The Chinese city of Shanghai is thinking of rewarding buyers of an eco-friendly alternative-energy car with a free license plate, Shanghai Daily reports via Gasgoo. Big deal, you say? In Shanghai, it is a big deal.
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So used has the MSM become to China’s red hot car growth, that Reuters headlines the October sales report “Chinese car sales dip in October, but still robust.” China’s passenger vehicle sales clocked-in a year-on-year growth of 79.6 percent in October. In September, the growth was 83.62 percent, which serves as the reason for Reuter’s slight concern.
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China’s Ministry of Commerce on Friday announced it would formally launch an investigation into subsidies on imports of some automobiles from the United States, Reuters reports. With all the bailout money sloshing around, China won’t have a hard time coming up with evidence.
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If the GM-SAAB-Koenigsegg-BAIC deal ever closes, Beijing Auto (BAIC) would be interested in taking the current generation Saab 9-5 and produce it in China once the 2010 Saab 9-5 is launched in Europe in April next year, Chinese media reports via Gasgoo.
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With all the noise about GM’s interruptus of the Opel sale, we could forget that there is a brand GM wants to sell, badly: Hummer. Since June it had been announced that the sale of Hummer to little-known Tengzhong in China is as good as done. Except that it wasn’t.
Still ain’t.
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Did we mention that China’s Brilliance hasn’t been doing so, well, brilliantly? The joint venture partner of BMW, and maker of supposedly homegrown Ersatz-BMWs (the sight of which makes any BMW engineer reach for a bottle of Jägermeister) had racked up losses to the tune of 9b Chinese Yuan ($1.3b) in the first half of the year. And now, its European importer went kaputt. HSO Imports, located in tax-friendly Luxemburg, declared insolvency. To the tune of silent, but audible “hipp-hipp, hurrah!” amongst Germany’s automakers. Break out the bubbly, another attempted Chinese invasion has been repelled.
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Nannification makes a great leap forward: OnStar services will be activated and fully operational in China in December 2009 on some Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet vehicles, PRNewswire reports. The system will be operated by OnStar Telematics Company Limited, a joint venture between GM and SAIC. According to the blurb, “this is OnStar’s first venture outside of North America in its 11-year history.”
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While other countries are weaning off their auto markets from the amphetamine injections, China is set to increase the dosage. Already the world’s largest auto market, the Middle Kingdom is hell-bent on turning its working masses into mega motorists.
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BMW is talking to China’s 800 lb gorilla SAIC about producing BMW’s luxo-barge, the 7-series in China. This according to Bloomberg who has it from Dongfang Daily, who heard it from an unnamed source at SAIC.
BMW and SAIC had been talking about a joint venture three times in the past, says the Chinese paper, but noting came of it.
If this isn’t one of those Chinese rumors that are floated on one day, and denied the next, then this could be interesting in several respects.
China will lead the U.S. as the world’s biggest auto market for a “long time,” (if not forever.) This assessment doesn’t come from the Chinese propaganda machine. Nick Reilly, GM’s head of international operations, thinks China is too far ahead of the U.S. and demand will grow next year, Bloomberg reports.
Reilly sees vehicle demand in China increase to more than 13 million units next year from about 12.5 million in 2009. “I don’t see the U.S. being anywhere near that,” Reilly said.
Someone who has the same name as myself had urged Chinese parts manufacturers for more than a year to go overseas and to buy parts houses at firesale prices. Why? Because they make much more money that way. The foreign parts houses mostly produce in China anyway. Often with huge Chinese manufacturers as subcontractors. By moving closer to the customer and up the value chain, by turning from contract manufacturer to marketer, the Chinese manufacturers could realize much higher profits.
A year later, this thought finally resonates in Detroit. Under the title “Chinese likely to be buyers of U.S. auto suppliers.” Crain’s Detroit Business runs a rather belated story.
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We nearly abandoned all hope (or fear) that China might buy a Western brand. The Ford-Volvo-Geely deal was on the ropes, supposedly over intellectual property worries. We didn’t believe it.
Finally, FoMoCo officially announced that they had inspected all the bids. Geely came out on top, says the Wall Street Journal.
China’s Zhejiang Geely Group Holdings Co. was bestowed the official title “preferred bidder for Ford’s luxury Volvo brand.” Apparently, Geely coughed up the better deal Ford wanted. Now the two sides will enter “more detailed and focused negotiations.”
Europe has tried long and hard to stop Chinese cars at its gates. Mainly by smashing them to bits and putting the results on YouTube. The cars that make EU certification remain unmentioned. This is going to change.
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If it goes according to the plans of two competing car dealers, Des Moines, Iowa, will become the center of the Chinese car export revolution. The Chinese car invasion has been long feared, but so far has not materialized. Two guys in Des Moines are on a Chinese trade mission …
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Here’s a piece of news that will make Gordon G. Chang double his daily dose of Maalox, after he had eaten his words written in Forbes: This September, GM China sold more cars than GM USA. General Motors and its local joint ventures sold a record 181,148 vehicles in China in September, the company reports via Gasgoo. Back home in the U.S.A. GM sold 156,673 cars and trucks, as per Automotive News [sub] official statistics.
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