02 May
2013

Short news automotive

 
  • The willingness of Shanghai residents to buy a car dropped by 12.4% in the first quarter due to the surging price of a Shanghai car plate, according to a survey by the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. The “willingness to buy a car” declined to 69 points in the first quarter, compared with 81.4 in the previous quarter. The figure was also the lowest since 2012, the report said. A score above 100 means consumers are confident about buying. In March, the average successful bid for a Shanghai car plate soared to nearly CNY92,000, almost three times as expensive as the cheapest car on the market.
  • China kept fuel prices unchanged in the first review under its new pricing mechanism because changes in global crude rates were not enough to justify any change. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) unveiled a new fuel pricing mechanism that cuts the price adjustment cycle from 22 working days to 10 and removes minimum thresholds when crude prices change. The moves will lead to more market-driven prices which will improve profit margins for Sinopec and PetroChina. Prices will not be adjusted if the resulting fuel price changes are less than CNY50 per ton under the new mechanism.
  • General Motors outsold Volkswagen in China for the first time in three quarters, helped by growth in demand for Buick vehicles. VW reported first-quarter sales in China climbed 21% to about 770,000 vehicles, 5.7% fewer than the deliveries reported by GM. Ford Motor saw the fastest growth among major foreign automakers, seeing its deliveries surging 54% to more than 186,000 vehicles. That indicates Ford outsold Toyota in China for the first time, based on quarterly company figures stretching back to 2011. Toyota, Nissan and Honda all saw declines in the quarter.
  • More than 100 senior managers at First Automobile Works Group (FAW) have been questioned, and some have been detained, by Communist Party investigators looking into CNY10 billion of missing company assets.
  • EcoMotors International, the fuel-efficient engine maker backed by billionaires Bill Gates and Vinod Khosla, chose China as the location for its first factory, which will be built with support from Anhui Zhongding Holding Group Co. Zhongding will invest more than USD200 million to build the plant in Anhui province. EcoMotors expects the plant to produce 150,000 engines a year starting in 2014, representing USD1 billion of potential revenue, CEO Don Runkle said.
  • BMW has unveiled a new brand in China in a bid to tap the nation’s fledgling electric car market. The first product carrying the nameplate of Zinoro, or Zhinuo in Chinese, is an all-electric vehicle that will make its debut in November this year at the Guangzhou auto show and hit the market in the first quarter of next year. The car is “specially made in China for China”, said Friedrich Eichiner, Member of the Management Board of BMW. Zinoro-branded cars will be made at the BMW-Brilliance Auto joint venture in Shenyang. BMW is the first and so far only foreign luxury carmaker to launch such a joint venture-owned brand in China.
  • Ford Motor has raised its stake in Jiangling Motors (JMC) to 31.5% and is looking to increase it to as much as 32% over the next year, the limit currently allowed by the securities regulator. After the latest purchase Ford’s stake is worth about USD705 million. During the first three months of this year, Jiangling, which makes JMC light trucks, SUVs, and Ford’s Transit van, sold 56,420 vehicles, up 7.1% from a year earlier, outperforming a 2.5% gain in China’s overall commercial vehicle sales.
  • Dongfeng Motor Corp plans to spend CNY15.65 billion in research and development (R&D) on its own passenger vehicle unit from 2013 to 2020. The company based in the central city of Wuhan aims to double annual sales of its own-brand passenger vehicles to 1 million units by 2016, of which sales jumped by 27.29% last year to 515,200 units. Under the umbrella brand of its own passenger car unit Dongfeng, it has three subordinate nameplates, Fengshen, Fengxing and Fengdu. The company will launch at least two to three new passenger vehicle models annually in the years to 2020.
  • Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo Car Corp plans to start local production in China in the last half the year in Chengdu. In the first quarter, Volvo’s sales in China totaled 13,780 vehicles, up 26.6% from a year earlier. The strong performance made China the company’s fastest-growing market worldwide in the first quarter and the second-largest in sales. The company plans to bring six new or upgraded models to China this year including the all-new V40 launched shortly before the Shanghai auto show. The V40 retails between CNY239,900 and CNY325,900. Volvo plans to add about 20 new dealer outlets in China in addition to the current network of some 124 dealerships.
  • French auto parts maker Valeo will open four new plants and hire more workers in China as it plans to double sales in the country between 2011 and 2015. China has grown from 6% of Valeo’s total sales in 2008 to 10% last year. Sales doubled from 2007 to 2011. It predicts the growth will continue when it opens four new plants this year, up from 22 factories it now has in the country. The company now employs 12,000 people in China and plans to hire 1,500 more managers and engineers this year to bring the total number of employees to 15,000 by 2015 in the country, more than that in France.
  • German automotive supplier Brose expects a 50% surge in Asia sales by 2015 as it adds capacity to meet demand. Sales in China may reach €817 million this year after increasing about 20% to €760 million last year, Brose Chief Executive Officer Jurgen Otto said. Brose also plans to expand its Asian headquarters in Shanghai with a new 20,000 square-meter complex that is under construction.
  • Faurecia, the world’s sixth-biggest auto parts supplier, aims to double its sales in China by 2016 after they surged 25% to €1.5 billion in 2012. Last year’s jump in sales was a sharp improvement from the 8% growth in 2011, the French manufacturer said. China now accounts for 80% of the group’s business in Asia. The company plans to add 20 plants nationwide to bring the total number to 55 by 2016. It will also employ 1,200 engineers in China by then, twice the number now. Its research center in Shanghai is the major incubator for emission control technology for the group.
  • French tire maker Michelin, which sees a “pick-up” in demand in the Chinese market, plans to raise investments. “We saw the trend of a pick-up at the end of the last quarter (of 2012) and this was confirmed in the first quarter, which was encouraging,” Philippe Verneuil, President of Michelin China said. He said the sales volume of Michelin tires rose by a “double-digit” rate last year in China. In January, Michelin unveiled a USD1.5 billion tire plant in Shenyang, Liaoning province, its largest investment project in China.
  • Daimler Trucks and Buses (China) hopes to raise the number of dealerships in China to above 50 by the end of this year from 41 now to reduce direct sales channels and step up collaboration with local dealers, Robert Veit, President and Chief Executive, said. Last year, Daimler’s truck sales in China grew 6.5% from a year ago to 19,000, against a 32% drop in the overall heavy duty truck market in China. China became the third largest global market for Mercedes-Benz imported trucks.
  • China is banning the use of military license plates on luxury cars in an attempt to crack down on the widespread abuse of privileges granted to drivers of military vehicles. The Defense Ministry said a range of luxury cars, including models from Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche, Land Rover and Audi, would be banned from using military plates. Regardless of marque, all vehicles with an engine capacity above 3 liters or costing more than CNY450,000 will be barred from carrying military plates.
  • Chery Automobile Co demonstrated its innovative prowess with three all-new concept models based on its latest core technologies – the Alpha7, Beta5 and the @Ant – developed on the iAuto technology platform. The Alpha7, the first model utilizing the iAuto technologies, will be put into commercial production during the second half of this year. The Beta5, a compact SUV, will hit the market at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, according to the company. The one-seat @Ant represents Chery’s exploration of the future market for individualized urban transportation systems. Chery announced that it will focus on the Chery brand and give up three other marques – Riich, Rely and Karry. The company also unveiled a new logo.
 
