Short news automotive
March 6, 2014 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Short news automotive
- Nissan’s sales in China, which slumped in late 2012 after a flare-up in anti-Japanese sentiment, bounced back sharply, rising 94% to 381,000 vehicles in the last quarter of 2013.
- U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Motors appealed to China to be given incentives for new-energy vehicles. The Chinese government currently provides subsidies only to locally produced new-energy vehicles, with CNY35,000 to CNY60,000 per vehicle. Tesla also announced its Model S would cost CNY734,000 in China, far lower than the market anticipation of at least CNY1 million. The price is still about 50% higher than is charged in the United States because it covers shipping, taxes and import duties, with “no additional profits”, the company said. Tesla CEO Elon Musk expects sales in China to match its U.S. volume by 2015.
- China’s passenger car sales reached an all-time monthly high in January, with 1.88 million vehicles sold, up 10.1% year-on-year, and 3.7% higher than the highest monthly total last year recorded in December. “Two new groups of car buyers have been driving market growth since the fourth quarter: panic buyers living in cities that may impose car purchase restrictions, and civil servants buying their own cars because management of official fleets has been tightened,” Rao Da, Secretary General of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said.
- 12 more cities have been included in a program to promote the use of environmentally friendly cars, taking the total number of cities and regions involved to 40. The cities-including Beijing-have set specific sales targets and are expected to act as icebreakers. Cities in eastern regions are required to promote not less than 10,000 new-energy vehicles by the end of 2015, while targets for the rest are set at 5,000. Beijing and Shenzhen have set their own targets of 35,000, pushing up the total for the 40 cities to around 320,000 units.
- Shanghai car plate prices continued to drop, even with the supply at a 22-month low and the number of bidders at its highest level in nearly six years. The average price went down CNY144 or 0.2% to CNY73,35, while the number of bidders rose to 45,758 from 41,946 in January. A total of 8,000 car plates were made available for auction in February – 7,400 for individual bidders and 600 for organizations.
- ABB will enter into a partnership with Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co to supply direct-current fast chargers over the next six years. The wall-mounted chargers will have a number of innovations designed for user convenience and safety including a mobile app that allows cloud-based remote monitoring and control of charging sessions. First deliveries are expected by the middle of the year. The chargers will be sold through BYD-Daimler’s Denza dealerships along with the vehicle. The fully electric Denza is designed for journeys of more than 250 km and will be among the first long-range electric vehicles on the Chinese market.
- On January 28, four ministries raised the subsidy for new energy vehicles by 5% in highly industrialized target areas including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta. Buyers of green cars can now receive a maximum subsidy of CNY57,000 from the central government. The Beijing Transport Commission announced its own subsidy package for pure electrics of up to CNY57,000. Its plan calls for 200,000 clean energy vehicles on the road by the end of 2017. The list of models eligible for subsidies from the Beijing government has yet to be formally released.
- Shanghai police are warning car owners of the risks associated with buying temporary license plates online, which might be counterfeit. Anyone caught driving on counterfeit or altered plates faces up to 15 days’ detention and a fine of CNY2,000 CNY5,000.
- Almost a third of Chinese car buyers see consumer-driven content, such as automotive blogs or reviews, as their most trusted source of information when buying a vehicle, according to a survey by consumer insight company Kantar Worldpanel. Car buyers in the United States are more likely to be persuaded by traditional marketing, rather than blogs, forums and social media, which only appeal to 7% of buyers.
- Dah Chong Hong, which distributes a range of foreign car brands, is optimistic on demand this year, despite the end of a Bentley partnership on the mainland contributing to a 13.8% drop in profit for last year. The company said it expected to gain from the Hong Kong government’s scheme to phase out old diesel vehicles and would see stable growth from the rising middle class on the mainland. The company recorded a net profit of HKD901 million last year.
- Buyers of electric cars produced by BYD and BAIC Motor will get free license plates in Shanghai, saving them over CNY70,000. BYD’s Qin hybrid car and the E150 purely electric car of BAIC have recently been included in Shanghai’s new energy car subsidy program. The two cars are strong competitors for Shanghai-based SAIC’s Roewe E50. Subsidies will also shave CNY33,250 off BYD Qin’s retail price which starts from CNY189,800, and cut CNY47,500 from BAIC E150’s nearly CNY250,000.
- Volvo released a series of environmentally-friendly engines on February 26, in response to growing concerns over air pollution in China. The 4-cylinder 2.0-liter engines, one diesel and two gasoline options, were developed based on its Drive-E philosophy. They can cut fuel consumption by 13% to 35%. The automaker said they will help achieve Volvo’s target of lowering its model’s carbon dioxide emission to 95 g/km by 2020 and realize its ultimate goal of zero emissions. The first vehicles to use such engines in China will be XC 60 crossovers.
- Toyota’s sales in China grew 43.1% year-on-year to 51,900 units in February, driving its January and February sales 26.4% higher from a year earlier. Toyota’s sales grew 9.2% to 917,500 units in 2013 but under performed the market’s 16% expansion. Toyota seeks to sell 1.1 million cars in China this year, up 19.9%.
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