In 2000, the year preceding China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), there were 2.06 million new cars, trucks and buses sold in China. Last year, the figure soared to 18.04 million. No market anywhere has grown as fast or, since 2009, sold as many vehicles as China. The bigger question is whether Beijing’s decade-long efforts to foster homegrown national champions in the car industry by partnering them with experienced foreign players are producing the desired results. “Entry to the WTO had an enormous impact on China’s auto industry,” said Dominik Declercq, Chief Representative of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association in Beijing. “The question to ask is whether the joint-venture structure has fulfilled the original goal of making the state-owned companies stronger through these partnerships. The answer to that is not evident. Look at the independent companies like Chery, BYD and Geely. They have become equally strong, if not stronger, than the state firms, despite being without joint-venture partners,” he added. The Chinese government requires that all foreign carmakers form joint ventures with Chinese players in manufacturing, distributing and selling cars in China, with their ownership capped at a maximum 50%. This was seen as a way to foster technology transfer and boost development of state-owned carmakers such as FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor, Shanghai Automotive Industry, Beijing Automotive Industry and Guangzhou Automobile Group. But foreign branded cars still dominate the market, and are gaining market share. From January to October, Chinese carmakers’ share of the car market was 42.1%, down 3.27 percentage points from the same period last year, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). Given slowing demand and the intensely competitive domestic market, many Chinese carmakers have turned to exports to boost sales, but with mixed results. Today, China imports mainly German luxury cars and exports parts and cheap commercial vehicles, resulting in an automotive trade deficit totaling USD3.36 billion in the first nine months of the year, the South China Morning Post reports.

Dongfeng Motor plans to invest more than CNY30 billion to triple annual sales of its own brand by 2016 and reduce reliance on profits from making cars for Nissan Motor and Peugeot Citroen. “We’re at a key stage of beefing up the competitiveness of China’s auto industry,” Xu Ping, Chairman of Dongfeng, said at the company’s headquarters in Wuhan. Dongfeng – which  derived about 66% of its sales this year from selling foreign brands – joins Guangzhou Automobile and SAIC in stepping up development of their own brands to compete for a larger share of the  market. “Local carmakers want to boost sales of their own brand cars to increase profitability,” said George Yin, Analyst with Bocom International. The 15 largest carmakers accounted for 89% of deliveries this year, with the remaining 55 companies selling fewer than 10,000 units monthly, including 10 with zero sales all year, according the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). Yin estimated there are more than 700 passenger-car models in the Chinese market. Dongfeng said it plans to boost yearly sales of its Fengshen, or Aeolus brand, to three million units by 2016, from about one million estimated for this year. Overall deliveries at Dongfeng, which includes its sales of foreign brands, rose 12% to 2.76 million cars in the first 11 months and may exceed three million for the full year, the company said.

Saab Automobile filed for bankruptcy, giving up a desperate struggle to stay in business after previous owner General Motors blocked takeover attempts by Chinese investors. Saab CEO Victor Muller personally handed in the bankruptcy application to a court in Sweden, ending his two-year effort to revive the carmaker. The Dutch entrepreneur told reporters he had to pull the plug after GM, which still owns some technology licenses for Saab, rejected a take-over and financing by two Chinese companies. GM was concerned its technology would end up with Chinese competitors. The final Chinese suitor, Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co, said it pulled out after the last proposal for a solution was rejected by GM over the weekend. Muller blamed the former administrator of Saab’s reconstruction, Guy Lofalk, for the collapse of the talks, saying he had led the Chinese investors to believe they could become sole owners of the firm. Muller said he knew that was impossible given GM’s concerns about licenses. “Until this problem arose the relationship with GM was excellent,” Muller said.

The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said in a statement last week that China will place anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on some vehicles imported from the United States with engines larger than 2.5 liters, starting from December 15 and lasting two years. Affected automakers include General Motors, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Honda. GM and Chrysler face anti-dumping duties of 8.9% and 8.8% as well as anti-subsidy duties of 12.9% and 6.2%. The U.S. units of BMW and Mercedes-Benz will be imposed anti-dumping duties of 2% and 2.7%. Honda’s U.S. operations will also be subject to a 4.1% tariff. The levies will also be imposed on other carmakers that the Ministry didn’t specify in the statement.