 
04 Apr
2013

Short news automotive

 
  • Kenda, which set up its first facility on the mainland in 1990, planned to spend NTD10 billion on a new car-tyre plant in Taiwan’s Changhua where the company was based. Chairman Yang, whose 6.6% stake was valued at NTD2.4 billion, built three factories across the strait in Shenzhen and Tianjin and hired more than 4,000 workers on the mainland since he took over from his father almost two decades ago. Rises in labor costs on the mainland now drives the company to set up its next plant in Taiwan.
  • Shanghai will build 50 charging stations and 5,000 charging poles in the next three years to meet the needs of local electric vehicle buyers, according to Feng Jun, General Manager of the Shanghai Electric Power Co. Shanghai was named the country’s first pilot city for electric vehicle development in April 2011. The city government has built 12 charging stations and 890 refueling poles mainly in suburban Songjiang and Minhang districts.
  • Nissan Motor Co may build Leaf electric vehicles in Guangdong. Nissan’s Chinese joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Group Co may invest CNY2 billion in the project. The plan calls for an initial capacity of 10,000 Leaf vehicles a year and 50,000 after 2015 – comparable to Nissan’s UK and Japan plants.
  • Volkswagen plans to increase production by 60% by 2018 in China, where the German company’s earnings last year rose by almost half. A new plant in China, just approved by the supervisory board, will be designed to build up to 300,000 vehicles a year and will start operating in early 2016, CEO Martin Winterkorn said. Production capacity in China will rise to 4 million vehicles a year by 2018 from about 2.5 million now. VW plans to build 7 new plants to bring its total in China to 19. VW will open three vehicle plants this year in Urumqi, Xinjiang; Foshan, Guangdong province; and in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.
  • The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) said that its research has confirmed that some of Volkswagen’s direct shift gearbox (DSG) transmissions have defects that may cause engine power failure and has called on the car manufacturer to recall affected cars. VW said it would conduct a voluntary recall of more than 380,000 cars. In May, the company extended the warranty for the gearbox to 10 years or 160,000 kilometers, but the move didn’t restore consumer confidence. It will replace electronic components and upgrade software at a cost of between CNY3,000 and CNY10,000 per vehicle.
  • A second-hand Shanghai car plate will not be allowed to trade at a price higher than the latest average price for new car plates, city officials announced. “The prices of second-hand plates and new plates… push each other higher as bidders tend to refer to the price of second-hand plates as the benchmark for bidding on a new car plate,” the Shanghai Information Office said in a statement. The new measure took effect on March 23, when the city held its monthly auction. The city’s revenue for plate auctions hit CNY7.12 billion in 2012, an increase of 51.8% from 2011. The average successful bid for a Shanghai car plate soared to CNY91,898 in the March auction – up CNY8,327 from February.
  • Audi plans to open one new dealership a week on average in China in 2013, Chairman of the Board of Management Rupert Stadler said at the company’s annual press conference, adding that about half of the Chinese cities with more than a million inhabitants still have to be included in the dealer network.
  • Shanghai General Motors is recalling 5,008 Buick LaCrosse sedans made between July 13 and March 8, and 736 imported Cadillac SRX cars made from July 11 to February 18, due to a potential problem with the gear information transfer, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) said. The firm said the gear information transfer hitch may lead to a drop in the engine’s braking efficiency.
  • China will increase its subsidies for energy-saving cars and vehicles that run on alternative fuel sources this year, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said. The country will introduce a ranking system that measures the amount of energy that a given car is capable of saving. Vehicles with higher efficiency will receive more subsidies. In 2012, sales of new-energy cars totaled 12,791 units, almost double the number in 2011, and the number is expected to total 500,000 units by the end of 2015.
  • Toyota’s joint venture with Chinese partner FAW Group unveiled a new brand of electric vehicles called Ranz. The first concept model, carrying FAWToyota’s self-developed brand, is based on the platform of the Toyota Corolla Ex and will make its debut at the Shanghai auto show this month.
  • Domestic carmaker Geely reported a 23% increase in sales in the first two months of this year to 95,000 vehicles. Of the total, more than 15,200 vehicles were exports, a 38% rise from a year earlier.
  • FAW Group President Xu Jianyi said the company will invest CNY7.2 billion in research and development (R&D) of its own brands of vehicles this year. He also said that the company’s combined R&D investment from 2011 to 2015 will total CNY35.5 billion, and nearly a third of that will go toward developing the Hongqi family of vehicles.
  • Volvo Car has won the approval of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to begin making vehicles in China. It paves the way for Geely, owner of Volvo Car, to offer Volvo cars at cheaper prices because vehicles made in China aren’t subject to the nation’s 25% import duty. Volvo’s sales in China rose 31% to 8,719 units in the first two months of the year, surpassing Sweden to become the carmaker’s second-largest market, behind only the U.S. Volvo sells seven models in China, ranging from the C30 at CNY249,900 to the C70 sedan at CNY661,000.
