Remember how GM brags that they are the largest auto manufacturer in China? CAAM, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers says otherwise (via Gasgoo.) Here is the official CAAM list of the 10 largest passenger vehicle manufacturers in China, and their units sold in 2009:

1. Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co: 708,100 units
2. FAW-VW Automobile Co Ltd: 669,200 units
3. Shanghai General Motors Co Ltd: 668,200 units
4. Beijing Hyundai Motor Co: 521,000 units
5. Dongfeng Nissan Ltd: 459,300 units
6. BYD Co Ltd: 448,400 units
7. Chery Automobile Co Ltd: 409,300 units
8. Guangqi Honda Automobile Co Ltd: 337,200 units
9. Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co Ltd: 334,700 units
10. Geely Holding Group Co Ltd: 329,100 units

Taken into account that VW makes their Chinese cars with two joint ventures, SVW and FAW-VW, Volkswagen’s  combined total rises to 1,377,300. The imported VWs bring the number well above 1.4m . (Read More…)

China’s Geely has joined other manufacturers such as Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai, Renault, Kia, and Toyota, and launched a production line in Russia. Geely opened a plant in Russia’s Caucasus republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, China’s state news agency Xinhua reports. (Read More…)

A lot of what we have written in the last few days, even what we have not yet written, is utterly wrong, say the objects of our writings. Here are the denials of the day. (Read More…)

Divorce Sunday: Mazda and Ford will dissolve their joint venture partnership in China by 2012, The Nikkei [sub] writes.

The Chang’an Ford Mazda Automobile Co. has been producing cars since 2006. The JV is 50 percent owned by Chang’an, 35 percent by Ford and 15 percent by Mazda. (Read More…)

Did we say that the auto industry has to deal with severe capacity problems? China has capacity problems alright. It looks like the biggest impediment to further sales growth in China is a shortage of cars.

China’s car makers are running three shifts and still cannot keep up with the demand, Bloomberg reports. Nissan’s factory in central China is making cars almost 24 hours a day, yet customers are faced with three month waits for their new car. Other companies, such as Ford and Honda, are running their Chinese factories at full capacity, with overtime and weekend shifts, and still can’t deliver enough cars. (Read More…)

People have a refound appetite for luxury vehicles, decided Daimler. Their workforce in Sindelfingen is working full-time. Wonders of wonders: They even brought temporary workers back. All this as per the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung [sub] in Germany. Reason for the sudden Benz boom? (Read More…)

And another Wale of a story: Just as production of the Hummer H3 and H3T is c oming to an end in Shreveport, LA, Kevin Wale, Prez. of GM China, says he hopes Chinese regulators will finally approve the sale of Hummer to Tengzhong.

“I’m optimistic that it’s going to happen,” Wale told the Freep reporters on the sidelines of the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit. “Tengzhong is not an established manufacturer and that’s an issue that needs to be addressed with the Chinese regulators.” Uh-oh. (Read More…)

Kevin Wale, president of GM China, is convinced that China has passed the U.S. for good as the world’s largest auto sales market. He expects China’s growth to continue, creating a gap that will be too large for the U.S. to close, says AP.

As reported ad nauseam, vehicle sales in China last year rose 46.2 percent to 13.64m units. For this year, cautious industry association projections expect somewhere between 15m and 16m units to change hands.

Wale thinks Chinese auto sales will be anywhere between 14.5m to 15.5m by the end of this year. For the U.S., analysts predict 11.5m to 12m.

Very optimistic analysts reckon the two countries could be trading places until 2015 when China firmly takes the lead. Wale isn’t one of them.  He doesn’t think the U.S. will ever regain the lead. (Read More…)

The prospect of US launches by Chinese and Indian auto brands like Tata and BYD have at least one of the established US-market players in a paranoid froth. Honda VP John Mendel revealed a few of the nightmare scenarios that keep him up at night to USA Today [UPDATE: more on Mendel’s fears at Automotive News [sub]]. One, inspired by BYD’s plans for a 2010 US launch without a distribution channel in place, is that newcomers could skip the dealer model altogether. Mendel worries that “warehouse stores or electronics stores” (sound familiar?) could be used to cut dealers out of the loop, “blowing up” business-as-usual for US distribution strategy.

