters, and has a wheelbase of 3.35m, putting it on par with the Toyota Tacoma. China has long been home to the compact pick up, but the CL will be the first Chinese full size truck. Under the hood the option of a gasoline or diesel engine will be offered, a 2.0T four cylinder with 310Nm of torque on tap from 1800-4000rpm, and a diesel version with 324Nm of torque at 1800-2400rpm, both engines will meet Euro5 specifications, both automatic and manual gearboxes will be on offer. Earlier on a Greatwall executive revealed that they are working on a 3.0L V6 diesel engine.

No launch date has been announced for this model, but hopefully by the middle of the year we will have some more information on this particular unit.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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The Nissan Compact Sport is based on the poor selling March (Micra) platform but with an overhauled interior that will make the car popular with younger buyers who want to buy a hot hatch from hell. This particular model was a joint project between Nissan’s Japanese and Beijing based design center, and goes some way to show that not all Chinese designed cars are poor quality or clones of something else, here’s hoping that this model makes it to the production line soon.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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The L5 GT will still be using the 1.6L engine found in the Gen2 RCR model, but with certain upgrades. CPS valves and a VIM air intake system have been added bringing full power upto 90.5kw, an increase of 8.5kw and a max torque of 149Nm, four speed autos our 5 speed manuals are available for gear changing, a CVT version is undergoing testing and will launch soon according to Lotus.

Lotus also had the Lotus Exige on show wearing the former Europestar/Lotus badging rather its own Lotus moniker.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Seat has been rumored to be entering China for the past five years and now it has finally happened. VW are aiming to target the Seat brand at younger consumers in Southern China where models from the Japanese Three (Toyota, Honda and Nissan) are favored, by introducing the Seat brand VW are hoping to entice younger consumers away from Japanese blandness and into the driving seat of Seat’s sports models.

Seat seems to have arrived at just the right time, hot hatch culture is picking up in China especially as roads become more crowded and torque rather than top speed becomes more important when doing the traffic light to traffic light runs. The only problem that Seat might face is the high price of its models, as Seat’s will be initially imported into China they will be priced high, later when the models are made locally we will see a big price drop. Seat are certainly aiming at the male segment with their overly sporty marketing and links to Spanish football clubs, it seems like this is a brand that will do extremely well in China when they eventually launch here.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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When the car finally launches in China it will be an economy model aimed at low income and rural buyers, if the end product looks anything like the concept, then the Baojun 630 might have some competition also.

Picture by Mark Andrews

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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Engine power will come from Geely’s own 1.3 Turbo engine, which is not likely to be as powerful as MG’s 1.5T unit (should that ever find its way into the MG3) but will likely be enough to light up the wheels at the traffic lights.

As per usual with Geely, this is not a concept car (Geely never show concept cars…) and will see production very soon.

Pictures by Mark Andrews.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Zotye appear to have worked an incredible amount on their new range of cars that were shown for the first time last week. The Fiat Palio based model was on show, but obviously not the highlight of the Zotye stand – the range of concepts that Zotye had on show this year were quite impressive. The easiest to spot was obviously the reskinned 5008 SUV, but the other platforms are new models introduced to widen the Zotye range away from the current SUV and MPV offerings.

Zotye are going to have a good future if and when they get these cars into production, especially as they have quietly become one of the leading pure electric vehicle companies in China over the past few years.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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Spyker brought two new models to Shanghai, the C8 Aileron and also the C8 Laviolette. A special edition of the Laviolette was made available for the Chinese market, where it will sell for around 4.8 million RMB. This model will be a true drivers car with a six speed manual gearbox mated to a 4.2L V8 engine producing 500 horsepower – that’s 100 ponies more than the regular car, which all help push the car to 62mph in less than four seconds.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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According to different media, the XV is supposed to be a rival to the popular Nissan Qashqai, but the XV appears to be a much smaller model. The interior of the XV concept has been given a major rethink over the current XV’s offering, a moonroof has been added and also a redesigned dashboard, if the XV is anything like the recently unveiled Impreza in New York, then it will be packing a CVT rather than a 4 speed autobox when its released.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Huang Ying holding her medical report

Not all the action was happening on the floor of the Shanghai Auto Show, it appears that a good chunk of the action was happening in the ladies dressing room as well.

