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 on tap. For 2014 the new model gains the big engine as well as some other refinements such as day time lights, a fatter chrome strip that runs through the rear lights and updated fog house lightings.

Beijing plans to have 50,000 electric cars by 2015, 30,000 of which will be owned privately, the rest used as public transit, taxis and other public uses, Legal Evening News reports.

On Sunday, the first electric car rental service in Beijing opened in the Wudaokou area of the city as part of the Electric Beijing Partnership Plan, according to Caixin News, a financial news website. As part of the launch, dozens of charging posts were installed. The partnership between Yika Car Rental Service and Beijing Automotive Group, or BAIC Group, one of China’s largest state-owned automakers, has rolled out the first batch of electric cars, 15 vehicles produced by BAIC.

This is part of the initiative to popularize electric cars in Beijing, in the hopes of alleviating the city’s infamous congestion and pollution problems. The plan is to have 50,000 electric or hybrid vehicles in Beijing by 2015, which will include 30,000 private vehicles, 8,000 public buses — a third of the total number of buses in Beijing — 10,000 taxis or government vehicles and 2,000 for uses in logistics, environmental, postal and rental sectors, Legal Evening News, a Beijing newspaper, reports.

“BAIC has made a promise to the city of Beijing to launch electric cars in the first half of 2013,” said Lin Yi, the Managing Director of New Energy Automotive, Ltd., a subsidiary company of BAIC. “We are now looking for volunteers to purchase he first batch of electric cars in Beijing; there will be dozens of them in the first half of the year.”

To promote electric vehicles, the city and the central government are each offering a 60,000 yuan ($9,800) subsidy to private citizens willing to purchase an electric car. Anyone can sign up to test-drive electric cars on evbeijing.cn.

Cost is a central concern for consumers who are considering electric cars. An electric vehicle retails usually for more than 200,000 yuan. With the 120,000 yuan combined government subsidy, a consumer can expect to pay a price par with the cost of a traditional vehicle.

“The front-end cost is about the same, but an electric car and a traditional car have vastly different maintenance costs,” Xu Heyi, the president of BAIC, said. “A traditional car will run around 20,000 kilometers (12,430 miles) per year and cost 20,000 to 30,000 yuan to maintain. One of BAIC’s electric cars, however, only costs 12 yuan to run 100 kilometers, so the cost of maintaining an electric car for a year will only be 2,400 yuan.”

As an extra incentive, Beijing has just built the largest electric car charging station in the world. The station can service and charge up to 400 electric vehicles per day. Beijing boasts of four other charging stations and 15 groups of charging posts around Beijing, Legal Evening News reports.

Chinese brands sold a combined 260,100 vehicles, a decline of 11.18%, a month to month increase of 6.31% and accounting for 26.63% of the market. Japanese brands sold 176,660 vehicles taking 18.07% of the market, German cars sold 244,800,  taking 25.05% of the market vehicles, American vehicles sold 152,400 taking 15.60% of the market, Korean brands sold 98,700 vehicles taking 10.10% of the market and French vehicles sold 41,000 vehicles taking 4.20%.

Great Wall hasn’t made any official announcement regarding the Indian market as of yet, however noise was made regarding a new plant in India earlier this year.

Like most cities, Taiyuan was woefully unprepared for the Chinese automotive age and has found its city turning into a parking lot at each hour of peak traffic. The city mayor sent out an urgent message earlier today asking the cities residents to use public transport and bicycles instead of their cars to alleviate the traffic issue that has seen the cities main bridge turn into a slow moving car park.

Our colleagues over at the famous Indian Autos Blog spotted the Tunland pick up truck rolling down the streets of Pune where the mid size truck is undergoing testing. The Tunland is a Toyota Hilux sized truck that boasts a Cummins diesel engine and also a Mitsubishi gasoline engine with both using AWD and RWD systems with a 5 speed manual gearbox that offers low and high ratio gear boxes.

The Tunland was developed with international markets in mind, so to see the truck in India comes as no surprise especially as the company has considerable plans for India.