(Read More…)

“Ford is trying to get the deal done with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group within the next several weeks,” a Ford spokesman said to Dow Jones Newswire. Ford is sticking with Geely, and is pouring cold water on rumors that Ford is entertaining other bids and bidders.

Sweden’s Dagens Industri had reported on Tuesday that Volvo’s CEO Stephen Odell had intimated that “Ford is open to talk with others. Those who say that the door is shut can go to Ford and talk with them whenever they like.” Looks like it’s wishful thinking. Sure, anybody can talk to Ford (if their call is taken.) But they will receive only one answer: “No.” (Read More…)

So they say, if you want to be a successful car manufacturer, you must have steel in your DNA, gasoline in your blood, a history reaching back generations, and an annual output of at least 5m to stay profitable. And even then it’s not a slam dunk, as we are painfully aware.

Wang Chuanfu proves them all wrong. (Read More…)

Buffett-backed Chinese EV firm BYD is back at the Detroit Auto Show after making its main-floor debut last year. Like most automakers, BYD has toned things down a bit this year, featuring the same vehicle it brought last year, the all-electric e6 crossover. Last year, BYD said the 250-mile, 14-sec 0-60 e6 would be coming to the US at an estimated $40k pricetag.  This year, BYD’s Fred Ni is telling ABC that the e6 could be more reasonably priced, implying that it would be sold at a price point comparable to similar gas-powered vehicles.

(Read More…)

It’s definitely official now. The last word in Chinese vehicle sales has the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM,) and the CAAM has spoken. Vehicle sales in China last year rose 46.2 percent to 13.64m units. This is not surprising, but it is nonetheless reassuring that the 13.6m number TTAC had reported last week was only 40,000 short. It is equally official that China is the world’s largest auto market, ahead of the U.S.A. by 3m units, more or less.

Vehicle sales in December alone rose 91.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.41m units in China, the CAAM said. Passenger car sales jumped 88.7 percent in the last month to 1.1m units. Full-year 2009 China passenger car sales are up 52.9 percent in 2009 to 10.3m. If passenger cars alone would count, then the truck and SUV happy USA would look like a 3rd world country: According to Automotive News [sub], only 5.7m new “passenger cars” drove off U.S. dealers’ lots in 2009, slightly more than half of what the Chinese bought.

Will the sales boom continue in 2010? Not as mad as in 2009, expects the CAAM. The manufacturers association expects growth to continue at a more moderate pace of 10 percent. This would mean 1.36m units in additional sales, or a total of a little less than 15m. Merrill Lynch is a little more bullish and thinks that the Chinese market will grow to 15.5 million vehicles this year, the Nikkei [sub] reports. A horrific thought to those who are scared that Chinese will use all our oil, and that melting polar caps will destroy the value of our waterfront properties. Wait, it’s getting worse. (Read More…)

Between the tooling for the old Saab 9-5 being shipped off to China and GM “starting” the wind down process, even the most optimistic, “fuel tank is half full” members of the auto world are starting to think that it’s “game over” for Saab. Well, here’s the final nail (barring a completely audacious bid, from an equally audacious company, who want to spend millions of pounds on a damaged brand) in the coffin of Saab. The Local, a Swedish website, reports that GM are officially killing all plans to bring the new 9-5 to production. “It would be so sad that it never sees the light of day despite the fact that it’s a fantastic car,” admits GM vice chairman Bob Lutz.
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Volkswagen has grand plans for the U.S.A. Volkswagen wants to “increase sales and market share in 2010.” Ok, who doesn’t.  Now, for the delusions of grandeur part: By 2018, Volkswagen wants to more than triple annual car sales in the U.S. to 1 million a year, with  Audi accounting for 200,000 sales, reports the Wall Street Journal. Seen any flying pigs lately?

Why 2018? By 2018, Volkswagen wants to rule the world, and trounce Toyota in unit sales, profitability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and most likely size and quantity of cup-holders also.

Everybody in the company has to do his or her share for the grand plan.
(Read More…)