  • Shanghai hopes to be a forerunner in China in promoting electric cars for private use by renting them out. eHi Auto Services Co plans to buy 200 electric cars in the next six months and is opening three electric car rental stores in Jiading district where the Electric Vehicle International Demonstration Zone is located, and would then expand the service across the city by developing charging facilities.
  • Swedish auto maker Volvo has uncovered widespread cheating by its car dealers in China, where retailers inflated sales to win cash rebates from the company for reaching volume targets. Thousands of fake sales were booked in 2011, as well as under-reporting of sales last year to make the books balance. That meant it actually performed better last year than it had thought, according to a senior Volvo Executive. Volvo had reported an 11% slide in last year sales in China, but sales actually rose by 15%. About 7,000 of Volvo’s reported retail sales of 47,140 cars in 2011 were fake, meaning Volvo dealers in 2011 collectively sold only 39,871 cars in China.
  • BYD’s 2012 profit sank 94.12% year-on-year in 2012 amid a bleak solar market, but the company forecast robust profit for the first quarter of this year. The Shenzhen-based company specializing in electric vehicles, rechargeable batteries and photovoltaic cells earned CNY81.38 million in net profit in 2012. The company attributed last year’s contraction in profit to its lackluster solar energy business. Its revenue from selling both electric and fossil fuel-powered vehicles rose steadily in 2012.
  • Guangdong plans to spend CNY57.3 billion over the next 10 years to lead the country in producing new-energy vehicles, but will still fall far short of the sales target. Despite support from carmakers such as BYD and Dongfeng-Nissan, its expected sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars will reach only a tenth of the government’s target of 500,000 units by 2015.
  • Dongfeng Motor Group will not pursue a bid for a stake in troubled U.S. electric car startup Fisker Automotive because it would be too difficult to move production to China as the company received a USD529 million loan to produce cars in the U.S., according to three sources familiar with the matter. Dongfeng’s decision comes shortly after another Chinese auto maker, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, also decided not to bid for Fisker.
  • Political friction between China and Japan delayed by one year Nissan’s plan to get a 10% market share in China, Renault-Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said on the sidelines of the New York auto show. He said he is giving his Nissan team until 2017 to hit its goal, instead of 2016. Nissan accounts for between 6.5% and 7% market share in China, and is the leading Japanese automaker there.
  • Net profit at Brilliance China Automotive Holdings jumped 27% in 2012 to CNY2.3 billion as the contribution from its joint venture with BMW helped drive sales. Deliveries of BMW-branded cars on the Chinese mainland climbed 40% to 303,169 vehicles, which included 3- and 5-series sedans and X1 SUVs assembled by Brilliance.
  • Dongfeng Motor expects sales of cars from its Japanese partner Nissan to resume growth in April, but set a modest sales growth target of 7%, or 2.35 million vehicles, this year. Dongfeng Motor’s net profit fell 13.3% last year to CNY9.09 billion, while the gross profit margin dropped 1.2 percentage points to 20.8%. A sharp fall in its commercial vehicle sector contributed to the decline in profitability, although the group said its new partnership with Volvo Truck should soon create new momentum.
  • SAIC Motor Corp’s net income increased 2.6% to CNY20.8 billion last year. Sales gained 10% to CNY478.4 billion, missing estimates. Partner GM, the biggest foreign automaker in China, saw profit in the country fall 0.2% in 2012, after 14% growth the previous year.
  • Toyota Motor Corp suffered a 12.7% drop in sales in the first quarter from the same period a year ago. Its China sales in March fell by 11.7% to 75,900 vehicles, bringing its January-March sales to 184,700 vehicles, down 12.7% from a year earlier. Toyota’s lackluster performance has ignited renewed concerns about the recovery of Japanese carmakers in China. Nissan, whose sales exposure to China is the biggest among the three largest Japanese car makers, cut output by 52.3%, Toyota by 48.3% and Honda by 43.4%.
  • For the second year in a row, China will be the biggest market for Jaguar Land Rover in 2013, the company’s CEO Ralf Speth said. The luxury car maker delivered about 73,000 vehicles in China last year. Sales in January and February increased by 20% from a year earlier. In contrast, its sales surged by 70% year-to-year last year during the same period. The carmaker is likely to launch some of its latest attractive products in China this year, including the next generation Range Rover Sport and the high-performance Jaguar XJR.
  • Japanese automaker Subaru will recall 9,641 vehicles exported to China because of defects in the brake lines. The company has decided to recall its imported Legacy and Outback models produced between January 28, 2004 and May 21, 2009, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ). There is a risk that the brake lines may corrode if they come into contact with water containing a snow-melting agent, making it more difficult for the vehicles to stop.
 
