Volkswagen is hitting on all cylinders this year. The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand delivered 1.23 million units in the first quarter of 2011, up 10.4 percent from 1.11 million in the same period of 2010. That according to an emailed statement from Wolfsburg.
In March, Volkswagen also racked up record deliveries: For the first time, more than 468,000 (March 2010: 446,000; +4.9 percent) vehicles changed hands. Who’s buying all these cars? (Read More…)
Over the weekend, Chinadaily [via CarNewsChina] reported that China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine had halted imports of Jeep Wranglers due to what was reported as
fires [caused by] a problem in the vehicles’ automatic transmission and related systems.
And though for some this story’s value may begin and end with the ironic humor value of China recalling unsafe American products, there’s more to this than meets the eye. As it turns out, NHTSA has investigated a suspiciously similar transmission-related fire risk in Wranglers, and made Chrysler fix it. What’s not clear is why China-bound Jeeps don’t appear to have received the upgrade that US regulators required for American-market sales.
Many equate China with smoke and soot belching cars. In reality, China’s emission and fuel consumption standards now generally follow the European roadmap. Implementation of standards trails the European role model by only a few years. Ironically, it is a European brand that just ran afoul of this misperception – if Chinese media is correctly informed. (Read More…)
Here is another one who’s not scared by China’s suddenly sedate growth rates: Daimler. Or “Benz” as they call them in China. With 43,990 units sold in China in the first quarter, up 86 percent from a year earlier, Ulrich Walker, chairman and chief executive for Daimler Northeast Asia, told Reuters that he is planning for a growth rate of at least 20 percent in 2011, and that’s a “conservative” target. (Read More…)
Beijing’s war on the ICE notwithstanding, auto sales in China rose by 5.36 percent in March. That is the headline from a Sunday afternoon press conference held by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). More than 60 journalists were poised to report that for the first time any of them could remember, the Chinese market did sink. But it went the other way. Still up. (Read More…)
It’s long form Saturday! Most of you probably thought you would never see the day Bertel writes a fiery manifesto for the Electric Car. Today is your day.
Yesterday, we were first to run with the story that Beijing most likely will become EV capital of the world. Not because Beijing scientists have developed the miracle battery. Not because Chinese EVs suddenly go 400 miles on a single charge. Physics did not change. Beijing changes. Months ago, new car buyers in Beijing stopped dreaming about buying a new car.That dream was shattered. Now suddenly, an EV has become the only car a new car buyer can buy and drive tomorrow. Or on Monday. If one would be on sale. Here is what happened: (Read More…)
This is the first in an infrequent series of pieces that take a step back from breathless blogging. They look at a phenomenon over the longer term, they have more in-depth research, they are hence a bit longer. We will run them on weekends, when some may have the time for 1,200 or more words.
Imagine, if you dare, you live in China’s capital, Beijing. It’s a nice place, actually. The population of Australia crammed into one sprawling city. Good food. Nice people. Great nightlife. As cities go, it covers a lot of space. Beijing proper is a bit less the size of Kuwait.
Now imagine you have your eyes set on a new car. Chery QQ, Chevy Escalade, whatever. What do you have to do to get behind the wheel? You have to win the lottery. Not to buy the car, a QQ goes for a few grand. You need to win the lottery for the same thing that keeps felons employed back home: A small piece of blue and white tin, a license plate.
Your chances of winning are rotten. Imagine you go to Vegas, you put a chip on a single number. If that number comes up on the first spin of the wheel, you may buy a car. If not: Better luck next month, ta-dah!
Next! (Read More…)
This is a good one from TheTycho, now doing business as Carnewschina.com. We are instructed to ignore the flowers. Probably the byproduct of the camera in a Chinese “hand phone”, as they call it.
So there’s that army convoy, each truck pulling one cannon. Minutes later …. (Read More…)
MG has been building its 1995-era MGF (now MG TF) at its Longbridge, UK plant off and on since 2007, but it’s been a purely knock-down assembly affair, with kits being shipped in from Nanjing, China. But a new British-built MG is about to go into production since the brand was bought by Nanjing Auto in 2005 (Nanjing has since merged with SAIC). Called the MG6, the new compact sedan isn’t completely built at Longbridge (UK workers build and fit the engines, as well as installing the front suspension and subframe, exhaust system and electrics, but bodyshells are shipped from China), but it was designed and engineered at SAIC Motor’s European technical center in the Midlands.
Is that British enough for you?
Call it synchronicity, ESP, or plain dumb luck. Yesterday, only half in jest, I called upon the city of Beijing to issue its sought-after license plates to buyers of EVs and hybrids. Little did I know that the day before, Beijing had decided to do just that. Well, no quite. No hybrids.
Beijing’s media, from Beijing Youth Daily to the China Securities Journal, all report that buyers of pure plug-ins, and pure plug-ins only, will enjoy privileges the regular Beijinger can only dream of: EV buyers will not have to win the lottery to drive a car, they can drive on any day of the week, and they pay no tax. Doesn’t sound exciting to you? It could very well turn Beijing into EV city. Here is why: (Read More…)
If you are a respectable auto manufacturer, better don’t show up at the Shanghai Auto Show (open to the public on April 21) without an EV or at least a hybrid. Not that there is a huge demand. Despite lavish subsidies (in Beijing, I could collect $9,000 from the government for driving an EV, an amount the city will supposedly double – a moot point if I don’t get lucky in the license plate lottery), where was I, despite lavish subsidies, the take rate in China remains minuscule.
Wharton says that ”EV sales today account for only 0.06% of all vehicle sales in China.” Hybrids? Google leaves us in the dark. This does not discourage consultants from McKinsey on down from promising that China will be a bonanza for new energy vehicles. On top of that, the government wants it. One of the many companies to show up with a green car in Shanghai is BMW. (Read More…)
Would you believe that trading in China’s SAIC, joint venture partner of GM and Volkswagen, had been suspended since February now? Trading should resume soon, now that the world knows what the real reason for the monster halt is. It’s a long story. It all starts with the fact that there are two SAICs. (Read More…)
And finally, a car for the working masses. Never seen or sold before in Asia, we present to you: The new BMW 1 Series Coupe and the new BMW 1 Series Convertible. They look cute. And one is shown in the requisite red. Topless Einser gallery after the jump. Right this way .. (Read More…)
Now this is a car where the Chinese will say:”Leave it right here.” If not, it could get impounded for – they’ll find something. Premiering the BMW 6 Series Coupe in China is a shrewd move. It should sell quite well here. It’s the car for the man or the woman who has everything, including two other chauffeured cars. The slightly cramped rear of a fast coupe is big enough for a few children (the true sign of affluence in China.)
No other stats available, except that it comes with a Heads-Up Display and Bang & Olufsen Surround Sound. They should bring it in this red. Chinese love red.
The trade war that erupted between the US and China late last summer may have cooled to an angry simmer, but its effects are once again being noticed in the automotive industry. After President Obama slapped a 35% tariff on imports of Chinese-produced tires, the Chinese government started casting around for potential objects of retaliation, and, as Bertel reported, US auto exports to China made “a good tit-for-tat.” The US imported $1.8b worth of Chinese tires in 2009, while China imported $1.1b worth of US-built cars (including transplant brands) in 2008. You shoot our dog, we’ll kill your cat.”
Now, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has concluded its “investigation” into US auto dumping and illegal subsidies in the Chinese market, and it just so happens to single out the two automakers who are partially owned by the US. Coincidence? Not so much. [Hat Tip: Michael Banovsky]
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