Short news automotive
Feb-23-2012 By : agxadmin
- Morgan Motor, a family-owned British manufacturer of hand-made, vintage-styled luxury cars, appointed its first China car dealers in Beijing and Shanghai. Luxury car sales in China rose 30% last year to almost 600,000, and are projected to continue double-digit growth this year, according to industry consultants LMC Automotive. The boom in luxury sales saw China become the top market for the first time last year at companies including Rolls-Royce, Audi and Lamborghini.
- China’s largest carmaker, SAIC Motor – which completed acquisitions from its parent company Shanghai Auto late last year – expects net profit to jump 40% to more than CNY19.21 billion for 2011. SAIC sold more than four million vehicles last year – slightly surpassing its earlier target to achieve a year-on-year growth of 13%. More than half of the sales – or a record 2.55 million vehicles, came from its joint venture with General Motors. SAIC is expected to announce its full-year earnings on April 5.
- Italian luxury carmaker Maserati would recall 222 vehicles in China due to a defective rear light. The company sold more than 780 cars in China last year, nearly twice as many as in 2010, making China its second-largest market in the world after the U.S. Ferrari Maserati Cars International Trading (Shanghai), the only Chinese importer of Maseratis, would notify customers and offer free repairs.
- The number of cars on Beijing’s roads surpassed 5 million last year, but its car-plate lottery delayed the milestone for 11 months. There were 173,000 new cars licensed in Beijing last year, 617,000 fewer than in 2010.
- Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC Group) announced it would launch its first own-brand car next month. The compact hatchback with the nameplate “Beijing” was expected last year, but government approval took more time. The company will open approximately 80 nationwide dealerships for the Beijing vehicles by the end of the year along with a separate sales network of 100 shops for Weiwang minivans that were launched a year ago. Combined sales of Beijing cars and Weiwang minivans are expected to reach 100,000 units this year.
- China Grand Auto, the second-largest domestic car dealer, has been in talks to take over Sanroad, the second-largest auto sales company in Sichuan province for about CNY1.4 billion. China Grand Auto sold more than 410,000 vehicles last year with revenues over CNY63 billion. The dealer operates nearly 400 4S shops across the country. Its parent company is Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group Co based in Urumqi. The company is backed by U.S. private investment firm TPG, which owns 42%, while Xinjiang Guanghui is the biggest shareholder.
- The top 100 car dealerships in China account for just 21% of market share. A guideline issued by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) last December called for more consolidation with a target in 2015 to have three to five large dealerships with revenues of over CNY100 billion and 30 regional dealers with revenues of over CNY10 billion. The top-ranked 100 dealers should account for at least 30% of the market share by then.
- Chinese media reports alleged the transmission mechanism of the Chevrolet Cruze emits levels of electromagnetic radiation that could be dangerous, but GM said they were well within safe limits. Shanghai GM said inspections by an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) showed that the 1.6-liter Chevrolet Cruze SL model has a maximum electromagnetic level of 0.1376 microteslas (μT). The safe exposure level is 100 μT, according to China’s recommended standards.
- 300 units of Pearl Grey limited edition Smart cars made were sold out within 89 minutes in an online sale by Jingdong. China was the only country where these special edition cars had been sold exclusively through an online retailer. Only 1,200 units were released globally. Since the Smart car entered the Chinese market in April 2009, China has become its third-largest market after Germany and Italy. Sales surged 180% last year to almost 11,000 units.
- Great Wall Motor opened its first European factory in the Bulgarian town of Lovech on February 21. The €100 million plant – controlled by a joint venture in which Great Wall holds a minority stake – plans to manufacture 50,000 Great Wall models – Hover SUVs, Steed pick-ups and Voleex city cars – when it begins mass production in 2013. Great Wall Motor, which listed in Shanghai in September, exported 83,000 vehicles last year to 120 countries and regions including Europe. The euro zone debt crisis is expected to dent demand this year.
Short news automotive
Jan-26-2012 By : agxadmin
- Japanese automaker Subaru is recalling 7,133 vehicles exported to China due to defects in the brake system master cylinders. The cars to be recalled include Legacy models produced from September 21 to November 15, 2011 and Outback models produced from November 29 to December 19, 2011. The problem increases the stopping distance.