25 year old Chinese model Huang Ying is a relatively famous model in China, or rather her fairly ample bust is, according to her version of events on the 20th April Huang Ying was in the dressing room for models sitting next to another model, Lan Miao Miao. In a stereotypical super star model manner Lan Miao Miao was having a public display of anger and refused to have anything on the shared desks in front of the two models. When Ms. Lan went to move a coffee cup, the contents spilled onto Huang Ying’s dress but in an odd move Ms. Lan demanded that Huang Ying Ying apologise, when an apology was not forthcoming Lan Miao Miao picked up Huang Ying’s bag and emptied the contents on the floor, then called in the make up artist to take away all of the make up on the table.

This is when the fun really started – Huang Ying looked Lan Miao Miao in the eye and this seemed to send Lan into a seething rage, she grabbed at Huang Ying’s face and threw her to the floor and gave Huang Ying a good kicking as well. Event management staff were quickly on the scene and seperated the fighting pair, staff requested Lan Miao Miao come over and apologise but by 2pm in the afternoon she failed to appear, Huang Ying went to the hospital with her manager.

An apology has still not yet been delivered by Lan Miao Miao, a police case has been filed in Shanghai but two sparring models are turning to private legal action to solve the case.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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The new Eastar is a million miles away from its previous version, the sleek lines put on par with the Kia’s and Hyundai’s of yesteryear and could even (perhaps) be compared to a toned down Kia K5 (Optima) sedan in the right light. The Eastar rides on top of the Riich G5 platform and is carrying a naturally aspirated engine rather than the thirsty 2.0T engine that is in place in the Riich G5.

Pricing is expected to be around 120,000rmb when launched which should make it highly competitive with other Chinese branded cars and even some international models.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The Baojun brand is going to be aimed at low income buyers in rural and suburban areas, the belief behind creating a new brand to target these consumers (and the same for Nissan and Honda) is that although rural consumers have lower incomes than city residents they also aspire to become car owners but perhaps lack the consuming ability to take on a foreign branded car from a joint venture company – JV cars are generally more expensive to buy but also more expensive to maintain due to high service levels.

First impressions of the 630 are good – the whole car is well designed, the rear, the front, the side profile all resemble a car from a much higher brand and price bracket. Moving onto the interior you can see the Chevrolet Cruze influence down the center console and around the binnacles, all of this is extremely well made and well crafted, and certainly not like an economy branded car. Underneath the 630 you will find ‘mature technology’ (this is automotive public relations lingo for ‘older than Moses’) which has served various GM models before, even the 1.6L engine was taken from older GM models but updated to meet 2011’s needs.

If the Baojun 630 is not top of the top 10 selling cars in China in the next six months (and we will check) then there is something seriously wrong with the dealership network or the advertising, as the product is clearly top notch. The 630 is bringing the fight to the local competition in a serious way, it’s a game changer like no other. Chinese manufacturers may well be readying their up market models (see BYD M6 and S6) but once you become known for making cheap cars, it’s incredibly hard to shake that image, even Chevrolet is having difficulties in pushing its brand up market, Geely and Chery were forced to introduce new brands that had peculiar names, but they are working in making sales. The 630’s success will be down to a strong marketing machine, something that GM has perfected since its inception. If GM could get rural Americans into automobiles in the post world war 2 era, then they can get Chinese farmers to do the same in 2011. Baojun is going to be big.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The Fiat 500 is not expected to be one of the Fiat models made in China, but Fiat may have seen a chance by the recent success of the Smart car range from Mercedes. The miniature models have been flying out of Mercedes dealerships in recent months due to the car being pushed as a lifestyle accessory for upwardly mobile Chinese consumers, it seems that Fiat will be targeting the same audience.

500 pricing was once rumored to be over 200,000rmb to compete with the MINI, but in all likelihood it’s going to be around 100,000rmb and rising to make it competitive with the Smart. Pre-sales of the 500 are expected to start in July/August before going on full sale in September this year.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The T60′s sole goal in life is to show that Beijing Auto are still capable of making a beautiful car out of an old platform, the T60 will be the flagship model in the Beijing line up, the concept car was revealed in Shanghai and wowed an amazed crowd. You can expect the T60 to be on the market in early 2012 according to the vice director of passenger car sales, Mr. Liu Yu. In a recent interview with Chinese auto portal, Netease.com, Mr. Liu revealed that Beijing Auto’s biggest problem is that it is lacking a strong brand, although this is likely to be overcome in the next few months.

SAIC found itself in a similar position in early 2006 when the Roewe name and dealership network was sparely populated after the cars initial launch. Another problem that Beijing Auto will face is that its own home market of Beijing is undergoing a round of anti car policies that see auto registrations limited to just 20,000 new cars each month, other first tier cities where potential T60 owners lurk are likely to have the same problem with license plate fees overly expensive.

