Advertisement

Volvo’s sale to Geely on track, major issues resolved

December 23, 2009 at 9:31 pm By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Cars, China, Ford, Geely, International News, Volvo

Ford has officially announced that all substantive commercial issues relating to the sale of Volvo to the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group have been resolved. The current owner of Volvo revealed that it expects the deal to be signed in the first quarter of 2010 and the deal is expected to be fully finalized by the second quarter of next year. The sale is said to be worth about US$ 1.8 billion and it would be the largest acquisition of a foreign automaker by a Chinese company.

Ford also said that some work still remain before the deal can be completed and these include final documentation, financing (from Geely’s end) and relevant government approvals. Ford will focus on its core brand and also revealed that it will still continue to cooperate with Volvo in certain areas after the sale but confirmed that it does not intend to retain a shareholding in the Swedish brand.

37 Comments      

Great Wall expands to Europe!

December 21, 2009 at 10:00 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, China, Great Wall, International News

The Great Wall of China will be expanded to Europe! Not the famous structure, but the carmaker. I.M. Group, the UK-based automotive importer and distributor for Subaru, Isuzu and Daihatsu, has signed an agreement to import vehicles from Great Wall Motor Company Limited into Europe starting 2010.

Great Wall, which has a range of cars that look a lot like Toyotas, will be initially introduced to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Launches in Scandinavia, the UK and Ireland are planned for 2011. The brand’s Wingle pick-up truck was caught testing in Malaysia some time ago, but no news of its introduction so far.

I.M. Group assures that Great Wall’s Europe bound cars were designed and built specifically to meet EU vehicle type approval standards. “This will ensure that Great Wall models deliver high standards of crash-worthiness, equal to those of modern European and Japanese vehicles,” said the statement.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed Great Wall Motor Company employs over 22,000 people and has the capacity to build 800,000 vehicles annually.

31 Comments      


Chery to participate in 2010 Dakar Rally

December 16, 2009 at 5:03 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, Chery, China, Motorsports

chery rely x5 dakar

Chery has announced that it will compete in the 2010 Dakar Rally, and with that be the first Chinese automaker to participate in what’s famously known as “The World’s Toughest Race”. Next year’s Dakar will again be held in South America over the challenging terrain of Argentina and Chile. Chery acknowledges the difficulty that lies ahead – it calls the race “devil rally”!

Chery will campaign its Rely fleet of SUVs – two X5 race cars, one X5 conductor car and one H5 support car. Ningjun Lu, who has raced in Dakar five times, will lead the driver lineup. Jiang Yaoheng is the other driver with Dali Ma as the team manager. “It’s definitely stressful to attend the 2010 Dakar Rally, but X5, as a real Chinese brand, has different meaning, we have to get good scores,” said a motivated Lu.

Rely is a sub-brand created by Chery for its home market focussing on “high-end all-round commercial vehicles”. Besides Rely, Chery also has Riich (premium passenger cars) and Karry (compacts) brands under its portfolio, but just for use domestically.

The 2010 Dakar Rally will start on New Year’s Day at Buenos Aires and end on January 16 in the same city. This year, the route will measure 9000 km, with a long stint in the Atacama Desert.

66 Comments      

Beijing Automotive obtains $2.9 billion credit – funds to take over Saab?

December 7, 2009 at 4:42 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, China, International News, Saab

saab-9-5

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp (BAIC) has obtained a 20 billion yuan (US$ 2.93 billion) line of credit from the Bank of China, believed to be the funds needed to buy over Swedish automaker Saab from current owner GM, according to Reuters.

BAIC declined to comment on this latest development but said that it might still be interested in buying Saab, after a consortium led by Swede supercar maker Koenigsegg, of which BAIC was a part of, pulled out of talks with GM. The ailing American giant has said that it will wind down Saab’s operations if a suitable buyer is not found by the end of December, so BAIC could be the marque’s much-needed saviour.

The Beijing based company, which recently launched a self-made electric car, is seeking to compete with more successful local rivals such as Shanghai Automotive (SAIC), which has winning partnerships with China’s market leaders GM and Volkswagen. BAIC has tie ups with Daimler and Hyundai, but is looking to boost production figures and car making capability by having Saab on board. The company’s first step was to buy over production equipment of the previous generation Saab 9-5 – production of the ‘new’ car will start early next year.

30 Comments      

Opel Astra launched in China as the Buick Excelle

December 1, 2009 at 11:12 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Buick, Cars, China, Opel

china-buick-excelle

Chinese market tastes have become increasingly sophisticated over the past few years, and any first time visitor to Shanghai or Beijing would be surprised by the automobiles that ply their bumpy roads – turn up expecting little Cherys and Geelys and you’ll instead find large saloons from Buick, VW and Audi dominating the streets. In fact, GM’s Buick marque is one of the top-10 brands there, and is seen by the Chinese as a prestigious status symbol.

And that’s the reason why the even the Chevrolet Optra sells well in China, after being rebranded as a Buick Excelle. But as the Opel Insignia based Regal showed, Chinese Buicks now have real substance under the skin, and the new Excelle unveiled at the Guangzhou Motor Show is based on the sixth-gen Opel Astra, itself fresh in the market in Europe.

Three petrol engines are available, but of interest is the turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder that powers the range topping model. It comes with 183bhp and 235Nm of torque available from 1,980rpm to 5,400rpm, and there’s a ‘Superboost’ function that raises max torque to 266Nm, promising serious performance that should match VW’s Twincharger powered cars. Power goes to the front wheels via a six-speed automatic. It’s not announced, but we won’t be surprised if the suspension (front MacPherson struts, rear torsion beam with Watt’s linkage) is tuned softer for Chinese preference.

The Astra is the largest car in the Golf/Focus class with the longest wheelbase (2614mm) and its cabin features GM’s new design languange with the ‘dual-cockpit’ style, also seen in the Insignia and Chevrolet Cruze. Speaking of the Chevy Cruze, it was meant to be launched back in August, but we haven’t heard any news from Hicom-Chevrolet so far.

9 Comments      

Geely targets Volvo annual sales up to 1 million by 2013 – possible?

November 18, 2009 at 12:58 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, China, International News, Volvo

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.

28 Comments      

BAIC BE701 – a self-developed electric car?

November 17, 2009 at 9:08 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, China, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, International News

Beijing Automotive BE701

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.

53 Comments      

Beijing Auto takes up stake in Koenigsegg

September 9, 2009 at 8:49 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, China, International News, Koenigsegg, Saab

Saab 9-5

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.

16 Comments      

China pushes for greener vehicles through subsidies

August 21, 2009 at 1:56 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, China, International News

vtg_1.jpgAuto 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 F3DM

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 litres 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.”

29 Comments      

Nissan Sylphy gets more updates in China!

August 2, 2009 at 9:47 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, China, International News, Nissan

Nissan Sylphy

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?
[Read more...]

38 Comments