China: Cars Sales And Production Rise +20% In First Half Of 2007

According to the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), car sales and production both grew more than 20% in the first half of the year. In particular, vehicle production reached 4.46 million units, up by 22.36 percent compared to the same period last year while sales rose 23.31 percent to 4.37 million. Local analysts believe that the trend will continue throughout the year with both sales and production topping a record 8.5 million vehicles by the end of 2007.

China became the world’s second-largest automobile market in 2006 when sales reached 7.28 million units surpassing the then No2, Japan. Industry experts believe that sales of passenger vehicles in China will maintain this kind of high-speed growth (15 to 20 percent) for at least 10 years meaning that it won’t take long for China to become No1. God save the earth…

Via: CAAM

Mayor in Chinese City Urges people to stop buying cars!

Τhat’s a new one. Xu Zongheng, mayor of Shenzhen, a metropolis of 10 million people just north of Hong Kong, has issued a request that residents in the city refrain from buying any more cars.The plea was issued as a result of the increasing traffic and pollution problems in this already congested city.

As a result of the 70% percent of air pollution that car exhaust fumes are accounted for, China is feeling pressured to create certain obstacles to deter people from purchasing vehicles such as increasing fuel costs and creating congestion charges. In Shanghai, new car owners were required to separately purchase license plates, which have recently sold for almost 48,000 yuan ($6300). With all these cars and all these people, aside from the pollution issue, I can’t help but wonder where do all these people park?

Posted by Dani

Via: theaustralian

Infiniti Opens Its First Dealership In China

BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Lexus and now Infiniti. Don’t you just love modern day communism? Right… Nevertheless, China’s considered the land of opportunity for any car maker (or any “maker” for that matter) so it was only logical that Infiniti would rush into one of the world’s most prominent markets.

Infiniti’s first authorized dealer, dubbed “Shanghai Yongda Infiniti” started its sales in China from July 1st. The first models available in the Chinese market are the G35 sedan and FX35/45 SUV. G35 Base is priced at RMB448,000 ($59.000 or €43.000), G35 Premium at RMB478,000 ($63.000 or €46.200), while FX35 Base is priced at RMB638,000 ($84.000 or €61.600) and FX35 Top at RBM678,000 ($89.200 or €65.500) and FX45 Top at RMB808,000 ($106.300 or €78.000). -Continued after the jump

During the grand opening of the Shanghai dealership, Nissan Motors Corporate Vice President, Yasuaki Hashimoto said, “The China business is crucial for Infiniti’s global expansion and the smooth implementation of Nissan Value-Up”

“Infiniti has been well received in the marketplace thanks to its vibrant design, exhilarating performance, modern luxury experience and premium quality, as well as its Total Ownership Experience customer care philosophy,” said Yasuaki Hashimoto. “Infiniti’s worldwide customers are innovative, ambitious and successful people. We are also expecting many of the same kind of customers in China. Cumulative Infiniti global sales have so far topped 1,100,000 units. Today, we are so excited to see that Infiniti has taken a major step forward in China. We hope that Infiniti can achieve great success in this market."

Shuanghuan Sceo: Chinese BMW X5 Copy-Cat Coming To Europe!

They just won’t let it go, will they? What if every Chinese car tested by Germany’s ADAC has miserably failed at the crash tests; who cares! Just keep bringing them in and at some point we’ll accept them. Following the Landwind SUV and the Brilliance BS6 Sedan, next up from China is the Shuanghuan Sceo SUV that will be distributed by a new French car dealer named “AZ Motors”. The latter announced that it has been appointed as distributor of the Chinese 4x4 in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

However, with the Sceo, safety isn’t the only thing Europeans should be worried about as you don’t need the imagination of J.K. Rowling to see that Shuanghuan’s SUV is inspired from the previous generation BMW X5 with a touch of Toyota Land Cruiser up front. We might find it hilarious, but we’re sure as hell that BMW execs aren’t finding this at all funny… -Continued: Click “Read More…” below

Via: Autoblog.nl , Source: Edmunds

Chinese Transformer’s: Knock-Off’s in Disguise

Chinese automaker, Great Wall, is at it again. This time, they’re knocking off our beloved “robots in disguise”, The Transformers, in order to promote their own knock off vehicles. With the opening of the new Transformers movie, what better way to show off the Chinese copy-cat skills than to make some knock off robots and match them with profiles, silly names and their own “original vehicles”. Take for example “Florida” which transforms into a 3.91 meter tall robot from a knock of Toyota. But after we learned that this particular robot “identifies most with Paris Hilton”, we completely lost all respect. Other fake-o characters include Perry, i7 and Coolbear. Beware for those knock-off Chinese Transformers because ultimately, they are “less than meets the eye.”