Nether the less, if the T60 is representative of models that are yet to come from Beijing Auto we can expect a strong line up of world class cars.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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Bertel Schmit of The Truth About Cars was also caught in the same scrum, but with him practically being a German-American he wasn’t quite ready to pull back and fired off a few shots on his camera before retreating to a safer area with no overzealous body guards.

When car company CEO’s enter their stands on media day to inspect the cars its highly likely they will get mobbed by the assembled journalists, which is why most CEO’s wait until before or after the show to put their face in, or they arrive via a fenced off area, having your black shirted pot bellied goons push journalists aside just leaves a very acidic after taste.

Ash

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Ford have finally confirmed that they will produce the next generation of Ford Kuga for the Chinese market and hope to get into production ASAP to have a strong offering in the compact SUV segment – something that Ford have completely ignored until recently. At the Shanghai 2011 Auto Show Ford showed off their Vertek SUV concept, which so far appears to have gained a high amount of media interest.

The president of Ford Asia Pacific, Joe Hinrichs, was on hand to say:“With China’s SUV market in rapid growth mode, we are excited and thrilled to bring the Vertrek concept to Shanghai in 2011. We expect it will attract many show visitors, auto bloggers and reporters alike because many of its state-of-the-art design cues will be incorporated in Ford’s next-generation SUV that will be built and launched in China,” Hinrichs added.

Ford had several new vehicles on show in Shanghai, including the new 2.0T Ford Mondeo and also the Fiesta Sporty+ which had sports style front and rear skirts to boost the Fiesta’s sporty image.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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When the 530 launches it will be powered by a 1.6L engine, but Brilliance are working on a 1.5T engine which will deliver big power with a small displacement, the self developed turbo engine will be able to produce 100kW/5500rpm and have a max torque of 200Nm, a 5speed auto will be added into the car as well.

A June launch is being set aside for the 530 sedan and prices are expected to be from 80,000rmb and rising, a turbo model could be over 100,000rmb when launched.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The C301 hatchback has been featured on China Car Times many times before, but this is the first time that we have seen the sedan version outside of spy pictures, the sedan is to be known as the C302. When it was announced that Beijing auto would make a saloon based on the C301 hatch, it was unclear how it might work, but the overall design theme seems to very comprehensive and quite attractive, if a little bland.

The C30 series are based on the Mitsubishi Colt platform and are powered by 1.5L Mitsubishi engines.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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This little concept was caught getting no press attention at the side of the Citroen stand, not much information was available on the Green-i concept, but the related signage did say that Chang’an and PSA share the same vision for a greener future.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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For 2011 the exterior and the interior was updated. The gearbox was upgraded to a six speed automatic unit and the four cylinder ecotec engine from the Buick range was installed into the Capitiva, which should give it good fuel economy. Pricing for the 2011/12 model has not yet been announced, but it is likely to be in the same 200,000rmb range.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Since the 2010 Guangzhou Auto Show, Land Rover have received nearly 1,000 pre-orders, but since pricing has been announced more are expected to flock to the brand. The five door Evoque will be priced from 628,000rmb whilst the three door coupe will be 638,000rmb, prices in the UK start at just 300,000rmb but the Evoque is an import and import taxes do apply.

The Evoque is expected to be serious competition for other compact luxury SUV’s, especially the Porsche Cayanne, whilst the two do not compete on power they do compete on looks and branding, and in China looks and brand are more important than power.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Brilliance A3 SUV

For the weeks we have been gearing up for the launch of the Brilliance A3 SUV as it was to be one of the major center pieces for Brilliance at the Shanghai Auto Show, oddly on the first press day there was a big space for where the A3 SUV should have been. It thus started a ‘who dunnit‘ across the auto show.

The likely culprit appears to be Brilliance’s own partners, BMW. Rumor has it that BMW were unhappy with Brilliance for practically cloning  the X1 and then putting it on show before BMW had a chance to launch their own locally made BMW X1 2.0T. Several of Brilliance’s own car models have BMW overtones within their design, partly as a nod to their Bavarian brothers clean line designs, but the A3 SUV was the first time that Brilliance had taken a liberal Xerox approach to BMW’s styling.

