Archive for China

This drop top roadster was exhibited by Guangzhou Honda at the 2008 Guangzhou Motor Show, perhaps their idea of a next generation Honda S2000. Apparently it’s a pure design exercise for the time being, with no immediate plans to put such a vehicle into production under the company’s own Li Nian home-grown brand. There’s only one other Li Nian concept car so far, a compact crossover SUV unveiled in April this year. That one’s going to make it into production, set for a 2010 debut.

Look after the jump for a couple more shots of the concept.

Click here to read the rest of Li Nian Roadster concept at Guangzhou 2008

The Honda City has been unveiled in China by Guangzhou Honda at the 2008 Guangzhou Motor Show, but it will only make a showroom debut with official prices on the 12th of December 2008.

What’s most interesting is in the Chinese market, the City will come with two engine options. One is the new 1.5 liter i-VTEC that we’re also going to get, but the other engine option is the R-series 1.8 liter SOHC i-VTEC from the Civic 1.8.

A lightweight Honda City equipped with a 140 horsepower 1.8 liter engine could be loads of fun. China always gets special deals such as this, for example the current generation Toyota Vios sold in China is equipped with a 1.6 liter Dual VVT-i engine while the rest of the world have to make do with the 1.5 liter 1NZ-FE family engine.

I’m not sure if this is what Guangzhou Honda meant by developing a Civic competitor (the Civic is sold by another Honda-linked company in China).

A previous report said a 1.8 liter engine was going to be plonked into the City to create a C-segment competitor, but an engineer quoted in the report also mentioned that the new 1.8 liter City-based car would have Civic proportions and a new name and shape.

Related Posts:
2009 Honda City: in-depth details and specifications (must-read!)

Fujian-based Southeast Motor only sold Mitsubishi vehicles like the Zinger MPV in China, up to now. This is their very first self-branded car called the Southeast Motor V3 Lingyue, which uses the 4G15 Mitsubishi 1.5 liter MIVEC engine.

Dimensions of 4,405mm x 1,700mm x 1,415mm with a 2,500mm wheelbase make it slightly bigger (and heavier) than our own second generation Proton Saga. The 1.5 liter MIVEC engine it uses puts out a decent 109 horsepower at 6,000rpm and 134Nm of torque at 3,000rpm.

It’s priced between 60,000 yuan (RM31,850) to 80,000 yuan (RM42,450), depending on which model. Four models are available, but all of them come with 5-speed manual transmissions with no automatic available.

Looking at its dimensions, wheelbase and the detailing of the design it looks pretty much like the sixth generation Mitsubishi Lancer (the one the Evo4, Evo 5 and Evo 6 is based on) refreshed with a different front end and rear end and some technical updates.

Look after the jump for many more shots of the V3 Lingyue.

Click here to read the rest of Southeast Motor V3 Lingyue: Mitsubishi distributor’s first own-brand compact car

Youngman Automobile’s Europestar brand has just launched its second offering in the China market, the Europestar Jingyue, also called the Europestar Persona. It debuts at the 2008 Guangzhou Auto Show this week. It’s pretty much our Persona with Europestar badges, powered by the 1.6 liter Campro engine. No specs have been revealed so far.

According to Chinese publication northeast, Lotus is working with Youngman to develop more Europestar models which include a larger car, an SUV and an MPV.

Look for more shots of the Europestar Jingyue after the jump, though they aren’t much other than Proton product photos with the Europestar badge photoshopped on. Even the product photo of the left hand drive interior was just flipped horizontally as you can see from the gear shifter area – the D, 3, 2 and L are flipped.

Click here to read the rest of New Europestar Jingyue based on Proton Persona

Audi claims the new Audi A4L is the first long wheelbase version of a car in its segment, and they’re probably right. Long wheelbase versions are usually available for large cars such as the A8 and the 7-Series, but the Chinese market’s preferences favour more legroom, a larger interior and simply more metal for your money, so we get to see special extended cars for the Chinese market as their volume can justify the R&D.

There is even such as a long wheelbase E60 BMW 5-Series in China, and while the Audi A8 naturally has its A8L counterpart, Audi has also offered a long wheelbase Audi A6L in China since the year 2000. The addition of the A4L means there are now extended versions of all of Audi’s sedans, even though they aren’t offered in all markets.

The Audi A4L has a full 60mm longer wheelbase at 2868mm compared to the normal A4’s 2808mm wheelbase. This is even longer than the short wheelbase A6 which only has a 2843mm wheelbase! It’s naturally longer at 4760mm compared to the A4’s 4705mm length, but the SWB A6 is still longer than the A4L at 4927mm. This benefits the rear seat passengers, allowing easier ingress and egress into the rear bench and greater legroom.

Two engine choices are available – a 180 horsepower 2.0 TFSI engine or a 3.2 liter FSI V6 engine producing 265 horsepower.

I think this is still perfectly acceptable and it makes sense. Things will only start to get silly when we see car manufacturers attempt to stretch something that is generally meant to look a certain way to most people, like a long wheelbase Audi TT or something. Oh wait, that’s already been done. It’s called the MINI Clubman.

Click here to read the rest of New extended Audi A4L for the China market

Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co Ltd signed an agreement with Thai company Thai Chery Yarnyon last Friday to assemble SKD (semi-knocked down) packs of Chery vehicles in Thailand. An initial planned capacity is 5000 vehicles annually and will include vehicles such as the Chery QQ compact car and the Chery Tiggo SUV. The output is aimed at both domestic and South East Asian regional markets.