 
07 Mar
2013

Short news automotive

 
  • China’s passenger vehicle sales in January surged 45.4% from a year earlier, the largest year-on-year growth since April 2010, but the comparison is distorted by the Chinese New Year falling in January last year and in February this year.  A total of 1,704,185 cars, sport utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and minivans were delivered in the nation in January, up 9.2% from the previous month, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said. “Such high growth was a result of five more working days in January and more than 10 days of a slack market in January last year due to an early Spring Festival,” said Rao Da, Secretary General of the Association.
  • French carmaker Renault has started recalling 61,508 Koleos sport utility vehicles (SUVs) produced between December 16, 2008, and July 10, last year, and exported to China. The cars have faulty fuel level sensors that display incorrect fuel levels on their dashboards. Renault will change the sensors for free. Renault’s vehicle recall was announced on February 6, the second in two months. Renault had recalled 5,097 Koleos cars in January due to welding problems.
  • In 2013, with 95 auto brands continuing to fight for their share of China’s market, vehicles sales in the country are expected to top 20 million for the first time. GM and its Chinese partners captured 14.3% of the market in the latest quarter, ahead of Volkswagen. 19.1 million passenger vehicles were sold in China in 2012, for the first time overtaking Europe in total vehicle sales. By 2020, the number is expected to rise to 33 million. The market could be as big as Europe and the U.S. combined, Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, head of vehicle research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, predicted.
  • General Motors Co, which runs 12 joint ventures in China, said it has repurchased a 1% stake in its joint venture with Chinese partner SAIC Motor Corp, which it had sold before its 2009 bankruptcy filing. The move will bring GM’s ownership of Shanghai General Motors Co back to 50%. GM paid USD119 million for the 1% stake. In February 2010, GM sold the stake to SAIC for USD85 million.
  • Nissan Motor Co expects its luxury Infiniti business to become profitable in three to four years as it begins production in China and introduces entry-level vehicles to attract customers. Infiniti, which last year relocated its headquarters to Hong Kong from Japan, plans to start building cars in China in the third quarter of 2014 and for global sales this year to rise at least 10% to about 200,000 units, President Johan de Nysschen told Bloomberg.
  • Ferrari sold 784 of its sports cars in the Greater China region last year, 4% more than in the previous year, with almost 500 going to mainland consumers.
  • BYD’s net profit plunged 94.2% to CNY81 million last year on poor sales of its handset components and solar cells, despite a rebound in sales of its cars. The operating loss was CNY319 million, against a profit of CNY1.41 billion the year before.
  • BMW will recall over 2,100 sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) in China as part of a worldwide recall due to a brake vacuum pump leak, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) said. The recall affects BMW X5 vehicles equipped with the V8 engine from model years 2007-2010 and produced between May 9, 2006 and March 18, 2010, including 2,116 units imported into the Chinese mainland. The defect could result in failure in the power-assist braking system which may lead to a vehicle crash. The recall is due to start on March 18.
  • China’s car industry more than tripled debt issuance this year as borrowing costs fell and a rebound in economic growth drove forecasts for 2013 vehicle sales above 20 million for the first time. Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group, Zhejiang Geely and Wanxiang Qianchao are among companies that have sold CNY8.2 billion of debt so far this year, compared with CNY2.5 billion a year earlier. LMC said it expected vehicles sales to gain 10%, IHS sees growth of 8.9% and a November report by McKinsey estimated an increase of 8%.
  • In the eighth consecutive month of record highs, the average price for a Shanghai car plate shot up to CNY83,571 in February – CNY8,239 more than in January. The city made 9,000 car plates available, the same as in January and the lowest number since last April. The number of bidders rose 18% to 24,651, while the percentage of successful bids fell from 43.2% to 36.5%.
  • General Motors Co and its China joint ventures sold 215,070 vehicles in the country in February, down 10.6% from a year earlier, and compared with a 26% year-on-year rise in January. Data for January and February have been skewed due to the timing of the week-long Spring Festival holiday which fell in January in 2012 but came in February this year.
  • A growing number of independent repair shops are posing a challenge to the dominance of authorized dealerships. A recent survey by automotive news website Gasgoo found that just half of car owners now use dealer shops after auto warranties expire. The survey also found that only 15% of cars older than eight years are serviced at authorized outlets. More experienced customers often prefer independent repair shops, saying they offer equally good or even better parts and services than dealers at a much lower price.
  • Once the premium car used by national leaders, the iconic Hongqi – or Red Flag – is planning a revival. Last month FAW Car Co held a low-profile ceremony at its headquarters in Changchun, Jilin province, to deliver 13 Hongqi H7 sedans to the provincial government. The listed passenger car unit of FAW Group said it has received a number of orders for the H7 from central ministries as well as more than 10 provincial and municipal governments. Its strategy is to first seize the market for the high-end government fleet before entering the private market. FAW plans to invest CNY10.5 billion from 2011 to 2015 to rejuvenate the once-legendary brand.
 
