Short news automotive
January 10, 2013 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, 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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