VL Automotive is headed a former GM executive, Bob Lutz, who is widely known to be a true petrol head, Wanxiang are also a major leader in the Chinese automotive business and have been inreasingly looking towards EV technology with key purchases such as A123 battery systems.

The two companies have already made an offer to buy Fisker through a pre-arranged bankruptcy deal, although exact details of which have not yet been revealed to the press. Fiskers substantial US government debt is likely to prove a difficult stepping stone in the takeover of the company, but with VL Automotive’s industry knowledge and Wanxiang’s deep pockets, it is clear that a solution could be found.

SAIC’s controlling share in Ssangyong was lost when the company entered into bankruptcy and was subsequently sold to India’s Mahindra, Ssayong’s troubles in China did not start with the Chinese owner but instead with the Korean workers who often went on strike, leading to a lack of product in the Chinese market and also lead to dealers pulling out the network, decapitating the once 70 strong dealership network.

Ssangyong are now working hard to rebuild their Chinese image, the new Korando SUV has already proven to be popular in first and second tier cities where Ssangyong has dealerships, however an improved vehicle lineup is going to be needed if Chinese consumers are to take on the ‘Double Dragon‘ once more. Ssangyong’s goals for 2013 are modest, in 2012 they sold 13,000 vehicles but in 2013 they want that to increase to 20,000 and then 30,000 and 35,000 by 2015 with a minimum of 150 dealerships by the end of 2013, a considerable increase from the 80 or so dealers they currently have.

Mr. Wang did not reveal any potential partners or even company’s that Ssangyong are in discussions with regarding Chinese production of Ssangyong vehicles.

The SUV pictured above has been codenamed the P241 within JAC Group and is sitting on a RWD platform that can switch its front wheels on when required. The new SUV is still at the codename stage but that codename is likely to change to the JAC P7 to sit above the P5 SUV which has only just been launched, the P5′s 2.0T might be a little on the small side for this new hulking Benz inspired beast so we could potentially see something a little bigger and more than likely a diesel engine taken from JAC’s vast range of MPV’s.

A potential launch date is still unclear, but expect an end of year launch.

The Besturn X80 is priced from 119,800RMB to 181,800RMB with 2.0L and 2.3L engines from the Mazda range, both automatic and manual gearboxes are being offered – an unusual move in the Chinese market where manufacturers like to launch first with a manual and then later with an automatic.

Besturn’s sales director, Mr. Zhang Shao Jun was quoted as saying the X80 is being aimed at the Honda CRV, Hyundai ix35 and Kia Sportage, other smaller and larger SUV’s are also reportedly in the works and will launch in due time. Mr. Zhang did not mention any sales goals for the X80 but he believes that the market will dictate where FAW will take the brand over the next few years.

In 2010 when Geely bought Volvo, the first step was to bring Volvo to the Chinese market to boost global sales with the first Chinese factory being announced to be settled in Chengdu under the name of Zhong-Jia Automotive (Chengdu) Automotive Production with a registered capital of 500 million RMB.

Journalists were able to visit the Chengdu factory unimpeded by a non existent security and found that the factory did not appear to be ready to produce the China only S60L for the Chinese market, and also noted that the welding, painting and production areas were not yet completed.

Volvo is a major sponsor of the Asia Fortune Forum and is expected to open the new factory during the forum period due to visits from leading industry people and also high level executives from Volvo Sweden.

The new factory will have a capacity of 200,000 cars per year in its first phase with the factory opening in June but with full scale production thought to have been pushed back until October 2013.

The GA3 has already been shown at the Shanghai Auto Show where it was on stage in a red dress, this early run production version shown above in white shows that the concept shown in Shanghai is not too distant from the production version. Engine power will come from a 1.5L naturally aspirated engine and possibly even a 1.3T that is currently in development. A years end launch in Guangzhou Auto’s backyard at the Guangzhou Auto Show is more than likely, pricing is reportedly from 80,000RMB and rising.

We initially thought the MG5 turbo would have aired at the Shanghai Auto Show last month but it seems the turbo will have to wait until later this year before it rears its (possible) new head.