PS: Don’t forget to tell us what you thought about the Transformers Movie here

Posted by Dani

Via: Autoblog.com

Beijing peels off 1million cars of the road to test population effects

You know how they say if everyone in China jumped at the same time it would cause an earthquake? Well, with a population of 1.3 billion people, anything that everyone does in China will have some sort of affect on the rest of the world. The process has begun in Beijing where authorities are planning to conduct a trial period that consists of keeping one million cars off the road to test the effect on population.

One million of Beijing’s cars represent about 1/3 of the vehicles on the road in that city. The trial is going to last for two weeks, from August 7th-20th. This test is being conducted in plans for the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing to see whether it’s worth limiting the amount of traffic on the road for the Olympic period. We’d agree this is a step into the right direction for China since, according to analysts, China could overtake the US this year as the worlds largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Posted by Dani

Via: bbc

Chrysler Seals Deal With Chinese Carmaker Chery

After several months of negotiations and in the midst of Chrysler Group’s divorce with the Daimler Group, Chrysler and Chery Automobile Co finalized their agreement today in Beijing to jointly develop, produce and distribute small and sub-compact cars.

Under the agreement, the Chery will manufacture the cars in China and the Chrysler Group will distribute them under the Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge brands for North America, Europe and other major markets. Just before the boyz in white let the ink roll down the paper, Chrysler’s CEO Tom LaSorda said that the agreement with Chery will play a big role in the American car manufacture’s plan of doubling sales in the next three to five years. -Continued after the jump

According to LaSorda, exports of the Chinese made mini and sub-compact car will begin in Latin America and eastern Europe within 12 months while U.S. exports are expected to commence in mid-2009. However, the first model exported, a Dodge badged vehicle based on Chery's A-1 small car will not be exported to the U.S. or Europe.

Via: automotivenews

Shanghai Drivers Banned From Honking Their Horns!

I remember some years back on a trip to Acapulco, Mexico, the cabs had replaced their beeping horns with theme songs like “La Cucaracha” and “The Mexican Hat Dance.” Therefore, I guess you could say I wasn’t surprised when we discovered that people in Shanghai, China have switched to music and voice recordings instead of tooting car horns because of a new law banning honking in the downtown area. The difference between the two countries is that the Mexicans did it for the tourists, but the Chinese are doing it to reduce noise levels in the city populated by 20 million people. -Continued after the jump

Threatening fines of up to 200 Yuan (13$), police are strictly enforcing the law but it’s still not stopping Shanghai locals from being heard. They are spending up to 100$ to customize their horns. One taxi driver has converted his to a recording of a woman's voice saying, "Please mind the car, we are making a turn." But this new tactic won’t work for long as police say all forms of honking are going to banned but have yet to enforce the law banning any noise coming from the car horn. According to Shanghai News, one cab driver is taking preventative measures to ensure he doesn’t get slapped with a fine. He has posted a large note on his horn that says, "Don't press the button.”

With a population of 20 million people that are packed into 19th century tenement housing and narrow streets, I can understand why this law was established. However, with all those cars and no honking, will we be able to hear a pin drop?

Posted by Dani

Via: Shanghaidaily

Chery: Chrysler Deal Still On

Despite a recent report on German newspaper Handelsblatt that said Chery wanted to re-examine a deal to build small cars for Chrysler due to the sale of the latter to Cerberus, the Chinese car maker has still got the hots for Chrysler. A Chery spokesman told Reuters today that the German newspaper had misquoted Chery’s general manager, Zhang Li, and that the earlier agreement with Chrysler, approved by DaimlerChrysler’s Supervisory Board in February 2007, was still on. According to the non-equity partnership, the Chery-built vehicles will be distributed under Chrysler and Dodge logos, primarily in North America and Western Europe. Via: Reuters

China Tuning: Brilliance BS6 "Darth Vader Edition"

Something tells me a new era has dawned for adolescent car-nuts like us; Chinese Tuning. Just saying “Chinese Tuning” makes a chill go up our spine! Honestly, we mean if we had so much fun with official, Chinese product, you can just begin to imagine what a party we’re going to have with pimped versions… Click “Read More…” below to check out a few more pictures of the tuned Brilliance BS6 with the ASMA Design twist in it.

