The United States will report China to the WTO tomorrow, Reuters says. The contention: China’s decision to impose extra duties on more than $3 billion worth of cars imported from the U.S. According to Reuters, “the complaint comes as President Barack Obama campaigns in Ohio, where auto plants have been affected by the duties.” The Prez goes on a “Betting on America” bus tour. Read More >
From London’s Telegraph to Fox News, from Autoblog to Autoguide, gullible media predicted impending doom for foreign carmakers in China. Last February, it was announced that the Chinese government will henceforth only buy Chinese cars. This was seen as a blow especially to Audi. China’s Global Times calls an Audi A6 “Chinese officialdom’s vehicle of choice,” and it was predicted that the officialdom will henceforth have to make do with Roewes and Geelys. Why am I reminded of that story?
Audi’s sales in China are up 37.8 percent for the first six months of the year. Read More >
The sprawling city Guangzhou in southern China sprung a nasty surprise on its (pop. 12.7 million citizens: it drastically slashed the number of new cars being registered. Observers predict that this move could have far-reaching consequences on the Chinese car market. Read More >
“At the Nürburgring, there is always a car that passes me. It is a BMW.“ So said Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda today as he announced a deepening of the relationships between Toyota, and the company that makes those cars that pass Toyoda on the Ring. The surprising part: BMW and Toyota will jointly “develop architecture and components for a future sports vehicle.” Read More >
For two years, the world was worried about a possible rare earth shock, triggered by the crafty Chinese. As they are withholding the dirt that is essential for magnets, motors, and generators, an electrified world will go on its knees – or so the theory went.
The opposite happened. Right when everybody was ready to blame the high prices of EVs and hybrids on the Chinese, prices of rare earths crashed. Small miners went belly-up. And now, shockers of shockers, The Nikkei [sub] says that Japan found 200 years’ worth of rare earth near an island. Even bigger shocker: The island is not on the China side of Japan, it’s in the Pacific. Read More >
Man on a mission: Tycho at the Beijing Auto Show
Yesterday, we reported about Carbuzz purloining content from Carnewschina, and that it is continuing to do so despite vows of repentance. This morning, Carnewschina proprietor Tycho de Feyter opened his laptop in Beijing in order to visit vengeance on the presumptive “leader in car news and industry information.” He keyed in the Carbuzz URL and looked at an empty screen.
“Carbuzz.com is completely down since this morning (Chinese time),” de Feyter telegraphed from Beijing. “Maybe the owners got word of the mess? I hope they stay down, but sadly I can’t do my other articles on these bastards anymore…”
It turns out that Tycho was mistaken. Instead of taking the site down, Carbuzz erected a firewall that keeps out China. Read More >
Italy’s Fiat, late to the Chinese party, finally opened its first plant in China today. Reuters reports that “the plant, based in Hunan province, is the latest development in a 5 billion yuan ($786.73 million) joint-venture between Fiat and GAC, China’s sixth largest auto manufacturer.” The plant also should help improving China’s dismal car export statistics. Read More >
Popular wisdom says that China is a bunch of thieves with utter disregard for intellectual property. Any good, or even half good idea gets immediately stolen in China. In a man bites dog twist on the story, an American website is being accused of serial thievery of made-in-China intellectual property. According to Beijing-based Carnewschina, the Rockville, MD, site Carbuzz.com “systematically steals my content for their China-tag. CarBuzz.com steals my pictures, my information, but does not link back to me.” Read More >
While other carmakers are treading water or worse, BMW’s global sales were up 9.1 percent for the first five months of the year, mostly on strong gains in China. That party is about to end, claims Citi Investment Research and downgraded BMW AG from “buy” to “neutral,” Reuters reports.
In the euphemistic world of stock analysts, a “neutral” usually means a sell. Read More >
Honda is mining for rare earth in unusual places: In cars.
Honda has been extracting rare earth metals from used nickel-metal hydride batteries since April. Today, the company announced it will begin reusing the extracted metals before the end of 2012. Read More >
Carnewschina spotted this Panther with a – shall we say – unique paint scheme in Shanghai. Black was not enough for this Town Car. Gold was not enough for this Town Car. It needed to be orange-gold on black. Use eye protection, and don’t stare at the picture for too long. Read More >
The previous BYD F3 was known as a more than blatant copy of the Toyota Corolla. Many buyers pay a small extra fee to have (fake) Toyota badges affixed, making the F3 nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. The next generation BYD F3 wants to be known for groundbreaking innovation: The car will be remote controlled. Read More >
A hitherto unknown Chinese business man who leads a shadowy “consortium” buys the assets of Saab. The media eats it up. Dalong “Kai Johan” Jiang takes the microphone and says what everybody wants to hear: “Electric cars powered by green electricity is the future and electric cars will be built in Trollhättan.” Jiang says there is a huge market for these made-in-Trollhättan EVs, waiting in China.
Nobody dares to say that it does not make sense at all. We say it. Read More >
To the people in the room the buyer of Saab the remaining assets of bankrupt Saab was known before the press conference started today at 1pm at the Saab showroom in Trollhättan. When Dalong “Kai Johan” Jiang takes a seat in the audience, and is joined by his Chairman Karl-Erling Trogen, it is clear what bankruptcy administrator Hans Bergqvist will announce minutes later:
“The buyer is the National Electric Vehicle AB.”
Jiang takes the microphone. He knows his audience and says what everybody wants to hear: “Electric cars powered by green electricity is the future and electric cars will be built in Trollhättan.” Read More >
Lotus may not have been sold to the Chinese (yet) but someone else was. And they’ve been making cars for over a year. Supposedly, they’re not bad to drive either.
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