Archive for China

Geely already has some grand plans for Volvo when it finally takes over the Swedish brand known for safety. It’s a twist of irony for many as Chinese car companies are rather infamous for their iffy crash safety, thanks to the widespread publicity of how badly their dirty cheap models perform in crashes.

A new Volvo factory in China built by Geely will churn out about 300,000 cars per year for the Chinese market, while other Volvo factories around the world will help bring up the total annual output to a whopping 1 million cars! Yes, you can produce all you want but will you be able to sell all the cars you produce? Apparently this is their aim, to sell a million cars a year by 2013, up from 458,323 they recorded in 2008. That’s an increase of about double.

Our very own Volvo assembly plant in Malaysia produces the S40, V50 and the 2.5T variant of the S80 for the local market. The Malaysian plant exports the S40 and the V50 for sale in Thailand. Hopefully Volvo is being rewarded in terms of various incentives appropriately by our government, otherwise there’s just no point for manufacturers to come in and do anything here if the case studies all go wrong.

The other thing that’s bugging people is of course the possibility of Volvo just going down the drain after Chinese ownership. That seems to be what happened to Ssangyong, look where it is now post-SAIC ownership? On the verge of bankruptcy, recovery plan rejected by creditors, and there is even a lawsuit going on now involving Ssangyong hybrid technology being leaked and transferred illegally to SAIC.

Despite Ssangyong being owned by SAIC, as the Ssangyong hybrid tech was developed using some Korean state grants, the tech is registered as state-owned in Korea and cannot be shared without government approval.

Will something similiar happen to Volvo? Will it be siphoned dry and then left to rot, or does Geely have an actual plan to bring Volvo to new heights? A Geely spokesperson today assured that Volvo would be keeping the rights to its technologies but did say Geely would get the right to use those technologies.

BAIC (Beijing Automotive) has unveiled in China its first self-developed electric car, the BE701. The BE701 was built by BAIC’s Beijing New Energy Automotive subsidiary.

Claimed specifications for the car so far looks pretty decent – a 200km range on a full charge, 0 to 100km/h in 15 seconds, and a top speed of 160km/h, which are quite acceptable figures for a car. Maybe not for a car that looks as grand as the BE701 but anyone could live with those sort of specifications.

The 200km range will of course keep it as a city solely for city use, but it will be more than enough for a day’s use before getting to a charge point for an overnight charge.

Beijing Automotive also announced a new clean energy vehicle development and manufacturing facility which it built for 2.28 billion yuan (RM1.13 billion). The facility will be able to churn out 50,000 EVs and 100,000 hybrid models annually.

When Koenigsegg announced that it was interested in taking over Saab from GM, other than the usual questions on whether the Swedish supercar company would have the ability and experience to turn the brand around, there was also the question of how Koenigsegg was going to finance the deal.

Of course they’re going to get help – and the first ‘partner’ has been announced – Beijing Auto. Beijing Auto will be taking up a stake in Koenigsegg which will help them finance the Saab takeover bid. “This is an important step on the road toward a new Saab. We have a well prepared business plan, an important partnership and we are ready to proceed without government financing,” said Koenigsegg CEO Christian von Koenigsegg.

Beijing Auto was not successful in their bid to get a piece of the GM Europe pie with Opel and Vauxhall, but plan B seems to have worked – they now have another way in through Saab. There were also rumours earlier this year that Beijing Auto is seeking to buy Delphi’s non-core assets and Volvo, though now Geely is the only sole bidder for Volvo. Beijing’s JV partners in China include Daimler AG and Hyundai.

Auto components supplier Honeywell (famous for Garrett turbos) have signed an MoU with ChangAn Automotive for the two companies to jointly develop micro-turbochargers. Honeywell’s definition of micro-turbochargers are small turbochargers designed for use with two-cylinder or three-cylinder engines, especially diesel engines, designed to make those engines more driveable when installed in low cost and fuel efficient compact cars.

The Chinese government have called for car manufacturers to produce more energy-efficent vehicles and equipping cars with downsized force inducted engines are one way to increase a car’s efficiency. China has recently announced a government subsidy scheme where the government will subsidise up to 50,000 yuan (RM25.8k) for hybrid cars and up to 60,000 yuan (RM31k) for electric cars.

There are currently only 5 vehicles on this list with more being evaluated and added soon – the IVECO electric service vehicle, JAC’s electricity engineering electric vehicle for city electricity system maintenance and repairing, Zotye’s electric light bus, BYD’s F3DM hybrid car and JMC Transit’s electric service vehicle. 4 out of 5 are commercial vehicles, and with the huge manufacturing/industrial sectors in China perhaps its for the best that these vehicles get plenty of attention.

BYD is really quite happy about this as they’re the only consumer passenger sedan that qualifies for the subsidy so far. BYD confirms that their F3DM qualifies for the full 50,000 yuan subsidy, and the car will officially go on sale beginning September. The F3DM is a plug-in hybrid which means that even though it is a hybrid, it can be recharged through a wall plug, thus you may never really need to start up its combustion engine if you use it for short trips.

BYD is becoming a big brand when it comes to green tech in China. It recently won a contract to supply fellow chinese automaker SAIC with lithium ion batteries. Its li-ion batteries are based on iron phosphate and are self-developed. BYD claims they can be recharged over 2,000 times and have an estimated lifespan of over 600,000km. Warren Buffet should definitely be happy about all of this – analysts estimate his Berkshire Hathaway’s investment in BYD has already made 430% in just under a year.

In Malaysia all that we have to encourage more efficient vehicles are the prospect of saving on road tax costs and a temporary rebate on hybrid vehicles under 2.0 liters in displacement. When the new NAP review is announced by the end of September this year, we will see if there is anything regarding green technology. There are currently only two hybrid cars on sale in Malaysia through official channels – the Honda Civic Hybrid and the Toyota Prius.

