So today The Tycho,  proprietor of Carnewschina and expert on Mao-era-revival cars, intercepts me at the show and says: “You did it all wrong! You talked about the H7, but showed the L7!”

“I beg your pardon?”

It turns out he was right as usual. In my piece on the Red Flag car, the wrong pictures were added to the wrong text. Corrected. As a make-good, here the ultimate L7/H7 pictorial. (Read More…)

We met at the Volkswagen booth. Ready for take-off. (Read More…)

Audi’s baby-SUV Q3, in “Jinlong Yufeng” dress. Which means “Golden Dragon in the Wind,” or so I am told. (Read More…)

The Jeep was the first American car made in China through a joint venture. Somewhere along the way, Jeep lost it. Jeep is trying to get its moxie back with the “Dragon” design concept. (Read More…)

This time truly imported from Detroit: The Chrysler 300 Ruyi. A 300C, adapted to Chinese tastes. Still called a concept.

Not only does the Volkswagen Group dominate China by market share, it also has its own hall at the Beijing Auto Show. (Read More…)

So they finally took the wraps off the long anticipated and already much hated Urus, the SUV concept from Lamborghini. (Read More…)

First media day at the Beijing Auto Show. Accredited working press only. Half of Beijing must be accredited, and the other half must be on their way to China International Exhibition Center (New Venue) – that’s what it’s called, no joke – in order to finagle one of those hard to get press passes. (Read More…)

Hybrids are a tough sell in China. Honda and Toyota want to change this.  Honda wants to change it so bad that it will provide its core hybrid car technologies to other Chinese automakers, in addition to its joint venture partners, The Nikkei [sub] learned today. (Read More…)

If you want to see the future of the electric car, you have to go back a hundred years. In 1900, over a quarter of all new automobiles ran on battery. City cars? Around a third of the buggies of Chicago, Boston, and New York City were electric. They were decimated by cars running on smelly and flammable gasoline, because people wanted to drive fast and long distances. Hundred years later, little has changed. Ten to 20 years from now, something might change. (Read More…)

Last week, Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech celebrated his 75th birthday. Yesterday, the presents arrived. Volkswagen bought the maker of Piech’s motorcycle, Ducati. Piech’s contract as chairman was extended by 5 years. And a buxom blonde received a seat on the board: Piech’s wife Ursula. (Read More…)

Renault/Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn wanted to announce it Monday or Tuesday in person in Beijing. On the other hand, the upcoming production of Infiniti cars in China leaked last week, after Nissan’s worst kept secret had kept the Chinese rumor mill in motion for more than a year. After Gallic shrugs all around, Nissan confirmed today that two Infiniti models will be manufactured locally in China from 2014. Ghosn will have to find something else to feed the media on Monday. Dim sum perhaps? (Read More…)

The Emir of Abu Dhabi is tired of the car business. Germany’s Spiegel Magazin heard that Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Aabar wants to sell all stock in Daimler. Aabar also wants out of Daimler’s Formula 1 team and the joint investment in Tesla. (Read More…)

Officially, carmakers around the world are putting on their best “what me worry” faces and say that they are unaffected by a sudden shortage of a key component, caused by a factory explosion in Germany. Behind closed doors, they are freaking out. Carmakers and suppliers met in Detroit for an emergency summit under the auspices of the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIGP). After the meeting, the first admissions of impending doom surfaced. (Read More…)

More than half of new car shoppers have recently changed their minds about  the car they want to buy, says a new study by Kelley Blue Book. Researches find customers  thinking about cars they normally would not have considered. What is changing their minds en masse: Rising gas prices.  (Read More…)