AutoCar:

To make this car competitive in the UK market would take a great deal of work, although it must be said that the firm’s parent company, SAIC, is already making great strides in its powertrain development, and has a proven track record with the MG 6 for making a sweet riding and handling car.

Furthermore, we would urge some caution before laying in to MG; this car did not feel entirely right, the test venue was far from perfect. Perhaps it’s fairest of all to wait until we get the opportunity for a full road test before drawing too many conclusions.

ZX Auto’s AUV rolled down the production lines in Yichang city earlier today as well, the mini trucklet does not actually go on sale until late June but the company held a Start of Production (SOP) Ceremony to introduce the media to the new car and ZX Auto’s production capacity. The AUV stands for Activity Utility Vehicle and comes at a time when ZX Auto is aiming to have a Great Wall Motors moment as it turns from relying solely on trucks and SUV’s to smaller hatchback like models.

The AUV measures in at (LxWxH) 4120mm x 1761 x 1645 with a wheelbase of 2500mm, it has ground clearance of 182mm which seems to be a good figure for urban driving. Power comes from an off the shelf Mitsubishi 4A91 1.5L series engine, the unit produces 141Nm of torque when paired with a 5 speed manual gearbox. Pricing hasn’t yet been announced but we suspect it will be in the low 60,000rmb range to get people more interested in the ZX Auto brand.

The GV5 is a compact seven seat home use MPV that will carry a 1.3T engine to help it pack a torque punch, manual gearboxes are shown in the spy shots but we suspect that automatic offerings will be offered later, the GV5 might also come with a 1.5L naturally aspirated engine.

KME, or Kovatach Mobile Equipment Corp are a Pensylvania based company that have looked beyond the domestic US market for new sales and have partnered with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings to establish a new JV to supply the Chinese market. The new JV was officially announced at the China Fire Expo 2013 earlier this month where the company received a reported 80 orders for a combination of 80 pumpers and tankers.

Initially KME product trucks will be imported into China but eventually will see Chinese production, the new JV with Brilliance will create a 31,000 square meter facility in Dalian Economic Zone with work starting in July, initial production is set to be just 100 vehicles but this will be ramped up to 300 to 500 by the fifth year.

KME  is focusing itself on developing fire trucks that are capable of tackling fires in high rise buildings, pinning its experience on its experience in tackling fires in compact high rise cities such as New York and Chicago. High rise fires have become a major concern in China after the major boom in construction from the year 2000 onwards, high rise apartment blocks and skyscrapers have become commonplace in even China’s smallest cities, these buildings are often out of the reach of China’s current firetrucks.

After focusing on the Chinese North, East and South, VW are finally looking to the West of China to further push sales in the worlds largest auto market as the company fights with its arch rival GM for sales figures in the Chinese market. The contract between SH-VW and Changsha City leaders was signed at a ceremony earlier today and work commencing on the new factory as early as Thursday this week.

Volkswagen are pushing to open ten new factories this year around the world, with seven of those factories landing in China. Volkswagen will create new factories in Urumqi, Foshan and Ningbo, new parts factories will also come online in Changchun and Foshan later this year. Volkswagen’s Chinese total production capacity is currently 2.6 million vehicles per year, but VW aims to expand this figure to 4 million units by 2018 with average annual growth aiming to be around 35% each year

SAIC also have plans for a Thailand plat to facilitate sales in the South East Asian and Middle Eastern markets with initial production capacity reaching 50,000 units with plans to increase it to 20,000. SAIC’s international sales are still relatively small but the company does have large expectations to expand sales by 20% in 2013.

At the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show Chery announced its ‘One Chery Strategy’ which included the ending of Riich, Reely and Karry brands which would be pushed back into the Chery brand with Chery’s 20 plus products being streamlined down to just 12 products. The restructuring comes at a difficult time for Chery, especially as the multi-brand strategy was largely seen as a failure with severe product overlap in their own range.

In Chery’s first financial statement it seems that the ‘One Chery Strategy‘ has hadn’t had a major effect on the financial fortunes on the Anhui company as of yet. In the first quarter Chery’s net income reached 129 million RMB which had was a substantial increase over the same period a year earlier, however Chery’s operating income continues to be low at 7.33 billion RMB, a slight fall over the same period in 2012. Chery’s operating loss reached 191 million with the same period 12 months earlier reaching 234 million, Chery does however have substantial income of 451 million RMB from other areas, an increase of 300% over the same period a year earlier.

