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Shanghai VW Developing New Sub Passat Sedan
Chinese media reports from earlier today indicate that Shanghai-VW, the joint venture between Shanghai Auto and Volkswagen, will build a new sedan that will sit under the Passat in terms of sizing. FAW-VW will soon release the latest generation of Sagitar (Jetta in overseas markets) and it seems that Shanghai-VW require their own sub-Passat side [...]
Youngman to bid 730 million USD for Saab
The seemingly never end Saab drama took another turn yesterday when it was revealed that a Swedish Government delegation had visited Youngman in China prior to the start of the Chinese New Year to talk about selling Saab to the Chinese bus and car manufacturer. The Swedish Daily Dagens Industri is reporting that a person [...]
First look at Luxgen 5 hatch testing in China
Taiwanese car maker, Yulong, may have hit a home run with their new Luxgen brand. Luxgen haven’t yet entered other countries other than the Taiwan-China markets but will likely do well when they expand outside of China’s borders. The first Luxgen to be made in China was the Luxgen7 SUV, the sedan is expected to [...]
Chinese Auto Exports Get Their Wheels Turning in 2011
Chinese automotive exports have been long threatened but have not materialized, Western automotive media have been issuing ‘The Chinese are Coming!!’ headlines since 2003, but barely any Chinese cars have made it to Western roads in that time – aside from the London taxi, which ironically is now majority made in Shanghai and shipped to [...]
BYD’s Xia Zhi Bing lands at Zotye
Xia Zhi Bing left BYD in a media storm, the former sales director left just before a round of mandatory lays offs in BYD’s sales department which saw 1000 white collar workers without a job. Mr. Xia was responsible for the rapid expansion of the BYD sales network which eventually lead to unsatisfied dealers leaving [...]
Swedish Government Delegation in China Visiting Youngman
Although Saab is officially out of business, a Swedish delegation is reportedly in China visiting Youngman according to reports from both of the Swedish Daily and also China Daily, the Swedish government is obviously eager to sell off any outstanding parts of the Saab automobile company and Youngman is still appears to be in the [...]
Chevrolet Malibu To Hit The Market in February
The Chevrolet Malibu is a hotly anticipated car for 2012, the mid size sedan has already been shown off at multiple auto shows in China including the Shanghai and Guangzhou Auto Shows last year and has already been given plenty of air time by the Chinese press which seems to have made consumers think the [...]
Over 8000 New Energy Cars Sold in 2011
The Chinese market is often seen as the potential back yard of any major push for EV and other new energy vehicle sales, however until recently the market has been unbelievably small with very low adoption rates. Initial owner cost has been one the more obvious reasons for Chinese consumers to shy away from taking [...]
BYD Shares Rise Thanks to Zero Sales Tax on EV’s in 2012
From Bloomberg BYD Co. (1211), the automaker partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., rose to a two-month high in Hong Kong after the People’s Daily today reported China’s government will exempt three of the company’s electric car models from vehicle-usage tax charges. BYD gained as much as 6.7 percent to HK$22.20, the highest [...]
BYD L6 Ready to Launch
The BYD G6 is already a handsome car with a decent 1.5T engine and also a fairly strong tech line up under the hood, however BYD are eager to bring out the L6 which will sit above the G6 but look somewhat similar to the G6. Confused? It seems that although BYD have cleaned out [...]
State Owned Manufacturers Are The Problem
This article by Auto News China’s Yang Jian brings quite the argument to the privatization of China’s biggest state owned manufacturers, he correctly asserts that the companies biggest weakness is the fact that they are state owned either at the local or provincial level which makes them more keen to listen to government policy rather [...]
VW Sales Reach New Highs in China
VW branded vehicles were the best selling vehicles in the Chinese market in December, the German based company has gone from strength to strengh over the past 27 years it has been in China, in its 28th year in the market the company has gone from relative small time to being the second biggest manufacturer [...]
Porsche Owner Stages Sit In Protest Outside Porsche dealership
One Porsche owner was clearly upset with his recent 2.7 million RMB Cayenne purchase, after owing the SUV for just two months the owner found a string of problems with the super-SUV and tried to talk things over with the dealer in Shenzhen city, without a solution being found the owner towed the Cayenne to [...]
Hafei’s electric future
What ever happened to Hafei Auto? It seems that after 2007 they disappeared from the headlines, their Saibao sedans dropped from the sales charts and only their Lobo and mini vans seem to be keeping them alive, in December 2011 they cleared sales of just 565 units, which doesn’t seem like enough to keep a [...]
Brilliance H330 Spotted Yet Again in Shenyang
Shenyang city is the home of Brilliance, so it comes as no surprise to learn that the company is out testing its new models in the city. What is a surprise is that the company are building the new H330 on top of the current FRV platform, so Brilliance will have the new H330 and [...]
China Auto Market Crawls at Slow Pace in 2011
The Chinese auto market saw its slowest period of growth since 1999 according to figures released yesterday, the Chinese market grew by just 2.45% over the course of 2011. Elsewhere in the world, the US market showed itself as the continued bedrock of the world auto industry with 2011′s sales rising by 10% and an [...]
Geely’s 2011 Sales Miss Target
Hangzhou based Geely Auto missed their 2011 sales goal due to a slow down in the Chinese auto market over the course of last year. Sales rose just 1.2% in 2011 according to a statement the company issued to the Hong Kong stock exchange earlier today. December sales for Geely stood at just 47,755 units, [...]
Zhengzhou Nissan to get new models in 2012
Zhengzhou Nissan’s current model line up consists of several of Nissan’s older commercial vehicle products such as the first generation X-Terra (sold under the Paladin name), pick up trucks and of course the relatively new Nissan NV200 mini van. Zhengzhou Nissan’s sales have thus been limited by the models it sells, in 2012 it seems [...]
Hyundai’s first Shou Wang sedan is old Elantra
Concept cars are great, they show the full design capabilities of a companies internal or contracted design studio and sometimes they show where a car company is heading, be it more up market or more down with the kids. When Hyundai launched their Shou Wang brand and also the first Shou Wang sedan the Chinese [...]
Infiniti’s Stretched M-Series to Launch in June
Infiniti are trying their hardest to claw their way up the luxury segment sales chart, they currently fall around the bottom of the chart and only really out sell Acura products in the Chinese market, 2010 sales were just over 10,000 units whilst Audi sales in the same year were over 220,000 and in 2011 [...]
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