 
07 Feb
2013

Short news automotive

 
  • Global automakers consider China as their top choice for investment because of its huge domestic demand and export opportunities, a KPMG survey showed. China was favored by 70% of respondents as the top investment destination over other BRIC countries, according to the auditing firm’s 14th annual global auto executive survey among 200 respondents in 31 countries and regions. The survey also showed that 94% believed that China’s domestic car sales will continue to grow, driven by the rising middle class and growing urbanization. Four Chinese automakers may rank among the top 10 companies in global market share over the next five years, and the BRIC markets may account for nearly half of worldwide vehicle sales by 2018.
  • China now has nearly 30,000 new energy vehicles on the road and will promote the use of hybrid buses in the future, Zhao Yuhai, Director of the High-tech Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said. 23,000 new energy vehicles are now used for public transport in 25 pilot cities, with the rest privately owned.
  • Toyota, Honda and Nissan all reported annual sales declines in China last year following protests and a boycott over the Diaoyu Islands dispute. Sales at Toyota and Nissan decreased more than 5% to 850,000 units and 1.18 million units respectively, while Honda dropped 3.1% from the previous year to fewer than 600,000 units.
  • Shenyang-based Brilliance Automotive, the Chinese partner of BMW Group, sold more than 670,000 vehicles in 2012, an increase of 18% from last year, to become the seventh-largest domestic automaker by sales, one place higher than its position in 2011. It aims to sell 750,000 vehicles in 2013, among them 69,000 exports.
  • Great Wall Motors, which mainly makes MPVs, SUVs and light trucks, said its 2012 sales grew 28% last year to 625,000 units, surpassing its original target of 600,000 units. In December alone, it sold 68,000 vehicles, a surge of 29% over the same period last year. Of the total, the automaker, headquartered in Baoding, Hebei province, sold 96,000 vehicles overseas, an annual increase of 16.1%. The company has set a sales target of 700,000 vehicles for 2013.
  • Ford China delivered 626,616 vehicles last year, an increase of 21% over 2011. Its joint venture with Chang’an sold 418,500 units, an increase of 31%, while its commercial vehicle joint venture Jiangling Motor sold 19,941 units, a rise of 14%.
  • After eight years in the making, China’s car warranty regulation will finally take effect on October 1, giving official backing to customers’ rights to return faulty vehicles and ask for a replacement or a refund in the first two years or 50,000 kilometers if serious faults could not be repaired. Additionally, consumers can enjoy free repairs in the first three years or 60,000 kilometers if their cars have quality problems. The China Consumers’ Association received 16,805 complaints from car users in 2011. According to the China Association for Quality, 4,664 complaints were filed by car users in the first half of 2012, of which 30% were about engine problems.
  • Rolls-Royce Motor Cars made around 30% of its total sales last year in the Chinese mainland, its second-largest market in 2012, slightly behind the U.S. Rolls-Royce currently has 15 dealers in China. During 2012, its two dealerships in Beijing and Shanghai were listed among the top three worldwide in terms of sales, for the second year running. In 2012, another British luxury brand – Bentley – saw its sales in China increase by 23% from a year earlier to 2,253 units, accounting for a quarter of its total global sales. Bentley plans to expand its distribution network to 40 dealerships, covering all major provinces in China.
  • General Motors will add 400 dealers in China this year to 4,200 locations as it looks to keep growing faster than China’s overall automotive industry which is expected to grow by 8% this year, Bob Socia, GM China President, told reporters at the Detroit auto show. The brands sold by GM and its joint ventures in China include Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Opel, Baojun and Wuling. Sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles in China should grow 5% to 8% this year, hitting 21 million vehicles, Socia said.
  • Shanghai car plate prices surpassed the CNY70,000 benchmark for the first time in the January auction. In the seventh consecutive month of hitting a record high, the lowest winning bid for a Shanghai car plate shot up to CNY75,000. The average price surged CNY5,986 on December’s figure to CNY75,332, the Shanghai Commodity International Auction Co said. The steep price increase came after the city reduced the supply of car plates by 300 from last month to 9,000 – the lowest in nine months – while the number of bidders increased from 18,244 to 20,857. This saw the percentage of motorists with successful bids fall from 51% in December to 43%.
  • Tsubakimoto Chain, an Osaka-based car-parts supplier, is considering expanding in China to meet a surge in orders from Volkswagen and General Motors as a territorial dispute damps demand for Japanese cars. Tsubakimoto is studying building factories near Shanghai or Tianjin to meet an expected capacity shortfall.
  • Daimler, the world’s third biggest maker of luxury vehicles, will sell a limited edition of its Smart city car through Sina Weibo, China’s largest microblog service, as it reaches out to China’s internet users. Weibo says it has more than 368 million registered users. Buyers have to put down a CNY1,999 deposit for the CNY128,888 car.
  • Daimler said it will pay €640 million for 12% of BAIC Motor, a unit of Beijing Automotive Industries Corp, with which it makes Mercedes-Benz cars in China. Daimler said the investment was to prepare for a possible initial public offering (IPO) by BAIC Motor.