Rumors emerged after Chery’s financial statement was made public that Chery’s 33,000 strong workforce would be shrunk to 24,000 after the poor showing in the first quarter of the year, however Chery was fast to deny the rumors. Chery is undergoing a round of restructuring as part of its new strategy.

Fujian Auto own several automotive brands including the SouEast and XinLongMa small vehicle program as well as Xiamen JinLong Coach and also the potentially lucrative Fujian-Benz joint venture, although the latter two are not expected to be part of any Dongfeng tie up.

It has long been rumored that Dongfeng and Fujian Motors have been planning to announce a partnership, rumors intensified when the NDRC approved the development of the XinLongMa project which would rely on Dongfeng’s assistance.

The Central Government has been pushing for greater integration in the Chinese car market for a number of years, the first major round of consolidation in the Chinese market was the take over of Nanjing Auto by larger regional rival Shanghai Auto who took over MG from Nanjing, but the ‘great consolidation’ that was rumored to take place never arrived – manufacturers rushed to add brands to their production lines to strengthen their position in case of any potential take over talks.

The deal will be announced tomorrow, it is rumored that Dongfeng could take upto 40% of Fujian which would give them the controlling majority in the company.

Chinese media are citing inside sources within FAW-VW who claim that the joint venture will launch a new sub brand within the next three years and will see a launch before the end of 2015. The new brand will be aimed at the lower end of the market as a low cost alternative to VW’s current range which starts at 82,800RMB for the New Jetta. VW’s CEO Martin Winterkorn previously announced that the company is planning to make ever cheaper cars with a future model priced between 6,000 and 7,000 Euro.

Previously FAW-VW’s vice president did reveal information on the JV’s plans for a new sub brand which were followed by leaked images of what the cars may look like.

The last generation 3-Series could be bought for around 300,000RMB whilst the current generation is retailing for just over 320,000RMB for the low powered 184bhp, the 245bhp sells for 380,000RMB – both are a considerable price increase over the last generation model. BMW plans to increase 3-Series sales by introducing a 1.6T engine that is shared with the 1-Series. The 316i is likely to drop the 3-Series price below the important 300,000RMB barrier putting it more in the 2.0T Audi A4′s price range.

As announced previously on China Car Times, Beijing Auto signed Nicolas Cage as their brand spokesman just a few short weeks after Cadillac scored Brad Pitt as their headlining man for the Cadillac brand in China. Who got the best bang for their buck? Possibly Beijing Auto after the Nick Cage advert went viral. If you want to see Mr. Cage racing his Senova D sedan around Beijing’s Goldenport Park Circuit whilst being perused by two unknown assailants, Cage even manages to pop his Senova up onto two wheels just by downshifting.

At least the advert is better than Mr. Cage’s previous movies, notably Ghost Rider. Watch the advert here on Youku.

The Lamborghini in question was being piloted by a mechanic on a test run on Kunming’s Guan Nan Boulavard, he reportedly reached circa 200km/h before plowing into a Hyundai ix35 SUV which rolled over, skidded and hit an electric bike rider killing him instantly. The SUV occupants, a man and his son, were slightly injured in the collision. The mechanic was not affiliated with Lamborghini Kunming, the official designated workshop for Lamborghini models in the area and it is likely that he was working with a third party.

Pictures of the grizzly accident have been circulating wildly on the Chinese internet, with reports stating that the driver was entering into a speed restriction zone of 50km/h when the accident occurred. The police have already arrested the mechanic and are investigating the accident but lawyers have already commented via the Chinese media that as the accident occurred whilst the mechanic was technically at work both him and his company are responsible

The owner is apparently unhappy with Furi Group, the company that are responsible for distributing Maserati in the Qingdao area, as they have been repairing his fine 2.6 million ($423,000USD) Quattroporte with second hand parts rather than the new parts he paid for and haven’t fixed all of the issues that he originally cited. At 10:15am this morning as the Auto Show opened, the owner and his friends took sledgehammers to the Maserati to prove their point

According to reports the Maserati was bought in September 2011 but in November that year it was back in the dealership to correct an issue, and without receiving authorization from the owner the dealership used second hand parts to fix the issue but charged the owner 2400RMB (390USD) for new parts that were covered in dirt according to the owners side of things.

