Troubled battery maker A123 is getting another lifeline. This time, from China. Wanxiang Group will invest as much as $450 million in the company, says Reuters. Wanxiang, one of the largest Chinese auto component makers. A123 will soon be Chinese. Read More >
China is the world’s largest market for heavy trucks. People who are suicidal enough to have personal experience with Chinese highways will readily agree. Nearly 1 million units of the heavy (and usually blue) units were sold last year, more than in North America, Europe and South America combined. Ford wants a chunk of this interesting market.
GM’s U.S. sales get the headlines, GM’s volume is a Chinese import: In the first seven months of the year, GM sold 1.6 million cars in China, versus 1.5 million back home. GM’s Chinese sales data deserve more than a cursory look. Let’s look. Read More >
China’s most popular color
Forget the ATS. Now you can show that you are fiscally prudent and still project the Cadillac look. All you need is a ticket to China and $6,700 in pocket money. This will buy you the Guizhou Hangtian Chenggong (never mind) GHT6400. Says Carnewschina (buy Tycho a beer as a thank you for finding this Asian beauty): Read More >
Forget Mao suits: “Chinese youngsters know Justin Bieber, hamburgers and Middle East warfare,” reports the culturally clued-in Carnewschina. “They also know this thing called ‘Bikini Car Wash’, many Chinese websites are full with big-breasted American babes bikini washing big engined American cars.”
A car wash in Shanghai made it reality. Except, well, the babes are Chinese. Read More >
What do you do if you lose market share and can’t stand it anymore? You deliver what the market wants. Hyundai is trying to make up for losses in China with a (so far) China only car that slot between the Elantra and the Sonata, says Reuters. Read More >
With China being the world’s largest car market, and the largest market of many of our carmakers, getting good and timely data is essential for stock analysts and journalists alike. Bloomberg has an exasperated story that cries about the absolute mess in China when it comes to hard data. It also describes the great lengths analysts go to when gauging Chinese car sales. No wonder the analyst reports are often messier than even the messiest Chinese data: Read More >
A few months ago, Volkswagen extended its joint venture contract with Chinese partner FAW for another 25 years, with appropriate pomp and circumstance: Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel witnessed the signature. Now, Volkswagen takes the unusual step of going semi-public with the theft of intellectual property. According to reports in German media, FAW has “systematically and repeatedly” stolen designs of important components such as engines and transmissions. Volkswagen’s hands are tied. Read More >
The New York Times carries a long story today that chronicles changes in the Chinese car market. Written by Reuters automotive specialists Norihiko Shirouzu and Fang Yan, it is a story of China where you now get a discount and instant delivery for a BMW instead of having the option to pay 20 percent more, or wait a few month for delivery.
The car market in China, says the article, is becoming more like that in the United States, where most of the money is made in financing, insurance and maintenance. Indeed it is. Read More >
Tycho de Feyter, who blogs about Chinese cars in Carnewschina.com, is very much concerned about the well-being of his Chinese compatriots. So much, that he tracks the overlo9ading of vehicles. This “slightly overloaded truck” was seen on China’s tropical island province Hainan. The truck carries big sacks of styrofoam to a recycling facility. Not much weight, but the truck could easily be blown away. Read More >
Members of the Chinese car industry are busy hiring foreign engineers and designers. That trend apparently has not reached China’s Shaanxi Province yet. The province is home to state-owned conglomerate Shaanxi Victory. It’s automotive4 division made unremarkable trucks and vans. Very few knew of this venture. Now, Shaanxi is famous all the way to Detroit. The company copied the Cadillac Escalade as the master design for its new S102. Read More >
General Motors pensioners should not worry about their underfunded pension plan. Its assets will be in safe hands. Those of the Chinese government. The Chinese government has agreed to buy large chunks of it, says Financial Times. According to the paper, China’s “State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which manages China’s more than $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, will pay $1.5bn-$2bn for GM’s positions in blue chip private equity funds.” Read More >
From the Only In China blotter: A customer who did not receive the service he expected for his Cayenne used sex to drive home his point in a photogenic way. A Chinese man threw body-painted girls into the battle with his Porsche dealership. Do not click if arty camel toes offend you. Read More >
Growth of the formerly red-hot Chinese auto market is as slow as traffic during the Beijing rush hour. At least, there still is some growth. Sales of all automobiles in China are up 2.9 percent for the first half of the year to 9.59 million vehicles. Sales in June were up 9 percent. This according to data released by the by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). Read More >
Our patent-pending oracle for the Chinese market has spoken and predicts slight June gains for the world’s largest car market. GM China did this by announcing a 10.1 percent gain on 213,495 units sold in June. Read More >
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