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Nissan and Dongfeng launching new brand in China

September 11, 2010 at 4:21 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Dongfeng, International News, Nissan

Nissan and Dongfeng Motor Group have announced that they will be launching a Chinese-market only sub brand. The new brand will be called Qichen, which supposedly means Venus in English. Their logo is made up of five stars that is supposed symbolize five promises the company wants to make to potential customers, which is “respect for customers, create value, do the best, achieve world-class quality, and seek the dream.” The new brand will aim to provide affordable, no-frills cars in China’s auto market, currently the biggest in the world.

Kimiyasu Nakamura president of the joint venture said that there are a growing number of consumers making around 50,000 yuan (US$7000) a year, who are buying cheap cars. “We have been focusing lately on China’s interior market. Those consumers are multiplying in China’s inland markets, and we would like to come up with cars that target those people.”

Their plan to make cars affordable will include using Nissan’s existing platform and the development of the first model in China, taking advantage of the cheap labour costs for engineers. They also plan to limit the help they get from Japan for R&D.

He also went on to say that the Dongfeng-Nissan venture should drive sales up to one million cars a year in China, but did not specify a specific time frame. The JV company is on target of reaching its targeted 600,000 vehicles this year, while selling almost 519,000 cars in China last year.

This is not the first time a Chinese and foreign car manufacturer is launching a Chinese brand together – we also have Honda and Guangqi’s Li Nian.

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General Motors and SAIC to jointly develop small engines and transmissions

August 18, 2010 at 11:57 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, China, General Motors, International News

GM and Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp (SAIC) have a healthy partnership in China, with their recent joint venture (with Wuling) to create a new car brand called Bao Jun (treasured horse). Furthering their partnership, the two have announced their plans of co-developing powertrains and dual clutch transmissions for small vehicles.

They will be concentrating on small displacement engines with direct injection and turbo charging technology, ranging from 1.0 litres to 1.5 litres. Both companies will use the engines in their respective brands in China and the rest of the world. Work will be carried out consecutively by engineers in Detroit and the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) joint venture in Shanghai.

The new transmission on the other hand, will be for front wheel drive vehicles (the common engine/driveline layout for compact cars) and will feature dual dry clutch technology. This will allow improvements in fuel economy and performance with reduced CO2 emissions – when both the engine and transmission are combined, it is said to provide up to 20% improvement in fuel consumption compared to other transmissions manufactured in China.

“These development agreements open an exciting new chapter in the partnership between SAIC and GM. Not only will they add critical green technologies to our next-generation vehicles, they will also build on the strong engineering capabilities forged as a part of GM and SAIC’s corporate responsibility,” said Hu Maoyuan, Chairman of SAIC.

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Beijing Auto adds boot to Merc B-Class knock-off

August 6, 2010 at 2:18 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, China

The car you see above is the C30 Saloon from Beijing Auto, the same company that bought the previous generation Saab 9-5 platform. This is also the same company that tried and failed to buy GM Europe (Opel, Vauxhall).

They currently have JV operations in China with Mercedes-Benz, which probably explains why they decided to make a car that looks like a B-Class. Of course with the Chinese market preferring sedans rather than hatchbacks (many hatchbacks have been turned into notchbacks for China), it’s understandable why they decided to make their B-Class knock-off a notchback sedan as well!

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Volvo to make 7-Series and S-Class competitor?

August 5, 2010 at 4:36 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Geely, International News, Volvo

Geely Boss Li Shufu mentioned just hours after the announcement of the Chinese automakers purchase of Volvo that he wants Volvo cars to compete with top end marques like BMW and Mercedes. Li attributes the Swedish brand’s struggling sales as compared to top flight automakers to the pricing of the models.

A new BMW 740i sedan and Mercedes-Benz S400 hybrid in the US retails for about $70,150 and $87,950 respectively which is more than double of Volvo’s $39,200 for its top of the range sedan, the Volvo S80. Li says Volvo need products to compete in that segment.

