It was one of the worst-kept secrets: Two weeks ago, Reuters reporters had picked up the scent of Daimler planning a big investment into China’s BAIC. This week, rumors started flying around in Beijing that it is true. Today, Daimler announces, as expected, that “Daimler AG is going to invest in BAIC Motor, the passenger car unit of BAIC Group, one of the leading automotive companies in China.” Read More >

Now about those Benz-BAIC rumors: While Beijing is going gaga, Reuters has been suspiciously quiet about an upcoming deal between Daimler and its Chinese partner BAIC. Reuters, which has good ears and feet on the ground in China, had reported two weeks ago that something might be happening. Today, Reuters breaks its silence and says: Read More >

How do you beat the Dow? Occasionally, by reading TTAC. Yesterday, we wrote about Beijing rumors that Daimler and China’s BAIC are planning a big tie-up.

While we at TTAC are busy looking for the appropriate tie-up pictures, in case the rumor should prove true, the Dow Jones Newswire reports today: Read More >

There are rumors ricocheting around Beijing about a possible big tie-up between China’s BAIC and Daimler. BAIC is Daimler’s joint venture partner in China, where the joint venture handles Chinese production of the long version of the E-Class, the C-Class and the GLK. Read More >

U.S. government funded and nonetheless bankrupt battery maker A123 will be Chinese. China’s Wanxiang emerged as the successful bidder in December. All the deal needed  was U.S. government approval. The deal has been approved, says Reuters. Read More >

Guangzhou Autos is reporting that 2012 profits are down as much as 80 percent, thanks to the dispute with Japan over a few islands in some godforsaken corner of the world.

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Word from Germany is that Opel’s head of sales and marketing, Alfred Rieck, is departing Opel after just 7 months on the job.

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GM China had a near-miss with Volkswagen this year. It scraped by being relegated into second place in China by reporting 26,128 units more than Volkswagen. VW’s 2.81 million cars sold in China were rounded, GM’s 2,836,128 were reported to the last unit. Read More >

Volkswagen has ended the year on a strong note. Shrugging off the troubles at home in Europe, Volkswagen increased its global group sales by a respectable 20.7 percent in December of 2012, bringing its global group sales for the year above the 9 million mark at an 11.2% increase compared to 2011. Read More >

“Sources close to Porsche” told Tycho de Feyter at Carnewschina  that the new 991 Porsche 911 Turbo will get a start-stop system for the Chinese market. This explains why the new 911 Turbo was seen testing in Beijing. The sources, who also provided the new spy shots in this article, said the system is necessary because the Chinese government is working on new very strict emission rules for 2015.  If a car maker fails to meet the new regulations, China will impose a quota on the number of cars this car maker can import. Read More >

After an alleged Swede,  Kai Johan Jiang a.k.a.  Jiang Dalong bought bankrupt Saab’s remaining assets for cheap, we could not help but reminding the faithful that this will not result in a resurgence of the Trollhättan industrial base. We figured that at the very best, Saab will march off to China. If Saab won’t manage to destroy investor’s dreams and money yet again. Both rise in probability.  Saab’s buyer, Chinese-controlled NEVS, has secured  an investment deal with the Chinese city of Qingdao, Reuters says. Read More >

China’s lackluster economy did not dampen the country’s appetite for Bavarian premium cars. BMW’s group sales in China rose a surprising 73 percent in December to 30,470 vehicles, Reuters says.

For the year,BMW’s group sales in in China rose 40 percent to 326,444 vehicles.

Three years ago, we reported that  the Chinese government was interested in buying some of Daimler’s stock. Now, it looks like it might be finally happening. Read More >

Sales of Japanese car in the world’s largest car market, China, continue to be impacted by the war of words (and occasionally sledge hammers) over uninhabited rocks in the East China sea.  Sales are inching up a bit after customers dare to come back to the showrooms of Japanese brands. Read More >

December sales in GM’s largest market China are likely to be less than exhilarating. The indicator: GM’s Chinese joint venture partner SAIC told Reuters that its December auto sales rose 7.1 percent from a year earlier to 350,380 vehicles.

This is much less than the 16.9 percent growth achieved in November. In the same month, GM’s China sales were up 9.7 percent. Read More >