  • Spanish lender Banco Santander has received Chinese regulatory approval to form a 50-50 joint venture with China’s seventh-largest automaker, Jianghuai Automobile. Fortune Auto Finance will have a registered capital of CNY500 million, making Santander one of the fist foreign banks to get a car finance license in China. The venture will provide auto financing services to cars made by JAC and other brands, the bank said.
  • Only one new-energy car plate was issued on the first day they were made available free-of-charge in Shanghai. The plates are similar to normal car plates but start with the letters “DZ.” The issue of new-energy car plates comes at a time when the average auction price for a conventional car plate has soared above CNY75,000. The Shanghai government will pay a subsidy of CNY40,000 for electric vehicles and CNY30,000 for plug-in hybrids, in addition to a maximum CNY60,000 offered by the central government. The owner of the  Roewe E50 saved about CNY170,000 and paid just about CNY130,000 for a car that is priced at CNY234,900 without the taxes.
  • A recent report from China Galaxy Securities shows that Chinese carmakers on average used only 58% of their production capacity last year, while Sino-foreign joint ventures operated at 90%. The report estimates that only four domestic carmakers will use more than 60% of their production capacity this year.
  • Chongqing’s Chang’an Automobile Group has recently built a testing facility for vehicle resistance to cold in Heihe, Heilongjiang province. This year Chang’an plans to export 15,000 vehicles to Russia, where the government has stringent requirements for vehicles to operate in extreme cold. Chang’an plans to build a similar test center this year in Mohe, China’s northernmost and coldest city.
  • China is likely to become Bentley’s largest market in 2013. The carmaker delivered a record of 2,253 units in the country last year, surging 23% from 2011, next only to its delivery of 2,457 units in the U.S. Bentley, now a unit of Volkswagen, sold 8,510 cars across the globe in 2012, an increase of 22%. China is currently Bentley’s second-largest market.
  • Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co (JAC) is set to produce 100,000 electric vehicles by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-15) period, as it aims to become the top domestic brand in the new-energy car sector, said Yan Gang, Deputy General Manager at the 2012 Global New Energy Vehicle Conference in Hainan province. The company has sold more than 5,000 electric vehicles since 2010.
  • Michelin launched its biggest investment project in China, a USD1.5 billion tire plant in Shenyang, Liaoning province, capable of making 12 million tires for cars and trucks annually. The new plant will be Michelin’s biggest worldwide and replace its old facility in Shenyang, which began production in 1996. “We expect our business to speed up by two to three times over the coming years, as the Chinese tire industry will maintain booming momentum, boosted by rapid growth of auto sales in recent years,” said Philippe Verneuil, President of Michelin China.
  • Sales at Toyota Motor and its Chinese joint ventures rose 23.5% in January compared with a year earlier, the first rise since the outbreak of anti-Japan protests last year that led to a sharp drop in sales among Japanese carmakers. But analysts remarked that the Spring Festival fell in January last year, and in February this year, and comparisons should be made on first-quarter data rather than monthly figures. Toyota said it and its Chinese partners sold 72,500 cars in the country in January. Toyota’s China sales fell 15.9% in December. Last month’s rise was the first year-on-year growth since June last year.
  • Toyota Motor is recalling 22,869 Lexus cars in China because of defects with windshield wipers, the biggest callback since a new law broadening manufacturer liability came into force this year. The company is recalling the imported Lexus IS cars, which were made from January 2006 to September 2011. Last year, a total of 113 cases of vehicle recalls were administered in China, with 3.2 million defective vehicles being recalled, a 75% increase from a year earlier.
  • Shanghai Maple Guorun, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group’s Hong Kong-listed arm, said that it has signed an agreement with Kandi Vehicles to set up a 50-50 joint venture for electric vehicles. With registered capital of CNY1 billion, the joint venture will engage in the investment, research and development, production, marketing and sales of electric vehicles on the Chinese mainland. The venture will not become a subsidiary of Geely or Kandi, and its financial results will not be consolidated into the financial statements of either groups or their respective subsidiaries.
  • General Motors and its joint ventures sold more than 300,000 vehicles in a single month for the first time ever in January. Sales totaled 310,765 units, an increase of 26% from the same month in 2012 and 15.9% above the previous all-time monthly high of 268,035 units in January 2011. Domestic sales by its Chinese ventures Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling, and their Buick, Chevrolet and Wuling brands all set single-month records in January.
  • A Chinese electric vehicle consortium led by the Beijing Institute of Technology has signed agreements with the Warsaw University of Technology and Tauron Polska Energia to help develop an electric bus network in Poland. Six electric buses on a platform developed by Beijing Institute of Technology, will be made for the two-year trial project in Poland. The Chinese group consists of BIT and its subsidiary BIT Huachuang Electric Vehicle Technology Co, along with CITIC Guoan Mengguli Power Science and Technology Co, and Shanghai Dianba New Energy Technology Co. Six charging and swapping stations will later be set up in five Polish cities, with 780 purely electric buses in operation.
 