- Daimler is planning to sell a 5% to 10% stake to sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC) as part of a plan to build closer ties with the government, according to John Zeng, Director of LMC Automotive Asia Pacific Forecasting.
- SAIC Motor announced it has completed the largest asset restructuring in China’s A-share market last year, with the market value of the listed company estimated at CNY29.11 billion. SAIC acquired the shares in its auto component, services trading and new-energy vehicle businesses by issuing shares to SAIC (Group) and SAIC Ltd. The listed company will trade under the new name of SAIC Group. The group sold more than 4 million vehicles last year, up 11.9% from last year and higher than the national average of 2.2%.
- Toyota Motor Corp said its vehicle sales in China slowed last year to 883,000 units, 4% more than the 846,000 units delivered a year earlier. The automaker is targeting sales to exceed 1 million units this year. Production at Toyota’s assembly plants in China fell to as low as 30% of normal following the earthquake in Japan in March.
Toyota, which has joint ventures with China FAW Group Corp and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co, began producing its third-generation Prius hybrid last month in China for sale early this year. Toyota had 5.92% of China’s passenger car market, compared with General Motors’ 17.9%. - Car plate prices in Shanghai rose in the first auction of 2012 as demand outstripped supply. The averaged price increased to CNY53,195 this month, up CNY1,758 from December, auction organizer Shanghai Commodity International Co said. The lowest price jumped CNY1,800 to CNY52,800. The plate supply was reduced to 8,000 this month, 500 less than December. The number of bidders fell by 2,177 to 24,354 in January.
- General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co reported record car sales in China last year, outpacing Japanese rivals. Deliveries to Chinese dealers climbed 8.3% from a year earlier to 2.55 million vehicles, GM said. Ford said its sales grew 7% to 519,390 units. GM sold one car or truck every 12 seconds on average in China last year as it started a five-year rollout of more than 60 new and upgraded models.
- Rolls-Royce Motor Cars had the highest sales in its 107-year history in 2011 as China became its biggest market for the first time. Sales of Rolls-Royce cars in China rose 60% last year. Growth in all regions drove deliveries 31% higher to 3,538 cars in 2011, beating the previous record year of 1978 by 191 vehicles. China became Rolls-Royce’s biggest market three years ahead of a target the company set in February.
- Sun Xiaodong was appointed to be Director at PSA Peugeot Citroen Asia. Before Sun joined the group in May last year, he had served in SAIC Motor Corp and its joint ventures with Volkswagen and General Motors for two decades.
- National standards on charging portals and communications protocols for electric vehicles were released at the end of 2011. The new standards set requirements on DC and AC ports, as well as for communications between chargers and vehicle battery management systems. The standards are expected to take effect on March 1.
- Domestic automaker BYD is building a second crash test lab in Shenzhen that is expected to begin operation in August. The 22,000-square-meter, CNY100 million facility will meet the same standards as collision testing labs in Europe and the U.S. BYD already operates a similar lab in Shanghai.
- The 600,000th Hover SUV made by Great Wall Motors recently rolled off the production line, becoming the first domestic SUV to surpass the benchmark. In the first 11 months of 2011, Great Wall sold 434,469 vehicles, a 28.7% increase over the same period last year, with 141,249 Hover’s sold, up 6.1%. Sales of its Tengyi sedan reached 181,344 units, up 60.9%, while 111,876 of its Fengjun pickup trucks were sold, 22% more than the previous year. Great Wall exported 76,031 vehicles, a 49.4% increase.
- Clean energy vehicles will form one tenth of the buses on the streets of Shanghai by the end of 2015, the city Transport Bureau pledged. Currently, the 18,000 buses in service in Shanghai include around 300 electric vehicles.
Short news automotive
Dec-21-2011 By : agxadmin
- 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.
Short news automotive
Nov-24-2011 By : agxadmin
- Shanghai Automotive Industrial, partner of both General Motors and Volkswagen, reported its profit jumped 27% in the third quarter, helped by strong demand for new GM and VW models. Its sales jumped 12% in the first nine months of the year to almost 3 million vehicles.
- The new-energy vehicle show, attached to the China International Industry Fair 2011, was held for the first time. SAIC Motor Corp unveiled five new-energy vehicles at the fair, including the debut of the E50 pure electric car after four years of development. The country aims to have 1 million electric-powered vehicles on the streets by 2015.