The dealership or Furi Group have yet to make a statement, but we suspect that they wont be held hostage to an irate car owner who is crazy enough to smash up his 423,000USD car over a 390USD bill.

This isn’t the first time a supercar has been smashed up at the Qingdao auto show, in March 2011 an unhappy Lamborghini owner smashed up his own car at the Qingdao Auto Show to get media attention on the lack of attention Lamborghini China was paying to its customers in China – except the car owner bought his Lambo second hand from Germany according to our sources, so we fail to understand how Lambo China would be responsible for a car bought from overseas markets….

We cannot wait until next years Qingdao Auto Show!

The Daily Mirror are running with some embarrassing photos of Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson pushing the MG6 Diesel model to the side of the road after stalling it, presumably before a filming session. The MG6 Diesel is expected to feature in the next series of Top Gear that starts in the autumn of this year.

Pricing is a little unusual, the 2.0T starts at 139,800RMB but the 1.8T starts at 188,800RMB – the 1.8T being aimed squarely at government buyers who have to buy something equivalent to or smaller than a 1.8T engine for a maximum of 180,000RMB.

• 2.3T Luxury – 215,800RMB
• 2.3T Elite – 195,500RMB

• 2.0T  Luxury – 181,000RMB
• 2.0T Elite – 165,800RMB
• 2.0T Comfort – 149,800RMB
• 2.0T Fashion – 139,800RMB

• 1.8T Administrative – 211,600RMB
• 1.8T Govt – 188,000RMB

The 2.0T engine produces 150kw (circa 200bhp) and has 290Nm of torque whilst the larger 2.3T offers 184kw and 350Nm of torque, putting the engine largely on par with the VW Magotan/Passat’s 2.0T. Gear shifting is carried out by 5 speed automatic gearboxes, no manuals are currently on offer but that could potentially change.

Beijing Auto seem to have hit a sweet spot with the pricing coming in at roughly 25% less than the rival 2.0T VW Passat/Magotan whilst offering a similar sized and powered vehicle.

The above image is the D-Series Aero edition which was aired at the Shanghai Auto Show and promises a 0-100km/h time of less than 6 seconds. The white D-Series are a mixture of the 2.0T and 2.3T vehicles, pictures taken from auto.163.com

The ix35 has proven to be a popular model for Beijing-Hyundai, the joint venture between the two companies.

Hsueh has been running Hyundai’s China operations for a number of years and believes that the new plant is required if Hyundai are to keep and improve on their market share. Hsueh also commented that Dongfeng-Kia’s third plant in the Chinese market would be finished two months ahead of schedule which would give the two companies a combined production capacity of 1.8 million vehicles per year in the Chinese market.

Changsha has become a major automotive production hub in recent years with Fiat Chrysler, Mitsubishi and several other local manufacturers setting up shop in the area. SAIC are also planning to establish a new energy focused factory in Xinjiang, China’s most western province.

The Nanjing-Fiat joint venture expired almost naturally, Nanjing was disinterested in the JV owing to the lack of investment by Fiat, and Fiat grew disinterested owing to the lack of enthusiasm for building ‘Developing World’ products in the Chinese market when it was moving out of a developing world market.

The new joint venture is full of promise; new leadership has been brought in such as GAC Fiat’s most recent appointment of British national John Burton to run the American-Chinese-Italian joint venture. John brings a new level of enthusiasm and experience to the young partnership, he has worked with some of the biggest names in the auto industry starting off with Austin-Rover and moving up the ladder to senior positions at GM internationally and then across to Fiat Chrysler.