Speaking more on the overall progression to profitability, Li pointed out that 380,000 units had to be sold every year for Volvo to become profitable which is a far cry from the 335,000 units they sold last year, suffering a loss of $653 million. In order for Volvo to get an upper hand in the competition, they [Volvo] need to pump out more volume.

Part of the plan is also to create more awareness in the Chinese market of Volvo’s heritage of developing features such as air bags or catalytic converters. In regards to a 380,000 units every year, Li said that no decision has been made and that would require market studies, board and government approval.

He went on to say that he was happy with the Volvo buy branding it a historic opportunity and does not see any similar deals available in the near future. “It’s very difficult to find a good brand like Volvo you can buy. If Mercedes Benz wants to sell itself, I think Chinese companies would be interested”.

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Volvo Cars now officially owned by Chinese Geely!

August 3, 2010 at 7:51 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, China, Geely, International News, Volvo

It’s official – Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Company Limited (or Geely as its known to you and me) has completed its acquisition of the Volvo Car Corporation from Ford Motor Company. This has been done to a tune of a US$1.8 billion amount which was originally agreed upon in March 2010.

This purchase price was made out of a US$200 million note with a cash balance subject to customary purchase price adjustments at the close of the sale. Geely have now paid off the note and US$1.3 billion in cash to complete the sale. Final balance figures are expected to be finalized later this year.

On the matter of technology and manufacturing, Ford will continue to supply Volvo with powertrains, stampings and other vehicle components at differing periods. This also includes engineering support, information technology, access to tooling for common components, and other selected services for a transition period. In terms of intellectual property, agreements are currently being made to govern the use of Volvo’s intellectual property by Ford.

Former Volkswagen Chief Executive of America Stefan Jacoby, has been appointed the new President and Chief Executive of Volvo Cars. They will also retain their headquarters and manufacturing presence in Sweden and Belgium while the management will be allowed independence to execute its own business plans with direction from its new board.

An exciting step for both companies, that will no doubt see the rise of Geely as a global market player and the influx of Chinese investment into one of the top Swedish auto brands.

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China to make mild hybrid tech compulsory by 2012?

July 28, 2010 at 2:31 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, China, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel

China might be taking another step forward in reducing their carbon footprint by making it compulsory for all vehicles in China to have the “BSG hybrid” system. BSG stands for “Belt Driven Starter Generator” and it works like a start-stop system where the engine shuts off when the car is idle. Start-stop is now common in most European new cars and is supposed to be part of “mild hybrid” measures along with things like brake energy regeneration.

This comes after the GM of Chery New Energy Company, Yuan Tao, revealed that relevant authorities are currently working on the new policy. An unnamed insider from another Chinese manufacturer, Dongfeng, confirmed the above statement and added that it would be implemented in 2012. Dongfeng already sells a BSG version of its S30 sedan (pictured).

BSG is a simple system and according to Dongfeng, it will only cost 1,000 yuan ($147.50) per car if mass produced. On average, fuel efficiency is boosted by 5%. It may not sound like much, but when you consider the fact that China used 540 million tons of gasoline and 520 million tons of diesel in 2008, this system could see annual fuel consumption decrease by 5 million tons!

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Ex-GM employee caught passing hybrid secrets to Chery

July 24, 2010 at 6:41 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Chery, China, General Motors, International News

Have you ever wondered how staff from one company can simply move to another, without revealing any trade secrets, especially when they work in a technical or engineering capacity? Isn’t that why they were hired in the first place?

Some transitions don’t happen so well, as a former General Motors engineer and her husband were recently charged with conspiring to steal trade secrets in relation to GM’s hybrid vehicles. Very much like something out of a movie, Shan Shan Du has been accused of copying thousands of GM documents to an external hard drive five days after the automaker offered her a severance agreement in January 2005.