Pics via: Chinacartimes

Technorati: Brilliance+BS6, China, Tuning, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007

Ford i-MAX: Rebadged Mazda5 MPV Joins Ford Asia’s Lineup

And there we were, babbling to ourselves what are those Chinese going to throw in the Xerox machine next, when all of a sudden we realized that the i-MAX is actually an official Ford product for the Asian markets! There’s not much we can say about the i-MAX due to our limited –ok, inexistent, knowledge of the Chinese language, so we’ll stick to the apparent. The i-MAX is based on the Mazda5 MPV with styling changes including the redesigned front end, the new horizontal tail lamps and the addition of “S-MAX” inspired, side air-vents. -More images after the jump

Via: auto.163

Technorati: Ford+i-MAX, Madza5, MPV, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007

Chinese Roewe models coming to Europe in 2008 via SsangYong distributors

According to a report from Automotive News Europe, Roewe will enter the European market quite sooner than expected thanks to the help of SsangYong, which like Roewe, is a subsidiary of SAIC. Starting in 2008, Roewe will introduce its first model in Europe, the production version of the W2 concept (pic) that premiered at the Shanghai Show. Although the Chinese carmaker intends to launch Roewe as a separate brand in 2010 through an extended SAIC network, ANE reports that the W2 will be distributed through the dealer network of its Korean subsidiary and sold under the SsangYong badge.-Continued: Click "Read More..." below

Not exactly the turnout most industry observers were expecting when SAIC bought the design rights for the Rover 75 & 25 from MG Rover before the latter collapsed in 2005. Albeit SAIC’s "SsangYong dribble" seems like a smart move now, helping them fastforward their European penetration, I believe it would have been wiser to wait a couple of years until they created a SAIC network.

Via: Automotive News Europe

Chinese Road collapses creating a hole the size of a house!

We hate to think what could of happened if people or cars were crossing this part of Shunwai Road in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China when the sudden collapse occurred. To get an idea, according to Chinese officials it’s estimated that the hole is about 72 square meters or 775 square ft big and 7 meters or 23 ft deep! The cave in happened yesterday (April 25) and luckily there were no injuries reported. Via: Sina

Technorati: Accident, China, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007

Chinese Mixed Grille: JAC Auto C240

Title: LexuMercSkodiental

Ingredients:

3/4 Rear end of a 2000 Mercedes C-Class

4/5 Front end of a 2003 Lexus LS430

9/10 Profile of the current Skoda Superb

2 Skilled Chinese Designers

Instructions: Slice the rear end of the C-Class into narrow strips. In skillet stretch the rear lights so as they slightly cover up the trunk. Take the Lexus LS430’s front end and soak it in boiled water. Combine with garlic, salt, pepper & soy sauce. Transfer to a shallow pan. Combine marinade ingredients and rub thoroughly into the platform. Cover and cook on high 15-20 minutes. Throw in the carefully the side of the Superb and stir into pot until thickened. Sprinkle with onions and a C240 badge and you're ready. Can transfer 4 to 5 people. -Click “Read More…” Below for more pics

Pics Via: cn.autoblog.com

Technorati: JAC+Autos, Auto+Shanghai+2007, China, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, autos, Carscoop, blogs, 2007, images, pictures

Video: Buick Riviera Concept In The Flesh

Buick (ironically) resurrected the Riviera nameplate at the Shanghai Auto Show with an impressive “gullwing-door” coupe, developed by GM & Shanghai’s joint Pan Asian Technical Center in China. In this video we included includes static and driving clips along with shots from the presentation and a few words from GM’s Vice President of Global Design, Ed Welburn.

Technorati: Buick+Riviera, Auto+Shanghai+2007, China, Video, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop, blogs, 2007

Roewe W2: Shanghai concept previews Roewe’s forthcoming compact sedan

Roewe, or in other words Rover’s Chinese spouse presented a brand new concept at this year’s Shanghai Show, the W2 sedan which was penned by former MG Rover designers and SAIC's own team. Even though it’s more than obvious that the design team took a peek or two in the Toyota/Lexus range, you’ve have to admit that the W2 actually looks quite good and has nothing to do with most of the dull-looking, mixed-grilled creations you usually see from Chinese car makers. -Continued: Click “Read More…” below

According to SAIC owned Roewe, the Ford Focus Sedan sized W2 will go into production towards the end of the year with international sales staring in 2008. The W2 will be Roewe’s second model after the launch of the Rover 75 derived, 750E.