John sat down with us at the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show to explain where GAC Fiat is going in these tentative early days. Chinese production of Jeep seems to be the hot topic, especially as the deceivingly handsome Cherokee was launched just a few hours previously on the stand across from Fiat, but what of other brands such as Chrysler and the creation of a GAC-Fiat sub brand? Jeep production in China is a foregone conclusion with John pointing out that the paint shop in Changsha has already been given considerable updates prior to any future Jeep model being sent down Chinese production lines.

Jeeps, and compact SUV’s in particular, are a hot commodity in the Chinese market with it the fastest growing segment to date – but it seems that Chrysler is getting the cold shoulder. Will Chrysler be produced in China? John says never say never. The handsome 300C is already on the market in China but as an import it is overly expensive against other luxury models such as the 3-Series and also the 5-Series. John says the same for any potential sub brand coming from the GAC-Fiat joint venture, whilst other manufacturers including GM, PSA and Honda etc have rushed to announce the creation or have already got sub brand cars on the road Fiat doesn’t seem ready to commit to yet another pre-production brand, all eyes are on Fiat and Jeep.

The Viaggio, as a sister car to the Dodge Dart, brings a little slice of Italian life to the Chinese market. Some engineering changes were made to the car for China, independent rear suspension has been nixed in favor of a torsion bar to lower costs and also a sole 1.4T engine which Michael Manley (Asia Pacific President for Fiat Chrysler) believes Chinese customers prefer to larger 2.0L and 2.4L engines offered in the Dart. Viaggio sales seem slow to start with owing to the restricted dealership network that currently stands at 134 dealerships but will be extended to 200 dealerships by the years end, the car also seems incredibly competitive against rivals such as the VW Sagitar 1.4T which starts at 120,000RMB whereas the Fiat is just over 100,000RMB, a bargain for those who live within a reasonable distance of a Fiat dealership.

Expanding the dealership network and improving Fiat’s marketing within China is key to improving sales, an issue which is acknowledged by John himself, however with a new car coming each year to the Fiat brand, Fiat are well placed to improve market share in China – when you start at nothing the only way is up.

1. VW Lavida – 33,900
2. Ford Focus – 30,700
3. Buick Excelle 25,300
4. Chevrolet Sail – 22,900
5. VW Passat 21,500
6. VW Santana – 21,300
7. VW Sagitar – 20,600
8. VW Jetta – 20,400
9. Nissan Sylphy – 19,600
10. VW Bora – 19,200

Yema only has a license to produce SUV vehicles, hence their love of making enlarged vehicles to get into the SUV bracket. Lambo looks are the final part of the deal, under the hood a 1.5T Mitsubishi engine packing 105kw and 200Nm of torque is given the task of hauling the SUV along Chengdu’s roads.

When will it hit the market? It might not. Although Sichuan Yema have announced plenty of new cars in the past, they have yet to put any of them on the road.

Older MG’s came with air suspension under the name of Hydragas, the new CS will also come with air suspension – either the MG is giving a nod to history or it will have telescopic suspension for offroad use. Hopefully both. All Four corners of the CS SUV will use independent suspension rather than the body roll inducing rear torsion bar that is offered on the MG5.

Production is expected to begin in late 2013 with the market launch happening in 2014 at the earliest.

Hyundai and its sibling company Kia are likely benefiting from weaker Japanese companies that are still recovering from the diplomatic spat that effected sales considerably from September 2013 onwards.

Total sales for the Hyundai brand reached 86,729 units in April.

Chinese automotive media have been busy speculating on where Jeep production will eventually begin, some comments have been made that Jeep will land in Guangzhou’s own Panyu district where as other articles citing official comments from GAC Fiat indicate that Jeep will use GAC Fiat’s brand new facility in Changsha where the Fiat Viaggio is currently made. The first phase of production at the Changsha facility is 140,000 units, with the second phase reaching 250,000 to 300,000 units. GAC Fiat’s sales goals for this year alone is just 80,000 units, giving them 60,000 unit capacity where Jeep’s could potentially be made, is that enough?