• The Shanghai Finance Bureau said fiscal income last year from car plate auctions hit CNY4.15 billion, compared to 2009’s CNY2.59 billion. The city government last year spent CNY2.4 billion from the accumulated income from plate auctions on supporting public transport. Shanghai government officials have repeatedly said there are no plans to drop the practice of auctioning plates, which began in 1994.
• Mazda Motor Corp’s sales declined 7% to 191,343 units in the first 11 months of this year, while November deliveries fell 13% annually to 17,330 units. Sales of its joint venture FAW Mazda, which makes the Mazda 6 sedan, shed 6% from January to November while another venture, Changan Ford Mazda, saw sales decline 7% during the same period.
• According to market research firm JD Power-LMC, China now has 93 brands and 481 car models available on the market.
• Almost a year after the debut of its Leaf electric car, Nissan Motor Corp recently put 15 of the vehicles on the road for testing in Wuhan. Shen Li, Director at the Public Relations Department for Nissan’s China operations, said the Leaf will undergo three years of tests in Wuhan to collect statistics for later use in development of the company’s electric cars. A second group of Leaf cars will be delivered to Wuhan in 2012. Electric cars carrying the Venucia badge, a China-only brand made at the joint venture Dongfeng Nissan, will also be developed using the Leaf’s technologies.
• Honda Motor Corp is designing a series of models tailored to Chinese consumers that are expected to debut at next year’s Beijing auto show. From January to October, Honda sold 480,000 cars in China. It aims to sell 650,000 cars in the country by the end of the year, the same as in 2010.
• Great Wall Motor’s Bulgaria plant is nearly complete and has begun trial operations more than two years after construction began in May 2009. The assembly factory operated by Great Wall and Bulgaria’s Litex Motors has a planned annual production capacity of 50,000 units. It will mainly manufacture the small Voleex C10 car, the
  Steed 5 pickup truck and the SUV Hover 6. The models are priced in Bulgaria at €7,785, €12,225 and €14,350 respectively. Plans call for sales of 8,000 vehicles in the first year, mainly in Romania and Turkey.
• China has become the largest market in Asia for Aston Martin, the British ultra sports car, just three years after it first went on sale. It has sold 220 cars in China so far this year. Sales are expected to hit 500 units next year, according to Matthew Bennett, Director of Aston Martin’s Asian operations. Its latest V12 Zagato model, priced at about CNY9 million, made its debut in China at the Guangzhou auto show and has begun accepting orders.
• Sales of General Motors and its Chinese ventures accelerated in November on higher demand for minivans. November sales rose 20% annually to 237,130 units, quicker than the 10% jump in October and 15.3% increase for September. Its minivan and sedan joint venture, SAIC-GM-Wuling, revved up sales 40.4% to 119,133 units. Shanghai GM, its flagship passenger car venture, sold 113,120 units, up 7.6%. Sales of the Buick brand in China rose 16.6% annually to a November record of 59,763 units, led by its Excelle model. The carmaker also saw strong demand for its Chevrolet Cruze and new Sail models. For the first 11 months this year, GM and its joint ventures sold a record 2.35 million vehicles in China, up an annual 8.2%.
• Chongqing Changan Automobile Co said it plans to spend HKD610 million to buy back 25% of its Shenzhen-listed B shares, representing 5.6% of its total shareholding. Changan’s B shares closed at HKD2.26 on October 14 before it suspended trading, which represented less than half of the market value compared with the CNY4.39 for the company’s yuan-denominated A shares. In the first three quarters of this year, Changan’s combined sales fell 6% from a year earlier to 1.25 million units.
• Average car plate prices rebounded sharply to more than CNY51,437 in Shanghai this month, up CNY3,802 from November, as supply dropped in the last auction of the year. The lowest price increased CNY5,300 to CNY51,000. The number of bidders jumped 30% from last month to 26,531, the second highest this year. The city offered 8,500 car licenses this month, 500 less than in November. The average price for a car plate in Shanghai was CNY48,524 this year. A total of 103,500 car plates were auctioned.
• Average prices of Daimler’s basic Mercedes-Benz C200 at Chinese dealerships were 16% below the manufacturer’s recommended price last month, compared with 14% in October and 3.4% in July, when the model became available, according to data from China Auto Market. BMW dealers sold the latest 320i car 11% below the suggested price, more than triple the initial discount. The car makers lowered prices to attract buyers. “Competition is getting fierce, especially in the entry-level luxury car segment,” said John Zeng, Shanghai-based Director at researcher LMC Automotive Asia Pacific.
• Chinese automaker Chery exported 13,906 vehicles last month to bring its year-to-date total to 150,000 vehicles, up 80% from the same period last year. The record high surpassed its full-year shipments in 2008. Its QQ3 model won the “best entry-level car” award in Brazil this year and was named the “best Chinese brand” in Indonesia.
• Dongfeng Motor Corp has agreed to form a joint venture with Swedish truck maker Volvo. The Economic Observer newspaper reported the joint venture would be formed next year with Dongfeng holding a 55% share and the remainder owned by Volvo, which once had a joint venture in China with Sinotruk in Jinan, Shandong province. Established in 2003, the partnership terminated production in 2006 due to slow sales of its high-priced products. Volvo also has joint ventures to produce buses in China.
• Only two out of this year’s 66 passenger vehicle recalls in China were domestic brands. Great Wall Motors began recalling 4,685 Florids and C30s in April due to faulty Kumho-brand tires, reportedly made with excess recycled rubber at its plant in Tianjin. The second was by the passenger vehicle subsidiary of SAIC Group for its TF Roadster for corrosion problems in the steering assembly. The remaining 64 recalls were all on models made by joint ventures or for imported vehicles.
• The market share of domestic-brand cars was down 1.5 percentage points to 29% in the first 11 months, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). Zeng Zhiling, Director of JD Power-LMC Asia Pacific Forecasting, said that the decline in share for domestic brands was mainly due to the expiration of government subsidies on small-engine vehicles that over-stimulated customer demand over the previous two years. He predicts their share will bounce back to more than 30% next year.
• The Beijing Hyundai Sonata made at the joint venture between Beijing Automobile Group and South Korea’s Hyundai Motors was named Car of the Year 2012 in China, while the Hover H6 sport utility vehicle (SUV) made by Great Wall Motors was chosen as SUV of the Year, the first time a domestic automaker won the prize. The two winners were selected from 29 candidates after four months of various tests by a professional panel.
• Domestic automaker Geely plans to begin selling its Emgrand cars in the UK at the end of 2012. With two variants ― 1.5 L and 1.8 L ― the Emgrand EC7 is expected to be priced at GBP10,000. For its initial sales, the company will use the network of its partner, British engineering company Manganese Bronze Holdings. Geely plans to have some 60 dealerships in Britain by 2014.