Recent Articles
BAIC 301 official pictures released ahead of launch
Imagine you have a business partner, you make cars together, you own the IPR to the design but your partner produces them. Imagine if one day your business partner started making cars that looked exactly like yours, but retailed for two thirds less. Welcome to the Beijing Auto – Daimler relationship. The most dysfunctional automotive [...]
Third Generation Prius readying for China production including sports model
The Prius was originally made between FAW and Toyota in cold Changchun, sales were not good. FAW-Toyota pulled the car from the market and are now coming back with the third generation and are hoping that sales might be better than the first generation. The new Prius is already in production in China and will [...]
Another look at the Youngman Lotus SUV
Youngman are busy trying to buy Saab yet again, but their own car project has not been held back. Proton signed a deal to supply Youngman with parts, platforms and cars to develop their own brand which was originally called Europestar but swapped over to the Lotus name. Youngman’s involvement with Lotus/Proton has obviously moved [...]
On the Canadian Ambassadors Car
The Canadian Ambassador to China does not get nearly enough press time as his American counterpart, Gary Locke, but it seems this week David Mulroney is a media star. Ambassador Mulroney did not expect to be a star, pictures of his new Toyota Camry Hybrid were posted to the official Weibo (think Chinese Twitter) of [...]
Next Generation BYD F3 to be known as the F3 Su Rui
BYD’s rise to fame came on the back of the original F3, the F3 got Chinese consumers onto the roads in a major way in 2010 and became a ‘peoples car’ so to say. BYD’s policy of trying to make everything in house, from glass to dashboards to carpet became the unsticking point of the [...]
State of the Nation: Where does the Chinese Car Industry really stand?
Given the astonishing growth in the Chinese car market and the staggering displays of new models, hybrids and electric cars at the last Auto Shows in both Beijing and Shanghai, not to mention the other smaller Chinese shows as well as the record-breaking volume statistics, it would be easy to form a view that the [...]
Watch Ford’s Nigel Harris teach you how to sell Ford’s to the Chinese
With car sales of other 18 million cars per year in China, selling Fords to Chinese doesn’t seem like a difficult task on the surface, but once you start to see the competition which is compromised of some 50 plus local brands and 30+ foreign brands, you get an idea of the task at hand. [...]
New BYD Mid-Size Sedan Spyshots, Looks Sharp
The year 2012 promises to be a challenging year for all of China’s automakers, BYD is no exception. That said, BYD has at least two new vehicles due out in 2012 which look quite promising. The first, believed to be known at the F5, was revealed on CCT a few weeks ago. Now BYD is teasing a [...]
Ford Kuga Readying for the Chinese Market
I don’t particularly like using the phrase “Game Changer” but in all honesty, I cannot think of another phrase that sums up the introduction of the Ford Kuga into the Chinese market. The Kuga is currently road testing in the Chinese market ahead of being put into production via the Chang’an-Ford joint venture in Chongqing, [...]
Great Wall Hover testing in Goa
Chinese car companies are salavating at the thought of entering the Indian market, India has a population to rival China but has fewer domestic car manufacturers and thus less competition, of course foreign manufacturers have already set up shop in India but their products remain out of the reach of the common man. Chinese manufacturers [...]
“First” Chinese Auto Plant in Europe to Open in February
Great Wall’s Bulgarian factory is ready to open its doors according to this AFP press report, however it seems that AFP have forgotten that SAIC already have a factory in the UK that is busy producing MG6′s from knock down kits sent over from Shanghai. Although, AFP maybe onto something: the Bulgarian factory will be [...]
The ‘Ford F150′ from JAC
The JAC 4R3 truck seems similar to a truck we’ve seen before, could it be the Toyota Tundra? Could it be a Ram? No, of course its a Ford F150. Spy pictures of JAC’s future 4R3 truck were leaked to the internet earlier this morning and seem to be shooting around the Chinese automotive websites [...]
VW Up! 5 door appears in Chinese patent office
The VW Up! city car was revealed in 2011 at the Frankfurt auto show and quickly made it to the market in the UK, Germany and France with models such as the Move Up! Take Up! and Black Up! Now it seems that the Up! could be coming to China. VW has filed for design [...]
Porsche Planning Own Private Race Course in Shanghai
China has now become Porsche’s second biggest market behind the USA in terms of cars sold, Porsche cleared an impressive 24,340 units in 2011 in the Chinese market, however one problem remains. If a Porsche driver wants to push the limits of their much loved cars they have no where to go, the Chinese highway [...]
New Beetle Getting Ready for China
The new VW Beetle is already on the market in other world markets, and now it seems the rehash of the iconic car will be making a headline for the Chinese market. The new Beetle was unveiled to Chinese audiences at the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show and was highly welcomed by consumers and media alike, [...]
Luxury Marques Burst Ahead in 2011
The Chinese auto market may have crawled along at 2.45% in 2011, but luxury auto brands did not feel a slow down at all. The Chinese luxury car market surged ahead with several brands showing 30% growth or more, which shows that there is still a massive demand for premium or luxury brands in China [...]
The emergence of Chinese Joint Venture Brands
The Chinese automobile market is maturing with growing competition and emerging new market segments, as well as new consumer groups (Kasperk et al. 2011, Gadiesh, Leung & Vestring 2007). The automobile companies present on the Chinese market cope with the upcoming changes in combined efforts of their established joint ventures. Those have been the premise [...]
Understanding China’s Car and Vessel Tax
Up until recently the burden of taxation was pushed onto farmers, now Chinese farmers are nothing compared to American farmers that have massive swathes of land for as far as the eye can see in the Mid West, Chinese farmers are mostly substance farmers with small tracts of land that are mostly toiled by hand. [...]
MG Lands in New Zealand
The old colonial countries were once great business for British Leyland, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand were willing recipients of BL products back in the company’s hay day, however the rise of Japanese and then Korean manufacturers put BL to an early grave. MG-Rover continued selling its produce to the lands down under until [...]
Saying Goodbye to Knock Off Produce – Chinese Auto Design Companies
As mentioned in our earlier article on Chinese car designers, Chinese designed and made is nearly always synonymous with low quality and low cost, but of course that is changing. World class products such as Apple products, Nokia phones, Dell Computers etc are made in China, but what about the industrial designers and who are [...]
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