 
10 Jan
2013

Short news automotive

 
  • Hybrid taxis that run on both petrol and electricity, emitting fewer fumes and charging their own batteries, could be introduced on Hong Kong’s roads in February. Crown Motors, sole distributor for main taxi supplier Toyota, said it was talking to the Transport Department about its plan. It had received orders for 20 cars, which would be ready for use before the Lunar New Year. The announcement came three months after Nissan said it planned to introduce 50 Leaf electric vehicles for trial as taxis. A 1,788 cc hybrid taxi, before tax, will cost HKD269,000, which is HKD18,000 more than a regular LPG taxi. Although a hybrid car can travel further on the same amount of fuel, it is still HKD0.13 more expensive to run per kilometer than an LPG cab.
  • China’s SAIC Motor, MG’s parent company, signed an agreement with Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group to build a joint venture plant in Thailand to make MG cars. The initial investment in the plant, which will have an annual capacity of 50,000 cars, will be CNY1.8 billion, with SAIC taking a 51% stake and CP Group taking 49%.
  • Zhejiang Geely Holding Group denied reports that it is in talks to buy an interest in British sports car maker Aston Martin from its Kuwaiti owners who are looking to sell a stake to pay off debts. Geely Spokesman Yang Xueliang said the company was “concentrating on its current business”. Italian private equity fund Investindustrial confirmed buying 37.5% of Aston Martin for USD241 million. Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp was also interested. Aston Martin celebrates its centenary in 2013. Entering the Chinese market in 2008, Aston Martin’s sales surged 80% from a year earlier in 2011.
  • A new President has been named to lead BMW’s business in China. Karsten Engel, now President of BMW Group Germany, will become BMW’s China head in the first quarter of next year, replacing 58-year-old Christoph Stark who will retire after his eight-year tenure.
  • Many Chinese car distributors are considering dropping Japanese cars from their offerings, even as showroom traffic and orders rebounded since the dispute over the Diaoyu islands flared. Failing to sign up enough new dealers will hurt Japanese carmakers, benefiting General Motors, Volkswagen and Hyundai Motor as they compete to expand in smaller Chinese cities where the bulk of future demand lies. About 1,800 Toyota, Nissan and Honda-branded cars were damaged during anti-Japanese protests in September.
  • Toyota Motor Corp may delay the launch of a new production line at its plant in Tianjin because a decline in its Chinese sales is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Toyota had hoped to complete its new fourth line at the plant, with annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles, around December 2014. The company is also considering a similar delay for the launch of a third output line, with capacity of about 200,000 units, at its plant in Guangzhou, which was set for a 2015 launch. Toyota said its sales in China fell 22% annually in November.
  • Great Wall Motor Co, China’s biggest SUV maker, is in talks to set up a wholly-owned business in India and  start production of vehicles in 2016. It would be the first Chinese car maker to do so.
  • Cars from Dongfeng Honda, Dongfeng Peugeot and Great Wall have been found to contain excessive levels of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, chemicals which could pose a health risk. A total of 43 cars of 25 brands, bought by customers in 21 cities, were tested. Forty passed tests which targeted the concentration of eight common compounds. Manufacturers were ordered to fix the problem.
  • BYD is partnering Bulgarian energy firm Bulmineral to further explore the European market for green public transport. The two companies will set up a 50-50 joint venture called Auto Group Motors in Breznik, 48 kilometers west of Sofia, which will be BYD’s first assembly plant overseas. The plant will produce its first sample electric buses in February and will be able to make 40 to 60 units monthly at full capacity. BYD’s car batteries and LED light bulbs will also be produced by the plant at a later stage. The plant will be the second Chinese auto facility in Bulgaria after Great Wall’s assembly line in the northern city of Lovech opened in February. BYD also plans to set up a fully-owned plant in California.
  • Beijing will continue with its car plate lottery program this year. The city has so far issued 441,195 licenses for private passenger cars through 23 monthly lotteries. The annual quotas have been set at 240,000 for two years, making 20,000 licenses available each month on average. The winning rate for Beijing’s car registration lottery fell below 1.5% to its lowest level in November when more than 1.2 million people tried their luck. The capital had nearly 5.19 million vehicles as of the end of November, compared with 4.81 million at the end of 2010. In 2011, only 173,000 new cars were registered, a 78% decrease from 2010.
  • The car sales aftermarket, which involves the production, sale, distribution and installation of vehicle parts and accessories for vehicles that have already been sold, will show an average annual growth rate of about 30% in the five years between 2009 and 2014, according to consulting firm Alix-Partners, which predicted that revenue will rise from CNY165 billion in 2009 to CNY369 billion last year and CNY617 billion in 2014.
  • Volvo Cars signed a €922 million loan with the China Development Bank (CDB). Volvo has said it will invest USD11 billion as it aims to double total sales by 2020 to 800,000 vehicles. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group bought Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Co in 2010.
  • Shanghai’s car plate prices hit a record high for the sixth consecutive month in December. The lowest price for a Shanghai car plate surged to CNY68,900, up CNY2,400 on November while the average winning bid rose CNY2,500 on November to CNY 69,346, the Shanghai Commodity International Auction Co said. The number of plates on offer was lowered to 9,300 from 9,500 and the number of bidders dropped by nearly 900 to 18,244, the lowest last year. The average price was up more than 30% on January’s figure.
