Short news automotive
January 9, 2014 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Short news automotive
- Volkswagen has unveiled its new “People First” strategy for the Chinese market, renewing the company’s focus on serving people in an innovative and responsible way. “Our China strategy is based on three strong pillars: customers, employees and society,” said Jochem Heizmann, President and CEO of Volkswagen China. With 30 years of experience, Volkswagen is the automaker most closely associated with the Chinese market, since the first Volkswagen Santana model was assembled in Shanghai in 1983. By 2018, Volkswagen plans to nearly double its range of locally manufactured models in China to more than 35, including about 15 new-energy models.
- Two auto parts exhibitions were held concurrently with the Guangzhou Auto show in November last year. Statistics show that China’s auto parts industry accounts for 35% of the country’s entire automotive industry. The proportion is 60% to 70% in developed economies, leading analysts to speculate that there is great potential for growth in the market. At present, there are nearly 500 foreign auto parts companies with operations in China. The world’s top 20 parts enterprises have entered the market through wholly-owned companies or joint ventures.
- 28 Chinese cities and city clusters have been designated to promote the use of new-energy vehicles. Government subsidies will be given to users and manufacturers from 2013 to 2015. By the end of 2012, there were 27,800 new-energy vehicles in 25 cities and 80% of them were buses. The big cities on the list must have at least 10,000 new-energy vehicles in service by 2015, while smaller cities need at least 5,000. Owners of pure electric passenger vehicles are eligible for subsidies of CNY35,000 to CNY60,000. The subsidy for plug-in hybrids will be CNY35,000.
- The explosive growth of the car market in China is also giving life to a new industry: used cars. Chinese started buying new cars in huge numbers about four years ago, about the average length of time analysts say drivers will stick with a vehicle before trading it in for a fresh model. The second-hand market is already taking off, with sales growth last year outpacing that for new vehicles. By volume it is still dwarfed by new cars, which outsold used vehicles three to one. In 2012, used car sales rose 11% to 4.8 million vehicles, while new car sales rose 7% to 15.5 million.
- Authorities in Beijing announced that the city will further reduce the number of new car plates available to buyers and encourage the use of new-energy vehicles. From 2014 through 2017, the number of new cars available to registered drivers in the capital, which is currently handled through the city’s monthly plate lottery, will be reduced from 240,000 a year to 150,000. The number of applicants in the November lottery was more than 1.74 million. The new policy will ensure that the capital will add only 600,000 new cars in the next four years, including 430,000 gasoline vehicles and 170,000 new-energy vehicles.
- Matthew Tsien, 53, former Vice President of Planning and Program Management for GM China, succeeded Bob Socia as GM China President on January 1. Tsien is a Chinese-American who has worked for GM for 37 years. He has served as Executive Vice President of the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture and helped negotiate GM’s early joint ventures with SAIC.
- The number of private cars in China has jumped 13 times in 10 years. There are now 85.07 million private cars in the country compared to 6 million in 2003, Xinhua news agency said in early December. More than 14 million were added each year in the past two years. Private cars now account for 82.8% of all vehicles in China, with Beijing having the most of any city at 5 million. There are currently more than 275 million drivers in the country, 2.6 times the number in 2003.
- China Central Television (CCTV) has accused foreign carmakers of charging customers more for repair costs than in other markets, singling out Audi, Subaru and Jaguar Land Rover. It also said that many foreign carmakers’ dealers were reluctant to repair parts, often insisting on more expensive replacements. The program said it was based on interviews with customers and workers at service workshops designated by foreign carmakers.
- Ford hosted the global debut of its all-new Mustang in Shanghai on December 5. The U.S. company earlier announced that it plans to bring 15 all-new models to China to enrich its product portfolio by 2015, including the premium brand of Lincoln limousines. The Mustang will go on sale in China in 2015. Ford’s total sales in China in the first 11 months of 2013 surged 51% from a year earlier to 840,975 units owing to strong November sales, which grew 47% year-on-year.
- Shanghai’s transportation authority set a unified 72,600 ceiling for the monthly car plate auction in 2014 in an effort to tame prices. Bidders for car plates cannot place prices above the ceiling during the first-round of bids, which are often used as a gauge for second-round bids by participants. The new upper limit was set according to the lowest ceiling imposed last year. A total of about 100,000 car plates will be made available for sales this year, the same level as last year.