It looks like Chery is taking a multiple-base approach for its ASEAN production centers. It also partnered up with Malaysian company Chery Alado Holdings Sdn Bhd to set up an assembly line at the Oriental Assembler Sdn Bhd’s assembly plant in Johor.

The Malaysian assembly line will also have a capacity of 5,000 units a year and will also produce the Chery Tiggo SUV together with the Chery V5 MPV (known as the Chery Eastar in Malaysia).

Chery is currently the number 1 exporter of passenger vehicles in China, with vehicles from the company making up nearly 50% of China’s vehicle exports in the first 9 months of 2008. It has exported 115,500 vehicles this year so far, and exported 119,800 units during the whole of 2007.

Source

Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co currently sells the Honda Civic sedan in China (as opposed to Guangzhou Honda which decided to develop a C-segment sedan from the City platform as the rights to the Civic belongs to Dongfeng) but was considering launching the hatchback version of the Honda Civic as well.

After some consideration it found that the Euro Civic’s price tag may be a deterrent to sales as its estimated to be about 26,000 yuan higher than the sedan model. The Chinese car buyers who love getting the most metal for their money (they even have a special long wheelbase version of the E60 5-Series) will find it hard to accept that a small hatchback version of the Civic costs more than a larger sedan model.

So Dongfeng has decided to develop its own Civic hatchback, which will be based on the Civic sedan platform. This means a multilink rear suspension instead of the Civic hatchback’s torsion beam.

Source

Beijing has made a drastic move in trying to reduce pollution and congestion in the city, which reportedly has 3.4 million vehicles on the road, and still increasing! It has banned certain cars from being used on certain days.

Basically it works like this – cars with number plates ending with 1 and 6 are banned on Mondays, 2 and 7 are banned on Tuesday, 3 and 8 are banned on Wednesdays, 4 and 9 are banned on Thursday, and 5 and 0 are banned on Fridays. All cars can travel on weekends. This will last for a 6 month trial. The cities of Shanghai and Jiangsu will follow this ban albeit a more relaxed version – the ban will only affect vehicles that belong to the government, or government-linked companies.

Apparently future amendments to the system will include a variable ban which allows more cars on the road when the air quality is good, but ban up to half of the cars on the road whenever the air condition is bad such as above 300 points on the Air Pollution Index. Anything above 100 is harmful to children and old folks. They are also mulling the idea of a congestion charge to enter the city.

I cannot begin to imagine how frustrating this is for the Chinese folk, especially since there are bound to be some areas not covered well by public transport. Some families, especially well to do ones, are purchasing third or fourth cars with different number plates to go around this new ruling.

If we ever read about the Transport Minister and his entourage making a “study trip” to Beijing… we’d all better be afraid, VERY afraid. You never know when they may randomly pick up ideas like this to justify their existence, despite our public transport system being in a sorry state, according to the PM himself when he tried it out some time ago.

Taiwanese automotive company Yulon Motor Co is set to launch its first 7-seater MPV, marketed under the Luxgen brand sometime in mid-2009. The new Luxgen MPV will be using the previous generation Renault Espace’s platform, with Luxgen’s own styling and a choice of two engines – a 2.0 liter normally aspirated motor producing 145hp and 185Nm of torque, and a 2.2 liter turbocharged motor producing 200hp and 280Nm of torque, both developed by Yulon’s powertrain division.

The company said the MPV project took the Toyota Estima as a benchmark for its development, and the final product will compete with similiar sized MPVs like the Estima such as the GM/Buick GL8 and the Honda Odyssey. It will feature lots of electrical goodies such as cameras located around the MPV to assist with parking and maneuvering, a night vision system, a lane departure warning system, and etc.

Yulon is targetting the Chinese market with this new MPV. “The car segment in China has evolved, where a car has to be more than merely four wheels plus an engine. Any prospective carmaker has to adopt a quality-oriented strategy. Ours is to cull the R&D expertise achieved in Taiwan`s technology industry to build smarter cars, which I think would be feasible in China,” said Yulon’s CEO Kenneth Yen.

There is a split opinion on what the MPV in the images you find in this post is. Some say it is a new MPV from Roewe based on its alloy wheel design, but as the vehicle was snapped testing in Taiwan, another camp says it is in fact the new Luxgen MPV.

The Volkswagen Bora for the Chinese Market goes on sale today, priced between 107,800 to 143,00 yuan, which translates to about between RM55,900 to RM74,570. This particular Bora was designed for the Chinese market and is about the same size as the Volkswagen Jetta it is based on.

Volkswagen says the car’s design is inspired by Chinese elements such as the front end of the car which is apparently inspired by the Chinese lion dance. The Bora is 4540mm long, 1775mm wide and 1467mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2610mm and a boot space of 450 liters. It will be produced by Volkswagen’s JV partner First Automotive Works.

Two engine options will be available at launch – both gasoline engines. Either a manual or a 6-speed automatic is available. Two equipment levels are available – a Trendline and a Comfortline. Standard features on the Trendline include ABS, dual front SRS airbags, power steering, power windows, climate control and a MP3 capable CD player with radio.

The Comfortline package adds 15 inch alloy wheels, a sliding sunroof, a chrome trim package, an alarm, cruise control, and parking sensors. An additional “highline” package can be specified which includes leather seats, side and head airbags as well as a GPS navigation system.

Look after the jump for more photos of the new Chinese market Volkswagen Bora.

Click here to read the rest of New Volkswagen Bora designed for the China market