The Chinese Communist Party will celebrate its 90th birthday on July 1 this year. Among the many offerings prepared for the 90-year-old is the Cadillac-sponsored, star-studded propaganda film, "The Founding of a Party," which is schedule to hit theaters across China on June 15 (see our post "Cadillac Sponsors Communist Propaganda Film"). On March 29, … Read more
China’s car craze in the past decade has made some wild dreams come true. Companies started just a few years ago now challenge global brands in the domestic market. As the country enters the 12th 5-year development period, wheeled ambitions show little sign of fatigue, confronting repeated warnings about overinvestment. More than a dozen automakers … Read more
Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn told Chinese reporters last year that Renault was planning to make cars in China by working with Dongfeng Motor, which runs a highly successful joint venture with Nissan. Yet, in the growth plan he outlined on Feb. 10, "Renault 2016 – Drive the Change," China is clearly left out, while the … Read more
China-New Car Assessment Program (C-NCAP), run by China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC) since 2006, has crash-tested more than 100 models. The vast majority of those tested cars were locally built by either native or sino-foreign joint venture companies. Some readers have recently asked why ChinaAutoWeb.com has carried no report on the test results, … Read more
Posting world-record annual sales of over 18 million new vehicles, the auto industry in China is in a self-congratulatory mood looking back at 2010. Yet signs abound that this rapid growth in size is not equal to progress in strength or health. 1. Shanghai GM, which sold most cars among all automakers in China, tops … Read more
New Models from the 2010 Guangzhou Auto Show (2): GAC-Honda Everus S1
December 21st, 2010 | Posted in Auto Shows | Fun | GAC | Honda | New Cars | Opinion"Everus" has attracted much attention for being the first among a new breed of local brands to launch a volume-production model–that is, the S1 at the Guangzhou Auto Show currently under way. As a marque created by a sino-foreign joint venture (GAC-Honda) specifically for the local market, Everus is distinct from the brand of either … Read more
Mazda8: Cramped Backseats? Put Your Secretary There!
December 17th, 2010 | Posted in FAW | Fun | Marketing | Mazda | New Cars | OpinionUnlike in many other countries where MPVs are employed primarily by families with kids, they in China serve mainly company executives and government officials. So, one might ask, who might fit in the compromised third-row seats–when kids are not around ? Not much a challenge for FAW-Mazda, which released the 8 on Dec. 15. As … Read more
JAC Yueyue: Cute as a Beauty Queen?
December 7th, 2010 | Posted in Fun | JAC | Marketing | New Cars | OpinionThe most popular superminis in China often look and sound cartoonish and baby-like: QQ, Benben (Benni), Lobo, Panda. And it is not just children they are targeting, but also young females. Although many connect baby cuteness with feminine attraction, few automakers have infantilized women so ostentatiously as JAC (Jianghuai Automobile Co. Ltd) has done with … Read more
Jiangnan Alto, China’s Cheapest Car from Zotye, Beats Tata Nano
November 17th, 2010 | Posted in Fun | New Cars | Opinion | zotyeIndia shines, but in the shadow of China. Even its feat of building the world’s cheapest car dims as China’s Zotye Auto released the ultra-cheap Jiangnan Alto earlier this month. Priced at 18,800 yuan, or $2,830, the base model of Jiangnan Alto directly takes on the $2,700 entry-level Tata Nano. As the latter does not … Read more
Warren Buffett Becomes Pitchman for BYD’s Latest Copycat Car
September 29th, 2010 | Posted in BYD | OpinionAmerica’s two richest men are in China. Instead of boosting the host country’s charity work, as they reportedly planned to do, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have spent most of the time doing sales pitch for BYD. During his four-day trip from 27-30 September, Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owns 10% of BYD, has about 5 … Read more
Sadness and Outrage over Boy’s Killing by Reversing BMW X6
September 15th, 2010 | Posted in BMW | OpinionAfter a series of fatal accidents caused by careless BMW drivers in recent months, the luxury car is getting called in China the perfect murder weapon of the rich and powerful. The latest incident, in which a three-and-a-half-year-old boy was run over several times by a BMW X6, was recorded by a surveillance camera and … Read more
Plans in the auto industry are sometimes informative and mostly unreliable. Anyone still remember Chery’s deal with Malcolm Bricklin’s Visionary Vehicles signed over five years ago aiming to sell 250,000 cars annually in the US? Or Geely’s project in 2005 to export the CK subcompact to the US in 2008 as a "high-quality vehicle…under $10,000?" … Read more
Cadillac Sponsors Communist Propaganda Film
September 2nd, 2010 | Posted in GM | Marketing | Opinion | SAICIt is naive to believe any business would put moral considerations before profits. Even the "don’t be evil" Google enters a "devil’s pact" with Verizon when the price is right. So it comes as no big surprise that GM has made Cadillac the proud "chief business partner" of an upcoming film dedicated to the 90th … Read more
Prius Does Not Qualify for China’s Green Car Subsidies
June 24th, 2010 | Posted in Electric Car | Opinion | Regulations | ToyotaAmong the many strange things about the auto industry in China, here is the latest: the third generation Toyota Prius non-plug-in hybrid, revered elsewhere in the world as a model green car, is barred from receiving government subsidies because the authority thinks its 1.8 liter gasoline engine is too big. FAW Toyota, one of Toyota’s … Read more
The Unconvincing BYD-Daimler Alliance
June 1st, 2010 | Posted in BYD | Daimler | DENZA | Electric Car | OpinionDaimler AG and BYD Co. Ltd. announced on 27 May that they were joining forces to develop electric cars. Details on the planned new venture, to be called Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Company, are scant. There are quite a few signs, though, that the deal lacks substance as well as coherence, and should better … Read more
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