Thousands of Chinese have to say zai jian (good bye) to a cherished symbol of wealth and power: Their white military license plate. “China’s new leadership is seeking to dismantle a system of privilege which has allowed the drivers of military vehicles to do as they please on the road,” writes Reuters. “On Sunday the Chinese military began replacing license plates on its cars and trucks to crack down on legions of vehicles, many of them plush luxury brands, which routinely break traffic laws and fill up with free gas.”

Don’t think these “military vehicles” were all drab and green. Read More >

News of GM potentially exporting cars from China to the United States in the near future has some wondering if the General will be the first OEM to sell Chinese made cars in the United States. One can have a diverse array of opinions on the political, social and economic impact of such a move, but from a product standpoint, it may not be such a bad thing.

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American consumers may have been robbed of a chance to buy the Mahindra pickup, but how about one from Great Wall?

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Meet Brad, Sheena, and Nacho! They are in “the midst of a life-defining campaign to travel around the world”. But they’re afraid to enter Pakistan. Apparently they thought they could travel around the world without visiting any scary places, presumably because their parents didn’t buy them any Jules Verne books. They’d rather drive through China and maybe hang with our Editor-in-chief a little bit, who knows. The cost for that little unplanned detour is nearly twenty thousand dollars. That’s where you come in — helping them make their life-defining campaign as safe and easy as possible.

What? You’re not eager to do this?

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The 2014 Cherokee could be the first Jeep produced in China in nearly 6 years. Jeep CEO Mike Manley said that the Cherokee was an “obvious choice” for local production, as Jeep looks to expand its customer base in China.

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Rather than provide any commentary about Kia, branding or Chinese cars, I present to you, the Horki DYK Concept. Read that aloud and then tell us what you think of the car – and its moniker

And here the part you have been waiting for (especially those of our readers who suffer from Yellow Fever): This year’s round-up of the show’s product specialists. After last year’s  excesses at Chinese auto shows, the calls for a more family-oriented posture show disappointing results:  This year, the racy part is mostly left to the choice of cars on display. Read More >

BMW Mini’s former chief designer Gert Hildebrand and Volkswagen’s former North America vice chief Volker Steinwascher enjoyed the adolations of the adoring masses when they unveiled their new Qoros brand at the Shanghai Auto Show. Read More >

FAW evokes the bad old times when China’s leaders, tired of the Long March, ordered hand-made parade limousines. The originals had been chronicled by Tycho de Feyter. Now they are re-lived as the Red Flag L5, L7, and L9. Read More >

In the past, Toyota had tried to resist the urges of the Chinese government to establish new joint-venture brands. The company also had been highly skeptical of the viability of the electric vehicle. All doubts have been tossed over board. Toyota launched two new brands and two new EVs in China. Read More >

Looking a bit like a hybrid between the Range Rover Evoque and a Subaru Outback, the VW CrossBlue Coupe Concept is the smaller companion to the larger CrossBlue that debuted at Detroit. The Coupe has a twin-turbo V6 and a plug-in hybrid system making 409 horsepower, but don’t expect that to make it into production. Hopefully the CrossBlue’s diesel engine does carry over to the production version, which is rumored to be the next Tiguan.

BYD, the company we visited in yesterday’s story might ditch  conventional gasoline-powered cars and focus on electrics, Reuters says in an exclusive story, Read More >

At the Shanghai Auto Show, which opens to the public on April 21, and to tens of thousands of alleged members of the media the day before, the child of one of the auto industry’s oddest couples will be shown – at least in prototype form. It is the Denza EV, the product of a mésalliance between the world’s oldest and proudest automaker, Daimler, and a company that entered the annals of contemporary automotive history as the most brazen rip-off artist.

Of course we are talking of BYD, the Shenzhen, China, based maker of half the world’s cellphone batteries and a dwindling number of cars. A while ago, I visited an intrepid team of German engineers, shacked up at BYD, to jointly develop an electric car. They were friendly, hospitable, and as forthcoming as possible under the strange circumstances. For months, I could not bring it over me to put my fellow countrymen and expats in the dim light this story would project. Their job is tough enough. But in the interest of timeliness and journalistic duty, here it goes.
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Despite strong pushes from the government and auto makers, hybrid and plug-in cars aren’t gaining much ground in China. A report by La Tribune pegs registrations for these vehicles at a mere 0.17 percent of all registrations in Q1 2013.

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Mercedes-Benz “leaked” (i.e released) photos of the GLA concept ahead of its debut in Shanghai. The GLA is their latest move down the ladder as far as size and price-points go, but it’s also a harbinger of what’s to come from all automakers; another small, car-based crossover. You are going to be seeing plenty of these in the next few years, especially from premium brands that can squeeze lots of profit out of vehicles like these. Hatchbacks, wagons and body-on-frame SUVs are likely to suffer from this segment’s rise in popularity.