Chinese media are speculating that Guangzhou City will become the home of Jeep in China owing to the over reliance of the city on Japanese automotive brands, which were hit hard during the recent anti-Japan protests and subsequent boycott of Japanese products, city leaders are reportedly worried about rising strong anti-Japanese sentiment that could potentially one day spill over into something more serious, leading to a long term slump in sales. One feather in Guangzhou’s cap is the myriad of suppliers that inhabit the region, at the governments support many key suppliers are located in the region, also the GDP in the Guangdong area is the highest in China putting it on par with many Western countries in terms of income, PSA have already moved into the area with their partnership with Chang’an to take advantage of the rapidly consumer spending ability.

One more speculation is that Jeep could potentially share production lines with Guangzhou Auto’s own Trumpchi product line which so far  hasn’t lived up to sales expectations and has excess production capacity. In the first quarter of this year Trumpchi sales were up by 350%, an impressive number of vehicles but those sales translate into just 16,000 vehicles sold in three months.

With the 2014 Cherokee sharing a great deal of DNA with the CUSW platform that is used by both the Dodge Dart and Fiat Viaggio, it seems that the ideal place would be right in Changsha.

Chinese media are running with rumors of the return of the last generation CRV, either under a sub brand or within the Honda brand once again. The CRV is currently produced via Dongfeng-Honda whom have created the Ciimo brand together which currently houses the rebranded last generation Civic which is also selling quite well. The CRV is a regular star in the Chinese SUV sales charts with it netting over 15,000 sales in April alone (down on the 21,000 sold last year), the addition of the last generation could easily see sales double.

The mk2 Jetta was thought to continue in production for taxi fleet use, but that could potentially change with the introduction of the Polo sedan based Jetta.

SAIC GM Wuling sales were up 5.9% to 135,815 units whilst FAW-GM sales slipped slightly by 0.3% to 5,124 units in total.

Buick sales in China reached 66,923 units in April which was an increase of 23.9%, the Buick brand was carried along by the original Excelle family with 25,336 whilst the newer Excelle XT and GT saw a sales increase of 53.7% to 18,413 units.

Chevrolet sales in China rose 21.7 percent and reached 50,559 units. Sales of the Cruze, the brand’s most popular model, were up 8.6% to 17,277 units. It was followed by the Sail, which sold 15,409 units, and the Malibu, which sold 8,786 units.

Cadillac sales in April were up 99.1% from last April to 4,077 units. It benefited from strong demand of 2,195 units for the SRX luxury utility vehicle and 1,802 units for the new XTS luxury sedan.

Between January and April 2013, Shanghai GM had domestic sales growth of 16.8% to 503,587 units and SAIC-GM-Wuling generated domestic sales growth of 6.7% to 551,892 units. Both were records. FAW-GM’s local sales were down 1.8% to 21,653 units.

The Chinese daily newspaper, First Financial Daily, is reporting that the new factory will be based in the Jinqiao area of Pudong, Shanghai, close to GM’s Asia-Pacific Headquarters with work commencing on the factory in June this year with total production capacity reaching 150,000 in the first phase and investment of 8 billion RMB.

Cadillac have been invested in the Chinese market for a number of years but suffered from internal competition from Saab and Opel, but with these two brands being pushed aside in favor of Cadillac the brand has seen rapid growth with a dealership network that reaches across China.

Imports make up the bulk of Cadillac’s Chinese line up which makes them cost prohibitive in comparison with locally made luxury vehicles from rivals at Audi and BMW. Currently only the XTS and SLS are made in China, but with the addition of extra capacity Cadillac could potentially introduce other popular models such as the SRX SUV model.

With Cadillac’s German rivals at at Audi and BMW easily breaching 300,000 sales last year, it seems that Cadillac are a long way behind with sales of just over 30,000 sales in 2012.

So how much does a CEO take in, specifically the CEO of major Chinese automotive companies? Those that are listed on the HK stock exchange have to reveal the director level payment packages so investors can clearly see where their money is going. Of course, some Western CEO’s take a token 1USD salary but have decent stock options instead and we’re sure the situation in China is largely the same in China as well. If they lead the company well their stock returns will be much higher than their salaries and of course have lower tax on them as well.

