Short news automotive
June 5, 2014 Category Automotive Metals & Minerals, Short news automotive
- Jebsen Automotive Technik (JAT), which has three joint ventures in Dalian, recently announced plans to open a fourth one. JAT expects 15% to 20% growth this year. JAT’s business is helping major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) localize domestic production. Jebsen TCG Automotive Systems, JAT’s second joint venture in Dalian, with TCG Unitech of Austria, develops and manufactures oil pump systems. Jebsen is also an expert in the distribution of luxury cars, including the Porsche brand. The company currently has eight Porsche centers in China.
- Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and its local joint venture Chery Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Co announced the establishment of an integrated marketing, sales and service organization. It will be responsible for the development and distribution of the Jaguar, Land Rover and Chery Jaguar Land Rover brands in China. Lu Yi, Chief of Staff at Jaguar Land Rover China, was appointed President of the sales organization. In the first quarter, Jaguar Land Rover China’s sales surged 36% year-on-year to 29,500 units.
- Chinese automotive company BAW South Africa aims to overtake Toyota Motor in the fast-growing South African taxi minibus market. Its 16-seater Sasuka minibus has become popular for reliability and affordability. BAW South Africa is a joint venture between Beijing Automotive Works Co, the Industrial Development Corp of South Africa and China Africa Motors. It was set up in November 2012 to assemble minibus taxis on a semi-knocked-down basis. The Industrial Development Corp of South Africa estimates that annual taxi sales in South Africa will reach 28,000 units next year. Toyota sells 1,100 minibuses every month in South Africa, while BAW South Africa’s sales average about 200.
- From September, owners of new cars will no longer have to have their cars inspected for roadworthiness every two years in the first six-year period, the Ministry of Public Security announced. After six years, annual checks up to the age of 15 years are required, six-monthly checks after that, and checks every three months if the vehicle is still on the road after 20 years. The private sector can now also apply for licenses to run test centers. By the end of 2013, there were around 250 million vehicles on the road and every year an estimated 15 million new cars join them.
- About 200 million Chinese now use e-bikes, a 1,000-fold increase from 15 years ago. About 90% of the world’s e-bikes were sold in China in 2012, according to Navigant Research, a consulting firm, which estimates that another 249 million will be sold there by 2020. They offer a convenient mode of transportation to beat traffic jams but are also responsible for an increasing number of road accidents.
- Lu Guanqiu, Chairman and founder of Wanxiang Group, which took over Fisker Automotive Holdings, plans to manufacture electric cars in the U.S. and ultimately in China. The Fisker estate included an abandoned General Motors plant in Delaware, providing Wanxiang an entry point for selling and manufacturing cars in the U.S.
- The Shanghai government has extended its incentive program for buyers of environment-friendly cars until the end of next year. Under the scheme, anyone who buys a pure-electric or plug-in hybrid car in Shanghai will be entitled to a subsidy of CNY40,000 or CNY30,000, respectively. Buyers will also be entitled to a free license plate, worth about CNY70,000 at auction.
- BYD Co is offering USD400 million in new Hong Kong-listed shares. The funds would give Shenzhen-based BYD room to step up investments and bolster production of electric vehicles. The sale comes after BYD reported profit tumbled 89% in the first quarter because of declining demand for its gasoline-fueled vehicles. Last year, profit jumped almost seven-fold after Chairman Wang Chuanfu completed a three-year reorganization during which he cut the number of dealerships and narrowed the losses of its solar business.
- The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of the United States in a dispute with China over duties on car imports from the U.S. The U.S. in July 2012 filed a WTO complaint seeking to offset Chinese duties on more than USD3 billion worth of car imports from the U.S. The Chinese government had alleged that the U.S. industry gained an unfair edge in trade by using government subsidies and selling the goods in China below their value, a practice known as dumping. Two months later, the U.S. filed the second WTO case against China alleging the Beijing government subsidized its own car and car-parts makers in violation of global trade rules.
