Short news automotive

October 11, 2012 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Short news automotive

Fiat started sales of its first locally-made Viaggio compact. The car will be available from CNY108,800, said Jiang Ping, Executive Vice General Manager of Fiat’s joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.
Shanghai’s car plate prices hit a record high in September as the average price shot up to CNY66,425, CNY3,866 more than in August, while the lowest successful bid rose CNY3,600 to CNY65,700, the Shanghai Commodity International Auction Co said. Plate prices increased even though the auction attracted the fewest number of bidders this year – 19,114 people – down 10% on the previous month. Since July, the holding period for a car plate was extended from one to three years, pushing some scalpers out of the market. 9,500 car plates were available for bidding in September, the same as in August, July and June.
Harman International Industries, a world leader in audio equipment and in-car information and entertainment systems, still has great confidence in the Chinese market even though it is facing slowing growth. The increasing traffic congestion means Chinese people spend more time in their cars, and that creates a rising demand for better infotainment products and a safer driving experience. In the fiscal year to June, the company’s China sales grew 42% to USD382 million, more than double its total sales growth of 16%. Harman has located one of its four global research and development (R&D) hubs in Shanghai to meet the demand from its Chinese customers.
Cars with seven seats or less were exempt from highway tolls during the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday. As a result, the country’s 236 million licensed drivers saved up to CNY10 billion in highway fees. Car rental firms did a brisk business and raised their prices. At Shanghai’s Dazhong Car Rental and Leasing all 4,000 cars were booked well in advance of the holiday.
Geely Automobile, whose parent Zhejiang Geely took over Volvo in 2010, said it was voluntarily recalling about 55,018 vehicles for defects in fuel boxes. The cars are Kingkong and Jin Ying models produced and sold in China between January 3, 2009, and November 30 last year.
BMW’s sales in China surged 59% in September, easing investors’ concerns that the world’s biggest vehicle market is slowing. Volkswagen’s Audi unit and Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz posted sales gains of 20% and 10%, respectively.
Exports of China-produced vehicles are forecast to hit one million vehicles this year from 849,500 vehicles last year. Some automotive analysts are predicting a 50% increase to 1.25 million vehicles.
More than 20 million new drivers obtain driving licenses each year in China, and more than 186 million people in China are licensed to drive cars. If motorcyclists are added, there are 247 million people holding licenses. Of those, nearly 11%, or around 27 million, have less than a year’s driving experience.
Hyundai Motor Group has set up an auto financing joint venture in China to start providing auto loans to Hyundai and Kia customers. It will own 60% of Beijing Hyundai Auto Finance Co with an initial capital of CNY500 million. Beijing Automotive Industry Group will hold the remainder. Hyundai said the new venture is aimed at tapping the growing demand from younger generations of Chinese who are more willing to borrow money to buy cars than their parents. Only 10% of car purchases are financed by loans in China, a ratio that industry estimates will triple by 2017,” Ted Chung, CEO of Hyundai Capital Services, said.
BYD announced that Vice President and Sales Manager Yang Longzhong – who is also one of the company’s founders – has left the company for personal reasons and as part of a restructuring. He sold a large portion of his A-shares in the company in July, which netted him CNY119 million in proceeds. Yang’s departure follows the resignation last year of Xia Zhibing, another BYD Vice President and Sales Manager of its Car Division at the time. BYD’s F3 model was once China’s best-selling car, but the company is now not even listed in China’s top 10 of car makers.
Tolls on China’s expressways are among the highest in the world, according to Xinhua News Agency. Tolls average about CNY1 for every two kilometers traveled.
Bentley Motors’ and Porsche’s China sales are expected to surpass those in the U.S. this year, said Jimmy Jin at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. Bentley is a VW subsidiary, and Porsche owns a controlling stake in VW. “The luxury brands sell well these years in China because of new wealth,” Jin told China Daily. Bentleys sales in China have increased ten-fold within the past several years. VW sold 1.7 million vehicles in China in the first eight months of the year, raising its market share to 20.4%. Jin also predicted sales of Audis in China will surpass 400,000 units this year, up 30% from 2011.
General Motors said sales in China rose 1.7% in September, the slowest growth in eight months, as deliveries of Buicks dropped 1.8% and Cadillacs declined 8.3%. Deliveries of cars and minivans climbed to 244,266 units in September. GM’s total sales for the first nine months of this year to dealerships in China rose 10% to 2.08 million units. Sales of SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co, the venture that makes Wuling mini commercial vehicles, gained 0.4% to 119,510 units last month. Deliveries at FAW-GM Light Commercial Vehicle Co, the venture with FAW Group Corp, fell 5% to 4,581 units.
China’s quality supervision authorities will increase penalties for automakers whose vehicles are recalled in the country due to problems with quality standards. Hefty fines will be imposed. Car makers which do not cooperate with the investigation can be fined up to CNY1 million. Manufacturers which fail to stop producing or selling the defective vehicles after the recall order or ignore the recall, could be fined hundreds of millions of yuan after the regulation is enforced.
Qoros Automotive Co, the joint venture between domestic carmaker Chery and U.S. investment firm Israel Corp, said it will debut its first product at the Geneva motor show next March and will start sales in both China and Europe simultaneously, targeting young consumers between 25 and 35 years old.
Eleven Chinese central government departments including the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance, recently incorporated 23 electric vehicles in their fleets. Produced by domestic carmakers BYD and JAC Motors, the vehicles will be used in a one-year trial. China Potevia Co has built charging facilities onsite at the departments, and will maintain and charge the vehicles.
SAIC GM’s Pan-Asia Automotive Technology Center completed a new testing field in late September in Guangde county, Anhui province, where the joint venture will conduct R&D and vehicle testing at a site covering 5.67 square kilometers. Built with a total investment of CNY160 million, it has the longest testing track of its kind in China and is expected to boost local design and manufacturing content in GM cars made in the country.
Beiqi Foton Motor Co plans to build 130 dealerships in Brazil and invest another USD200 million in the next five years in addition to its USD300 million factory making light-duty trucks and minivans. The facility is scheduled to start production next year and have the capacity to make 30,000 units a year by 2017. In January, Foton began selling vehicles in Brazil through three dealers in Sao Paulo.
The anticipated tough new Beijing V emission standard will put more pressure on domestic carmakers, even forcing some to drop out of the Beijing market due to the high costs of upgrading their products. The emission standard — equivalent to the Euro V standard and the strictest in China — could take effect this year, although no final decision has been made. Once in force, models that can’t meet the new standard will be denied registration in Beijing. Chery Automobile Co, one of the top domestic carmakers and China’s biggest car exporter, has only two models that meet the Beijing V emission standard.
Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co will start construction on November 28 in Camacari in Brazil’s state of Bahia, on a USD450 million plant, the company’s first in South America. It is expected to become operational by the end of 2014 with an annual production capacity of 100,000 units. In the first six months, Chinese vehicle exports to Brazil dived by almost 90% year-on-year, taking the country out of the top 10 export destinations for Chinese automobiles, due to the imposition of higher import taxes. The Brazilian market is dominated by Fiat and Volkswagen.

Short news automotive

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