- The latest China Initial Quality Study (IQS) by industry analyst JD Power Asia Pacific, now in its 12th year, found that car models from Japanese brands, as a whole, had the lowest rate of problems in the Chinese market. The most frequently reported problem in 2011 was fuel consumption, a measure in which Japanese cars usually perform better. Japanese cars were also rated better in interior design.
- The first dealership for Venucia, a China-only brand by Sino-Japanese joint venture Dongfeng Nissan, opened in Shenzhen. The company said that before the first Venucia model hits the market at next year’s Beijing Auto Show, the brand will have 100 outlets, with the number projected to reach 250 in 2015. Venucia owners can also use services provided by the 700 Dongfeng Nissan authorized dealerships in China.
- By the end of last year there were 4.81 million vehicles in Beijing – 3.74 million of them privately owned – or 229 vehicles for every 1,000 people, the highest ratio in China. Eight years ago there were only 2.1 million vehicles on the city’s roads.
- China will lift restrictions on the issuance of new license plates for buyers of new-energy vehicles. They will be exempt from the current license plate and traffic restrictions in 25 major cities. By the end of this year, the State Grid Corp will have built 75 charging stations and over 6,000 charging posts for electric vehicles. The number of stations is supposed to reach 400 by 2016 and 10,000 by 2020. The 2011 New Energy Vehicles Conference will be held in Beijing from December 21 to 22.
- BMW will recall 3,198 vehicles in China from November 21 to fix defects in the auxiliary electronic pump in several models. The recall will also affect 336 Rolls-Royce Ghost RR04 vehicles.
- Volvo Car Corp announced it will start field trials on its C30 electric car in Shanghai. The Swedish carmaker signed a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai International Autocity Development Co to lease its electric C30 for demonstration operations in Jiading district. Volvo is also testing the vehicle in Paris and Los Angeles. Honda Motor Co also launched an electric car test in Guangzhou. Several other manufacturers have also been testing electric cars in China.
- Porsche reported sales of 17,683 units in China in the first three quarters of 2011, an 82% increase over the same period last year. China is likely to surpass the U.S. to become Porsche’s biggest market in 2012, executives said. There are now more than 50,000 Porsches on the roads in China.
- Ford Motor is testing a Putonghua-enabled voice-activated system prior to next year’s launch of the new Ford Focus. It would also be able to understand Chinese dialects. The Chinese market for smart automotive voice systems is relatively new but it is growing fast. General Motors’ OnStar service has proved popular since launching two years ago, while most other firms, including Toyota, BMW and Hyundai, offer similar voice systems as standard or optional equipment.
- The Beijing municipal government reclaimed more than CNY3 million from vehicle owners since early October. The money was handed out as extra subsidies by mistake to car owners who scrapped their old vehicles. It is estimated that an extra amount of nearly CNY7 million was mistakenly handed out to more than 1,700 vehicle owners in the capital.
- A new policy states that each vehicle purchased for government use must cost less than CNY180,000 and have a maximum engine size of 1.8 liters. The new policy, issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Government Offices Administration of the State Council, is meant to cut the government’s expenditure on vehicles. CNY6.17 billion was spent on vehicles last year. The new policy could save the country CNY800 million to CNY1 billion each year. Previously, the limit was CNY200,000 per vehicle.
- Car plate prices in Shanghai dropped for the first time this year in November. The average price of a private plate declined to CNY47,635 this month, down CNY6,373 from October. The city government put 9,000 plates up for auction, the same as last month. The number of bidders increased to 20,050, compared to 19,415 in October. Shanghai is the only city that offers car plates through an auction.
- General Motors Co introduced its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car to China, becoming the first global automaker to sell a hybrid car in the country. The Volt, launched at the Guangzhou auto show, sells for CNY498,000. The car will go on sale at 13 dealerships in eight Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Hangzhou and Guangzhou. The Volt provides up to 80 kilometers of pure electric driving.
- Volkswagen is on track to sell 2 million vehicles in China this year, and the group will invest another €14 billion in the country during 2012-2016, Karl-Thomas Neumann, CEO and President of VW’s China unit, said. In the first 10 months of this year, the German carmaker has sold 1.89 million vehicles to Chinese customers, an annual increase of 14.8%. “The steady growth will make the year 2011 the most successful year for Volkswagen in China,” said Neumann at the Guangzhou auto show.