- The success rate among people bidding for private car license plates in Shanghai fell to a record low of 6.5% in the May auction. Of the 114,121 people who took part in the auction, just 7,400 secured a plate, for which they paid an average of CNY74,503 – up CNY390 from April – with the lowest winning bid being CNY74,400. The number of available plates was 700 less than the previous month.
- Chinese automakers SAIC Motor Corp, Dongfeng Motor Group, Great Wall Motors, BYD, Chang’an Automobile Group and Guangzhou Automobile Group are on the 2014 Forbes Global 2,000 list, a ranking of the world’s largest public companies rated by a composite score of revenues, profits, assets and market value. The latter two are on the list for the first time.
- Battery and car manufacturer BYD announced on May 21 that it plans to invest CNY3 billion in a new plant in Wuhan to build new-energy vehicles. The plant is designed to have an annual production capacity of 1,000 all-electric buses in the first phase, and will later make new-energy vehicles for logistics use.
- Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co started accepting orders for its all-electric Denza in Beijing on May 17. Eligible for the national subsidy, its price to buyers is CNY255,000. The first Denza models will be delivered to customers in October. BYD Daimler has already signed an agreement with power and automation technology group ABB for supplying direct-current fast chargers over the next six years that is expected to result in the world’s largest fast-charging network for electric vehicles.
- Volkswagen China raised awareness of safety among Chinese parents after it held a child seat program with the China Women’s Development Foundation in Beijing on May 22. The group and its joint ventures, FAW-VW and Shanghai VW, donated 320 child safety seats to new mothers and mothers-to-be in the capital through kindergartens and maternal and child care service centers. VW planned to hold similar programs in 17 cities across the country this year. More than 18,500 people under the age of 14 die in car accidents in China every year.
- BMW Brilliance Automotive rolled out the BMW 328i xDrive, BMW 328Li xDrive and the new BMW 528Li xDrive with six different specifications in Shenyang, Liaoning province. It is the first time BMW has offered its most intelligent all-wheel-drive technology on locally produced sedans, covering both the 3 and 5 Series. Prices for the cars range from CNY458,800 to CNY645,600. More than 340,000 of the current 5 Series were sold in China since it launched in August 2010. In the first four months of this year, sales of the 3 Series increased 45.7% from a year ago to 31,134 units and those of the 5 Series rose 17.2% to 47,198 units.
- China is scrapping more than 5 million cars that fail to meet national emission standards this year as part of its efforts to clean up the country’s air. The target for Beijing is 330,000 cars and for Shanghai 160,000. Cars that fail to meet minimum National I emission standards accounted for 7.8% of cars on China’s roads but generated more than 35% of the main air pollutants.
- Shanghai is to pay city bus companies from CNY150,000 to CNY550,000 for each energy-saving or new-energy vehicle they purchase, depending on the model. In addition, district governments will pay subsidies of up to CNY165,000 a year for the first eight years for each new-energy bus to cover maintenance and running costs. The city government says at least 60% of new buses added to the city’s fleet should be energy-saving or new energy vehicles from this year. The city’s two main bus companies own a total of 140,000 buses.
- Shanghai extended its electric car demonstration program from Jiading district to the Pudong New Area. The Shanghai Expo EV Pilot Zone project was launched at the former Shanghai World Expo site in Pudong by State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Co, Shanghai Expo Group, and Germany’s BMW. The partners will jointly develop 50 public charging poles for the 5-square-kilometer area. Customers can test drive the BMW i3 electric car in the newly-established green zone. To date, there are eight charging poles in place in the zone.
- Consumer demand for vehicles in the next few months will be weaker than at the beginning of this year, according to the 2014 China Auto and Auto Parts report by UBS Securities Co. Passenger vehicle shipments will expand 11.8% in 2014, and sales of all types of vehicles will rise 10.7%. Production capacity for passenger vehicles will increase 12% this year. According to Fourin, a Japanese research firm specializing in the vehicle industry, there are more than 700 cars for every 100 kilometers of road in Beijing, 400 in Shanghai and 300 nationally. As the number of cars is rising faster that road length, infrastructure will be the bottleneck for the continuous rapid growth of China’s automobile industry.
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