In 2012 BYD’s billionaire chairman netted a 2.77 million RMB salary (438,525USD), but that was down from his 4 million RMB salary in 2011, of course BYD’s total income was down by around 800 million over the same period so its nice to know that even CEO’s are taking austerity seriously. Wang Chuan Fu nets the highest salary in the Chinese auto business, but the gentlemen is also China’s richest man so his BYD salary is likely chump change to him.

Li Shu Fu, the Chairman of Geely and the brains behind the Volvo saw profit rise 32.2% at the Hangzhou based company, but his salary is just 327,000RMB per year ($53,122USD), probably on par with some of his own mid level white collar staff.

JMC’s GM Chen Yuan Qing hasn’t seen a payrise in three years on his 238,240RMB per year salary (37,500USD), his salary is reportedly paid in USD so he is losing money whilst the RMB appreciates against the USD.

Geely’s CEO Gui Xian Rui brings in just over 2 million RMB with his salary approaching 2.36 million RMB per year, a nice increase over 2011′s salary where he netted 1.96 million, a further 3.41 million RMB was given to him in stocks, bring a total of 5.77 million into Mr. Gui’s bank account. nice.

Great Wall’s Board Chairman Wei Jian Ping’s salary rocketed from 1.74 million RMB to 2.47 million RMB over the course of 2011 to 2012.

Four companies are offering salaries between one million and two million RMB per year: Foton, SAIC, Ningtong and GAC. Ningtong Coach didn’t see any major salary upgrades in 2011, with CEO salary staying at 1.2 million RMB. SAIC’s CEO Chen Hong’s salary jumped from 917,000RMB in 2011 to 1.36 million RMB in 2012.

Foton and GAC saw a salary drop in 2012, probably due to a poor financial show in 2011. Foton’s General Manager Wang Jin Yu saw a salary decrease of 3.1% with a net salary of 1.88 million, Foton’s total income dropped 20.7% in 2012 with profit increasing 17.4%.

The A4 is expected to be a flagship vehicle for Chery as they move their brand from low cost to high value with the introduction of several new vehicles. The A4 will be a value packed vehicle with day light running lights, central display system, automatic AC units etc as well as many other features and safety systems.

Power will come from the same engine as the Chery A3, so expect a 1.6L DVVT engine producing 126bhp and 160Nm of torque when paired to a 5 speed manual or a CVT gearbox.

Lam unveiled the new SP:01 at last weeks Shanghai Auto Show where details on the new model were finally revealed, the sports car has a top speed of 249km/h and can hit 100km/h from standing in just 3.7 seconds, furthermore the car has a range of 180 miles. Priced at 1.25 million RMB, the SP:01 is priced fairly competitive when compared to rival supercars. The SP:01 will be produced at the new Detroit Electric production site in Wayne Country, Michigan. The dedicated facility will have an annual capacity of 2,500 vehicles and create over 180 manufacturing and sales-related jobs over the next year.

Detroit Electric also signed a deal with China’s Geely to jointly develop a new EV based on Geely’s existing infrastructure, the Geely Emgrand EC7 is the first candidate to receive an electric upgrade. The two companies will work together to develop and produced the first Geely EV which will be co-branded as a Detroit Electric-Geely product. The vehicle will initially be sold primarily to business users and public-sector organizations, with two companies are forecasting sales of around 3,000 units in the first 12 months, growing to around 30,000 units per year within three years.

The new EC7-EV model will offer both medium-range (with a driving range of 165km per charge) and long-range options (an approximate range of 258km per charge). Building on Detroit Electric’s performance DNA, the vehicle can deliver class-leading acceleration (0-100kph acceleration under eight seconds) and a top speed exceeding 200kph.

The LA based company was struggling to sell its $38,145 Coda EV that was largely created in China and re-assembled in the USA. In August last year it was revealed that the company had sold just 78 cars which then followed staff layoffs where 15% of the company’s staff were cut.

Coda based its flagship EV on the Hafei Saibao sedan which was designed and built in Harbin City, North east China. Last year Coda signed an agreement with Great Wall to develop and produce an EV vehicle that would be on the market by 2015, with the oncoming bankruptcy it seems unlikely that any Greatwall EV will be produced with Coda’s help in the near future.