After testing the Brazilian waters with imported models, and after having received a passing (-by) grade from our man in Brazil, China’s Chery decided to go whole hog and build Cherys in the land of  Samba.  Chery has signed an agreement with the municipality of Jacareí, a city in the interior of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, to set up a car assembly factory in Brazil, reports Macauhub. (Read More…)

Here is one way to find out whether a company is serious about its long term plans for a given product: Find out whether they worry about what to do with their products after they are dead. That usually separates the serious players from the wannabes. Word reaches us from The Nikkei [sub] that Nissan has teamed up with the venerable zaibatsu Sumitomo, and established a joint venture to recycle electric car batteries. (Read More…)

4x4s are popular in China, carry no social stigma, and are especially popular in China’s affluent east. Imported Land Rovers have made heavy inroads into China. In comes as no surprise that Chinese car manufacturers are lining up to for a joint venture to make Land Rovers in China. (Read More…)

When Geely bought Volvo from Ford, the feel-good story was that production will remain ind Sweden, with maybe another Chinese factory for Chinese consumption.  So much for that. Geely may build three Volvo plants in China, a Geely spokesman told Reuters today. (Read More…)

EVs are also called “Yes but cars.” As in “Yes, but the power needs to come from somewhere. Usually from a dirty plant with a huge smokestack..” Several companies don’t want to hear that anymore and develop a smart grid that powers houses and cars entirely from renewable energy sources. At least that’s the plan. (Read More…)

Toyota turned into a fast breeder for hybrids. They will  introduce six new hybrid models worldwide by 2012, says The Nikkei [sub]

Furthermore, they will display an electric car at the Los Angeles auto show in November that is being developed jointly with Tesla.

Now that Geely has bought Volvo, their founder and chairman Li Shufu is seeking a new challenge. He’s going virtual.

Geely plans to sell cars specially designed for Internet sales at Alibaba, China’s biggest online marketplace, reports state news agency Xinhua. (Read More…)

Everybody is afraid of China swamping the world with low cost cars, but it hasn’t happened. As a matter of fact, Chinese car exports are downright horrendous. In the first seven months of this year, China exported 288,900 units. China imports far more cars than it exports. For the next year, more than 1m of imports are expected. This doesn’t keep Chinese car manufacturers from trying their luck abroad.

Great Wall Motor plans to make a sales push into Europe, the US and Africa despite potential obstacles to market entry, said Shi Qingke, deputy general manager of Great Wall’s international department to The Global Times, the English version of People’s Daily. (Read More…)

PSA Peugeot, and their joint venture with China’s Dongfeng, are planning to export cars made in China to Russia, said Gregoire Olivier, Peugeot-Citroen’s recently appointed head of Asian operations,  to The Beijing News via Gasgoo.

PSA wants to sell cars made at the Chinese JV in other regions of Asia and Russia as early as next year, said Olivier. The only thing that’s keeping them from doing it right now is the lack of a logistics platform. But they are building that in Shanghai as we speak, and it should be up and running next year.

Because Olivier was recently appointed, he may have missed various memos, and will be forgiven. Here a quick update: (Read More…)

One by one, Japanese automakers are turning their back on Nippon and establish production in low cost countries. Can’t blame them: The high yen makes exports prohibitively expensive. On the other hand, a higher and higher yen buys more and more production capacity abroad. Nissan has been on the forefront of this movement, maybe because its CEO isn’t Japanese. Now, Nissan bolsters its presence in Indonesia. (Read More…)

If cars have DNA, as it is being repeatedly claimed, then perception gap must be running in the family at GM. Now, Opel has admitted that they are afflicted by the syndrome. “I agree with you that the brand has great potential to be hipper and younger,” said Alain Visser, chief marketing officer of Opel in Automobilwoche [sub]. And they are trying real hard. They engaged German songstress Lena as an advertising icon. Not the “99 Luftballons” Nena. It#s a sound-alike, Lena Meyer-Landrut of dubious Eurovision fame. Further forays are imminent.  Says Visser: “After the music, we will occupy the themes of sport, art and science.” (Read More…)

When the high Yen drove Nissan out of Japan to Thailand, and to importing their Nissan March (elsewhere known as the Micra) from the  Land of Smiles back to the Land of the Rising Sun, many thought this a daring, maybe even suicidal experiment. Will the notoriously nitpicky Nipponese buyer buy it? Or will “the first move by a Japanese carmaker to export a mainstay model to the home market,” as The Nikkei [sub] called it, be a resounding dud? Either the Japanese are changing, or Nissan pulled-off the impossible. (Read More…)

At home, the market is down 27 percent. Cars?  Who wants them. “What, me worry?” is the mantra from Wolfsburg. Volkswagen’s worldwide group deliveries for the first eight months of the current year totaled 4.70m units, up 13.4 percent. In August alone, deliveries rose by 11.2 percent to 545,500. “As a result, the Group outperformed the global automotive market, not only for the month of August but also for the year so far,” declares a proud communiqué from Wolfsburg.

Volkswagen is exporting itself out of the crisis at home. And they are keeping busy. “This year alone we are bringing over 70 new models to market,” said VW sales chief Christian Klingler. Seventy.

In the first eight months of this year … (Read More…)

While Japanese automakers are digging in for the big sales drop at home, caused by the evaporating government stimulus money, all eyes are across the China Sea. A large share of this year’s profits will come from China, says The Nikkei [sub]. (Read More…)

Sometimes we forget that Toyota Motor Corp. is a member of a huge keiretsu (conglomerate). Well, The Nikkei [sub] reminds us that a “Toyota Motor Corp. affiliated trading house will obtain artificially raised juvenile fish about 6cm long from the university’s fishery lab in Wakayama Prefecture.” Juvenile fish? (Read More…)