- Volvo plans to launch its first locally produced model, a medium-sized sedan, in 2013, followed by a small sedan in 2014,” said Shen Hui, Senior Vice President of Volvo and Chairman of Volvo Cars China Operations. He declined to disclose the production site, as Volvo is waiting for government approval to build two plants, one in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and one in Daqing, Heilongjiang province.
Short news automotive
Oct-27-2011 By : agxadmin
- Anhui Ankai Automobile Co signed a contract with Britain’s Big Bus Tours sightseeing company to export 34 red open-top double-decker buses, which will be used for sightseeing tours during the 2012 Olympic Games in London. It will be the first time double-decker buses made in China will enter the UK market. Ankai has already assembled a sample bus, which has obtained approval from both Big Bus Tours and British automobile certification authorities.
- Swiss engineering group and car parts supplier Georg Fischer aims to more than double sales in China in five years to about CNY7 billion. The company’s GF AgieCharmilles machine tools unit inaugurated a new CNY80 million plant in Changzhou, Jiangsu province.
- China’s new CNY3,000 subsidy for fuel-efficient vehicles will benefit 26 models after the government this month imposed a more stringent requirement. The subsidy applies to cars weighing 1,205-1,320 kilograms and consuming no more than 6.3 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers, lower from the previous 6.9-liter threshold. Shanghai General Motors has nine models in the new subsidy category, including the Chevrolet Sail and Chevrolet Aveo.
- Toyota plans to start selling plug-in hybrid and electric cars in China in 2013, in competition with Volkswagen and General Motors. The company did not specify which model would be introduced to China. Toyota will start construction of its USD689 million wholly-owned research and development center in Changshu, Jiangsu province, which is expected to focus on hybrid electric vehicles.
- The Beijingnumber-plate lottery, which limits the number of new cars on the capital’s roads to 17,600 a month, will not apply to individuals who buy electric cars in the near future because the government wants to encourage the use of greener vehicles. The city’s 12th Five Year Plan for the car industry, which is expected to be released soon, is likely to include such a provision.
- The average car plate price in Shanghai increased in October to CNY54,008, CNY1,386 more than in September. The lowest price rose CNY1,600 to CNY53,800. Prices have increased every month this year. The average price this month was the third highest on record. About 9,000 car plates were available for auction, down 500 from September. The number of bidders in October fell below 20,000 for the first time this year.
- China may postpone the publishing of its blueprint for fuel-efficient and new energy vehicles to next year. The industry guideline for 2011 to 2020, is expected to expand from its previous focus on pure electric cars to include energy-saving models with support on research and development (R&D) as well as purchase subsidies.
- Nissan Motors’s first China design center in Beijing has recently started full operations, developing vehicle designs for both the Nissan and Infiniti brands. About 20 designers now work in the Beijing Center, most of whom are Chinese employees. Nissan now has five design centers worldwide, with two in Japan, one in the United States and another in the United Kingdom.
- Volkswagen reported auto sales in China increased 14.6% to a record high of 1.69 million units for the first nine months of this year. Sales of VW branded vehicles rose 11% to 1.29 million units. Sales of Audi increased to 226,000 units during the first three quarters, surpassing full year sales of 2010.
- Porsche expects China will become its largest market by late 2014. First-half sales grew 50% to 12,267 units, making China the second largest market for Porsche worldwide, trailing only the United States. A “World of Porsche” branding campaign was recently held at the Porsche Center Puxi to help customers become more familiar with the brand’s history, product line-ups, services and racing heritage.
- Avis said it plans to invest CNY2.5 billion in China in the next five years. The investment will allow the company to expand its short-term leasing car fleet by 10 times to 15,000 vehicles by 2016, according to Terence Chiu, General Manager of Anji Car Rental and Leasing Co, Avis Europe’s venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Sales Co. The business-rental fleet will expand to 10,000 units, up from the current 4,000 units. Competition from domestic rivals has intensified recently.
- September vehicle sales in China turned out stronger than expected with volumes up 8% year-on-year to 1.6 million units, the second highest this year. Sales of passenger cars totaled 1.2 million units, up 12% from a year ago. Exports in the first nine months of the year totaled 345,000 units, exceeding the previous highest annual export volume recorded in 2008. Growing sales in emerging markets are driving the demand.