Du and her husband Qin, are said to have been planning to pass information on GM’s hybrid tech to Chinese carmaker Chery, through a small firm they own called Millennium Technology International. Evidence supposedly extracted from a series of e-mails to the Chinese automaker also proposed a joint venture between Millennium and Chery.

The case is still in being played out in court and the likely outcome can be anything from 10 to 20 years in prison with a fine of $250,000. That should deter auto execs from diving into the espionage business.

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Bao Jun – GM, SAIC and Wuling’s new low-cost car brand

July 20, 2010 at 3:57 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, China, General Motors, International News

GM has announced that they will be launching a low-cost brand in China with its joint venture partners SAIC and Wuling. The new brand will be called Bao Jun which means “treasured horse”, will produce passenger cars at an affordable price.

The SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) partnership will try and soak up demand for affordable modes of transport in secondary cities and the outskirts, while big names like VW and even Chevrolet supply the demand for their cars in bigger metropolitan cities.

On the matter of the sales network, GM say that they will build it after the car is launched incorporating existing networks, new distributors and elements of the current structure. Unfortunately the company did not confirm the official release date of the car. Word is that it will be built on GM platforms, specifically the one underpinning the outgoing Chevrolet Lova. The photo below is supposedly a Wuling low cost car first seen in late 2008 but there’s been no more word about the car since.

“Baojun will complement our other brands sold in China including our fastest-growing mainstream nameplate, Chevrolet. It will enable us to better address the increasingly segmented Chinese vehicle market,” said Kevin Wale, President and Managing Director of the GM China Group. “Baojun will become another good example of successful partnership. By combining the best resources that SAIC, GM and SGMW have to offer, we will ensure an outstanding ownership experience for a greater number of consumers,” said Chen Hong, President of SAIC Motor.

SAIC-GM-Wuling started out in 2002 and builds a range of Wuling mini-trucks and minivans as well as the Chevrolet Le Chi mini-car. They have enjoyed record breaking sales of 1,061,213 units becoming the first automaker in China to sell more than 1 million vehicles in a single year.

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PSA Citroen announces joint venture with Changan Automobiles

July 11, 2010 at 11:44 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, ChangAn, Citroën, International News

PSA Peugeot Citroen and Changan Automobiles have announced the finalization of a 50-50 JV in China, financed by an initial investment of 8.4 billion Yuan (RM4 billion).. First on their list is the introduction of the C3-based DS3 line up. The first vehicle is set to be launched in the second half of 2012.

The tie up will see the development of cars and light commercial vehicles with an initial annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles and engines at Shenzhen. The new factory will be running two lines, which will include the renovation of an existing production line and the addition of a second line. There are also plans for a new R&D centre to be built.

Apart from this new joint venture, PSA has a partnership with Dongfeng Motor Group Co to build Peugeot cars such as Peugeot 408 (which is somewhat like a 308 Sedan) and also Citroen C5 sedans. It looks like the rest of the Citroen line-up will be taken care by the Changan JV.

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EU approves sale of Volvo to Chinese carmakers, Geely

July 7, 2010 at 12:14 am By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Geely, International News, Volvo

It has been announced recently that the European Union competition regulators have approved the sale of Ford Motor Co’s Volvo, to Chinese car maker Geely Automobile Holdings and investment firm Daqing. This comes after an investigation concluded that the “deal will not significantly impede competition in Europe,” in a statement from the EU executive.

The takeover worth US$2.7 billion was originally agreed on in March and is expected to be concluded sometime during the third quarter of this year. This is said to include $900 million to bring Volvo back into the black.

There have been rumours that to do this, the Chinese carmaker will be moving production to China, where other German and Japanese manufacturers have enjoyed booming sales and profits. Naturally the company itself is resistant to the idea, but this will be futile as Volvo is one step closer to being fully owned by Geely.

Even if that doesn’t happen, the upside to this takeover would mean that Volvo tech could be seen in Geely cars, which are almost half the price of the Sweedish models, thereby providing a sales boost for Geely range of cars.

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