Most of you will be waiting for any indication of lower car prices but while MITI says import duties for ASEAN countries would be removed from January 1st 2010, it has hinted that we could potentially not see any kind of reduction in car prices that can make an impact in our buying experiences as vehicle prices are “subject to market forces which are influenced by factors such as the price of local and imported (CKD) components, forex, transportation cost, insurance and interest rates.”

The Sylphy has also been facelifted in China and over there it gets more changes compared to the Japanese and Singaporean market.

In China, the Sylphy receives similiar treatments to the exterior and interior but adds a new front bumper and new tail lamps for the rear. These set of photos from China also lets us have a closer view of the new meter panel. I’m not completely sure if the Chinese and Japanese model share the same meter panel even though both have black faces, as the Japanese photos are a little low-res.

Anyway, enjoy looking at more photos after the jump. Which Sylphy do you prefer – the pre-facelift Sylphy currently sold in Malaysia, the new Japanese facelift or the new Chinese facelift?

Click here to read the rest of Nissan Sylphy gets more updates in China!

Dongfeng has commissioned Detroit Electric to jointly research, develop, market and sell Electric Vehicles in China using Detroit Electric’s electric drive systems.

The Chinese company will provide the cars, and Detroit Electric will provide the propulsion, similiar to the arrangement that DE has with Proton. But the DE-Proton deal involves rebadging the Persona and GEN2 under the Detroit Electric brand, but for Dongfeng, the two companies will study and explore the market entry strategy under the Dongfeng and Detroit Electric brand.

The two companies are also discussing the possibility of forming a joint venture company to manufacture, assemble, produce and supply the electric drive technology in China to the Dongfeng Group and other vehicle manufacturers that want to buy the technology.

Dongfeng does Kia, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Honda in China, but they have been recently focusing on developing their own brand too. They recently launched a sedan based on the old Citroen ZX chassis called the Dongfeng Aeolus Fengshen, shown above.

There are no confirmed reports in the Western media yet, but Chinese website auto.sohu.com claims that Ford and Geely have already struck an agreement for the Swedish car company best known for their safety to be sold to the Chinese manufacturer. But it is the only news source that seems to be covering this story, so it either might only be a blown-up rumour or it might be so fresh that only the Chinese side want to talk about it at the moment.

Nevertheless even that news report is skeptical about how such a deal can pull through successfully. Geely’s market value is over 30 billion yuan, which is about 4.3 billion USD, and a Volvo buy would also require several billion USD, claims the site. They are saying Geely might take government loans and other financial assistance. And given Ford’s improving financial health, it will be less desperate to sell Volvo, which might raise the Swedish manufacturer’s price.

Elsewhere in media reports, people are still talking about another Chinese car company recently deciding to join the race to buy Volvo from Ford – Beijing Auto Industry Holdings. Beijing Auto currently has joint ventures in China with Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai. Other names mentioned before in the press said to be interested in Volvo include Renault, Chery, and Changan.

Chevrolet has launched the facelifted version of the Chevrolet Aveo Sedan in China. The new notchback sedan Aveo gets the front end and grille from the latest Aveo hatchback. This attempts to bring it closer to a family resemblance to its larger sibling, the C-segment Chevrolet Cruze. The Chevrolet Aveo notchback sedan is also sold in Malaysia in 1.4 liter form for about RM69,888 to RM72,888, last I checked. Look after the jump for a gallery of images, mostly snapped in China, where it is known as the Chevrolet Lova.

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Everytime Chinese automakers begin to show that they’ve moving one step ahead towards being able to produce advanced and most importantly SAFE cars, things like this destroy all that goodwill and return them to rip-off death trap status.

This is the Geely GE, which at first impression is obviously a rip-off of a Rolls-Royce. Geely denies this of course, saying that while it shares some similiarities it is “original” because while it looks similiar, the details are different enough to be called something new. The 5.4 meter long car has a 3.5 liter V6 engine under its hood.

The Geely GE (GE = Geely Excellence) shown here is a concept car but it must be for the truly antisocial high class Chinese customer as when you peek into the rear passenger cabin there is only one seat, somewhat like a little throne in the car. Only 3 seats in such a large thing – one driver and perhaps a bodyguard at the front and the boss at the back. The production version will be sold under a new brand called YingLun, which is meant to sound like England.

Rolls-Royce Asia Pacific is contemplating legal action, but we don’t know of any further action yet as of publishing time. But what they did say is that despite imitation being the best kind of flattery, they definitely are not flattered.

Look after the jump for more angles of the Geely GE.

Click here to read the rest of Geely GE shamelessly apes the Phantom

The Buick brand is possibly GM’s most successful brand out of the US and it’s quite big in China. The Buick GL8 was the 2nd most highest selling MPV in 2008 in China, selling 36,252 units second to the JAC Refine’s 36,304 units.

Here comes the Buick Business MPV Concept, which was designed and engineered by GM’s Pan Asian Technical Automotive Center. It’s designed to appeal to the upper class Chinese customer and styling-wise it looks like a larger version of the Opel Meriva concept showcased late year – you should be able to immediately recognise it by the shoulderline profile which takes a little dip in the middle before rising back up. Perhaps this is a “Grand Meriva”.

There is no B-pillar and the rear doors slide rearward to offer full easy access to the interior, which features 6 individual seats that look rather comfortable. The middle row can be rotated to face the rear for easy meetings between 4 people, and there is even a table in the middle which you can use to place your notebook or something.

Look after the jump for a full gallery of the Buick.

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