  • SAIC Motor Corp plans to double exports of the Maxus model this year to 3,500 to 4,000 units, according to General Manger Lan Qingsong. Overseas sales are expected to account for 20% of overall sales within five years, with Europe to be the next target market.
  • High demand for license plates that allow vehicles to travel across the Hong Kong-mainland China border are driving prices up to as much as CNY1.1 million in Guangdong’s black market. Duo license plates, issued by Guangdong’s Traffic Management Bureau, are difficult to obtain because the high requirements. There were 27,000 vehicles registered with duo license plates as of May. Among those, 25,000 were Hong Kong vehicles.
  • Daimler merged two Mercedes-Benz sales units in China to streamline operations. The new unit, Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co, will coordinate distribution for the brand in China and is a 50-50 joint venture with Beijing Automotive Group Co. Mercedes formerly had separate units overseeing imported vehicles and locally-made cars. The merger is to meet sluggish growth in China. Mercedes-Benz’s product portfolio will be expanded with about 20 new and updated models in China by 2015.
  • PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) expects China’s light vehicle assembly volume to increase from 15.4 million units last year to 24.7 million units in 2016 at a compound average growth rate of 9.9% during the period, compared with a 24.9% annual growth in the previous decade. It expects global average growth of light vehicle production to be 6% each year through 2016.
  • Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Co has sold a further 300 rapid transit buses to Iran. The record deal gives the company a strong foothold in Iran’s bus market. Golden Dragon has been a regular exporter to Iran since 2008 and the new order means it has now sold 800 vehicles to the country, giving it a 70% share of its rapid transit bus market.
  • Chinese battery and electric carmaker BYD recently delivered three pure electric e6 cars to Thai power company Metropolitan Electricity Authority, the first Chinese automaker to benefit from zero tariffs under the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in Thailand. The electricity authority will use the three e6 cars and charging equipment to research the impact of charging electric cars on the grid.
  • SAIC Motor Corp reported it sold 4.49 million vehicles last year, a 12% increase from 2011. The figure includes 1.39 million units sold by Shanghai General Motors and 1.28 million units by Shanghai Volkswagen, up 13.1% and 9.79% respectively from a year earlier. Deliveries of SAIC’s minivan joint venture SAIC-GM-Wuling rose 12.1% to 1.46 million units while sales of its self-owned brands Roewe and MG soared 23.5% to hit 200,000 units, worth CNY20 billion. The automaker expects to complete construction of its CNY4.4 billion technology center in Shanghai this year.
  • Executives at local and foreign car manufacturers in China predict the overall vehicle market will grow 5% to 10% this year, roughly in line with 2012, when demand was hit by a slowing economy and rising fuel costs. Japanese carmakers will likely continue to struggle this year after they saw their China sales plunge by about half in 2012 after anti-Japanese protests and boycotts of Japanese goods broke out in mid-September over the Diaoyu islands territorial dispute.
  • China expects to have 39,700 energy-efficient and new-energy vehicles in operation by the end of March. So far 27,400 energy-efficient and new-energy vehicles are running in 25 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, including 23,000 buses, vans and cars in the public service sector and another 4,400 in private use, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. China has 174 charging stations and 8,107 charging posts.
  • Volvo Car’s sales in China shrank nearly 11% in 2012 compared with the prior year to 41,989 cars, including a steep 24% year-on-year drop in December alone. The decline was partly the result of fierce competition in the imported luxury segment and the termination of the compact S40 model. Volvo Car said it expects to launch the new V40 model in China in 2013, further its recruitment drive and expand its retail network. The company aims to nearly double global vehicle sales to 800,000 by 2020, including 200,000 cars in China by 2015.
  • BYD said it had gained official permission to sell its electric buses in all European Union member states, just weeks after the firm announced a plan to build electric buses in Bulgaria with a local partner.
  • The German automaker Volkswagen’s service arm Volkswagen New Mobility Services Investment Co acquired Shanghai Zhenlang Transportation Equipment Leasing Co and will officially establish car rental operations across China for corporate clients.
  • National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), the buyer of bankrupt former carmaker Saab that is owned by Chinese-Swedish businessman Kai Johan Jiang, has signed a deal with the city of Qingdao, Shandong province, as part of plans to build and sell electric cars in China. Qingdao would invest in NEVS and get 22% of its shares.
  • Passenger cars sales, including minivans, rose 8.6% in December from a year earlier to 1.56 million unit. That brought the full-year figure to 14.68 million units, up 6.8% compared with a 2.8% increase in 2011, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said. Secretary General Rao Da described December’s performance as “unexpected” even considering that the month is China’s traditional peak season for buying cars. He expects China’s car market to grow around 10% this year if market forces are allowed full play. But facing increasing traffic pressure, the government is likely to intervene and keep the growth rate at 5%.
 
 
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