- China announced that it stopped levying anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on certain types of cars imported from the United States when the measures expired on December 15. On December 14, 2011, China had started levying punitive duties on sedans and sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) with engines of 2.5 liters and above imported from the U.S. The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said the duties would be terminated because it had not received any applications for a renewal of the anti-dumping investigation. During the first 10 months of last year, 908,000 imported vehicles were sold in China, up 9.6% from a year earlier.
- Shanghai’s car plate prices rebounded slightly at 2013’s last auction before a rigid price ceiling mechanism comes into force this month. The average price of a Shanghai license plate rose to CNY76,093, up CNY376 from November. The number of bidders increased 3.7% to 39,625. The city government has announced a unified CNY72,600 ceiling for car plate auctions throughout 2014.
- A new measure by Tianjin city to restrict the number of new car license plates created a buying spree by residents eager to purchase cars in the five hours between the announcement and the time the measure took effect. Car buyers will now have to take part in a lottery or bid at auction to win a license plate. A salesperson at an Audi dealership in Tianjin said the policy increased the store’s sales volume tenfold between 7 pm and midnight on December 15. Cars with Tianjin car plates will also be banned from the road for one day a week according to the last digit of their number plate, from March 1 to January 10, 2015.
- BYD Auto has launched a new plug-in hybrid in Beijing, called Qin. It is a dual-mode model designed to run 70 kilometers on a single charge under all-electric mode, said Hou Yan, General Manager of BYD’s sales unit.
- Chinese automakers should set their eyes on emerging markets other than BRIC countries to find feasible opportunities in their globalization ambitions, said the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The company’s recently released report said rising automotive markets other than the BRIC “offer the last great growth opportunity” in a world where established markets are stagnating and key market shares have already been claimed in BRIC countries. BCG predicted that 88 countries it calls “beyond-BRIC markets” will generate 6% annual growth in sales by 2020, four times as fast as the established “Triad Markets” it defines as the United States and Canada, Europe and Japan, and Australia and New Zealand.
- The first two fully electric and emission-free buses made by BYD have been put into service in London. In Shenzhen 220 BYD e-buses have been in service since January 2011, traveling more than 20 million km, each carrying up to 120 passengers during rush hours with full air-conditioning in use. BYD said the bus uses about 130 kWh per 100 km in urban conditions. The e-bus battery takes four to five hours to charge from a totally exhausted state. The Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog has already converted its entire bus fleet to pure electric BYD e-buses and a fleet of 35 of the buses has been ordered for Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
- China National Heavy-Duty Truck Group Co, China’s leading heavy-duty truck maker, recently launched a multiple-brand strategy to diversify its product portfolio as part of its ongoing expansion into international markets. “Developing multiple brands is crucial to sharpening our competitive edge in different market segments,” said Ma Chunji, Chairman of the Shandong-based company, also known as Sinotruk. “Multiple brands enable us to target various market needs, providing consumers with products that have diverse features and prices,” he said at the company’s 2014 business and trade conference in December.
- Shanghai General Motors recalled nearly 1.5 million vehicles in one of the largest such vehicle recalls in China in 2013. A faulty fuel pump bracket may crack and pose a safety risk, the company said, adding that the problem lay in the supplier’s manufacturing process. Up to 1.2 million Buick Excelle made between January 17, 2006 and December 2, 2011 and 243,297 Chevrolet Sail made between April 9, 2009 and October 8, 2011 are affected by the recall. The two models involved are among General Motors’s best-sellers in China. Ford Motor Co’s joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co will also recall 80,857 of its Kuga cars over a steering part from February 21. The component might break apart when the car is involved in a collision of “considerable intensity,” posing safety dangers.
- Ford Motor Co and its local partners in China sold a total of 94,838 vehicles on a wholesale basis in December, up 35% from a year earlier, compared with a 47% increase in November and a 55% jump in October. In 2013, sales by the U.S. automaker totaled 935,813 vehicles on a wholesale basis, up 49% from 2012, helped by the Ford Focus, the best selling model in China last year.
- China’s passenger car market accelerated in 2013 by posting a double-digit growth in sales after slowing for two years, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said. The sales of sedans, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) and minivans jumped 17% to 17.2 million units.
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