When the A3 SUV will launch is now a mystery, as BMW did not launch the locally built X1 at this Shanghai Auto Show, it might be that Brilliance will have to wait until next years Beijing Auto Show if BMW are going to launch at the years end Guangzhou Auto Show.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Launching a gasoline burning car in 2011 is akin to sacrificing yourself before you even get your business running, so of course the Fusalage is based on an electric drive train. Icona’s lead designer, Samuel Chuffart, put in the hard work on the Fusalage and envisions that all four wheels will be powered by four sub axel motors with the 360kg battery pack being nestled into the central tunnel. The 15kW/h motor has a 380v nominal voltage which is good enough to speed the Fuselage to 100km/h in just 4.5 seconds and will put the cars top speed well over 200kph.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The auto parts halls have finally opened and all of the international and major local component manufacturers can be found in W4 and W5.

The PR/Marketing and media are leaving town or have already left town as of yesterday night or today, the stands are going into commercial mode with an aim to sell sell sell. The next few days expected to be fun as some of the odder consumers come to town.

Keep watching. More updates to happen this week and weekend.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The G5 was initially supposed to launch in 2010 but the launch was delayed until Guangzhou Auto and Gonow were happy with the design and more importantly the quality, they seem to understand that the market has some strong competition so they need to get their products right, they could have launched early and grabbed the market but that would have reflected poorly on the company’s brand if and when complaints from drivers arose.

Engine power comes from a Mitsubishi 2.4L engine, so whilst not the most powerful car on the market it will do the job adequately.

Overall, the G5 looks like a good economy SUV which will be popular in the city and outside, it looks like it will be handle a bit of the rough stuff as well, can anyone else see a bit of a LandRover Freelander in the rear quarter?

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Yang Song, the head of sales at Dongfang-Nissan, said that Nissan and Dongfeng are aiming to build a dealership network of 100 dealers covering 31 key provinces in China before the end of the year. Nissan dealerships are becoming crowded with the ever increasing product line up which has powered Dongfeng-Nissan to become one of the best selling car brands in China last year with over 1.02 million cars cars sold, surpassing the US market for Nissan.

The Venucia brand was first aired at the Guangzhou Auto Show in 2010 but for the Shanghai Auto Show Nissan showed the Venucia’s first model. No information was forthcoming on what might be powering this first new model, the concept cars name not announced either, furthermore looking under the concept no suspension or platform was visable – concept cars are not always based on real car platforms but models that are soon to hit the production lines generally are, perhaps Nissan are further behind than initially thought with this model.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The Big Snake

Mitsuoka is a niche Japanese car manufacturer based in Toyama city, they are a small manufacturer but are aiming for the high life in China. As odd as Mitsuoka’s cars look, they do appear to be selling in China, partly on the novelty value and partly because practically everyone in Shanghai has a Bentley, Rolls Royce, Ferrari or a Lamborghini, a Misuoka Big Snake has become a fairly unique car to have in your garage.

I talked with a Mitsuoka man in late 2010, his goal was to sell 25 cars in the first year and double it each year, the Japanese earthquake may have set them back a little but it appears that their first year goals are well on the way to being achieved.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The motor will power the rear wheels to a top speed of 140kph and has a cruising range of 130km, the 0 to 60 time is not that impressive at 11 seconds but is more than enough for 90% of drivers on the roads.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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According to Maxus promotional literature, the Maxus brand is one “Europe’s most influential and recongizable commercial vehicle brands.” which is very odd, as the Maxus brand has not yet been introduced to Europe, especially as it was launched several weeks ago in Shanghai. The Maxus van from van maker LDV, has however, been on sale in the UK for a number of years and has quite a few accolades under its belt including Top Product of the Year 2005 and Van of the Year in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.

The V80 is available in four basic models that break down into other models, the basics are: V80 Deluxue – a high end MPV with 7 seats, Maxus V80 Standard – a 9 to 13 seater MPV, Maxus V80 Logistics – a 5 to 6 seater van with a large cargo area (it only has 5 to 6 seats to gain MPV status rather than cargo van, if it was a cargo van it would be banned from most city centers during rush hour traffic, not good for couriers and delivery men!) and the Maxus V80 Special Purpose Vehicles – these are police cars, school vans and also ambulances. All models seem to be carrying the same 2.5 Turbo Diesel engine.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Not a lot of work has gone into the W5 to “Roewe’fy” it for the Chinese market, badges seem to have been swapped over and some minor internal work has taken place to fit SAIC’s 1.8T engine into the gigantic engine bay, Ssangyong’s 3.2L V6 is also available. It’s unlikely that this will be on the market for very long as SAIC had an SUV concept on show right behind the W5. More in the next post.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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