BAIC employee accused of trade theft on leave in US
Shanghai, October 19 (Gasgoo.com) A Chinese national employed by Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp (BAIC) has been accused of stealing trade secrets from Ford Motor, but BAIC said today that the man was in the U.S. on personal leave when he was arrested last Wednesday, Reuters reported.
BAIC issued a statement saying the employee, named by U.S. prosecutors as Xiangdong Yu, had worked in BAIC's research division for 11 months before leaving on a personal trip to the United States in mid-October. The fifth-biggest Chinese automaker said it would continue to monitor the development of the incident.
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China's auto prices up in Sept on higher sales-tax
Shanghai, October 19 (Gasgoo.com) China's automobile prices rose in September, mainly buoyed by an increased sales tax that was aimed at curbing the selling of high-emission cars to achieve energy efficiency, xinhuanet.com reported recently.
Prices of domestically-made vehicles edged up 0.74% from August, a rise of 0.59% from a year earlier after consumption tax increases of up to 20% took effect on September 1, according to the price monitoring center of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Fiat says never plagiarized car designs in its history
Shanghai, October 20 (Gasgoo.com) Italian car maker Fiat SpA denied an accusation from China's Great Wall Motor Co on Monday, saying it never copying other automaker's design in its development history.
"We have not received any document related to the lawsuit yet and we do not fully understand the reasons for the case," Fiat said in a statement. "Fiat never plagiarized or copied products design of any carmaker in the world during its 110-year history."
Great Wall Motor signs $6M deal to build Bulgaria plant
Shanghai, October 20 (Gasgoo.com) Great Wall Motor has signed a EUR 4 million (US$6 mln) contract with Bulgarian's Litex last week to build an assembly plant in the country.
The contract was signed during a ceremony at Bulgaria's Council of Ministers in the presence of Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on October 15.
China auto industry drives past major milestone
China's auto industry yesterday sped past an impressive milestone as the 10-millionth vehicle - a heavy-duty "Jiefang" truck - rolled off the production line.
The unit, which was produced at FAW Group Corp's factory in Changchun, made China the third country - after the United States and Japan - to produce 10 million vehicles this year. Auto output in both the US and Japan has geared down this year because of the global economic slowdown but, in China, the industry is booming.
China carmaker sues Fiat for industrial espionage
Great Wall Motor, a Hong Kong-listed Chinese car company, is suing Fiat in China for industrial espionage in an apparent response to an Italian court ruling that Great Wall copied a Fiat car model.
Great Wall alleges Fiat secretly photographed the former's production facilities when the Italian carmaker was gathering evidence to prove the Chinese company had copied one of its models.
VW China set to make cars more energy efficient
Shanghai, October 21 (Gasgoo.com) Volkswagen AG will reduce the per-kilometer fuel consumption and exhaust emissions of its China-made cars by 20% before 2010, respectively, Dr. Zhang Suixin, vice president of Volkswagen Group China, said yesterday in Beijing at the 2009 SAE-China Congress, SinoCast reported.
To achieve the goals, VW China plans to apply more cutting-edge technologies to its factories, in addition to its newest ground speed indicator (GSI) technology and gearbox technology, said Dr. Zhang, adding that conventional engines still have huge potential for improving the energy saving and emission cut.
China's Volvo bid may stall over intellectual property
Geely Holding's attempt to buy Ford Motor Co's Volvo car unit is in danger of stalling over disagreements about intellectual property rights, a source close to the talks said on Wednesday.
Representatives from Ford and Geely, parent of Hong Kong-listed car maker Geely Automotive, have been discussing a sale, for around $2 billion, since early this year.
VW to invest 4 bln euros in China for further growth
Shanghai, October 22 (Gasgoo.com) German carmaker Volkswagen AG said last week that it will invest a total of 4 billion euros ($5.98 billion) in new products and production capacity expansion in China from 2009 to 2011 for further growth in this fast-growing market, MarketWatch reported.
Last Thursday, Shanghai Volkswagen, a joint venture set up in 1984, produced its five-millionth vehicle and Dr. Horst Neumann, a top executive of Volkswagen for human resources, announced that the German automaker would continue its growth in China with a €4 billion investment in new products and production capacity between 2009 and 2011.
Volkswagen to set up new DSG plant in Dalian, China
Shanghai, October 23 (Gasgoo.com) Volkswagen seeks to build another DSG plant in Dalian, China. The plant is expected to be completed in 2012 and reach an annual production capacity of 500,000 sets, said an insider of VW China, Beijing Times reported today.
The report said that VW is now negotiating with its business partners on the details of investment scales. FAW VW and Shanghai VW are probability involved in the investment.
Geely Emgrand EC718 shines at Hangzhou show
Shanghai, October 23 (Gasgoo.com) Geely Holding Group Co released the Emgrand EC718 sedan model yesterday at the Hangzhou International Auto Expo. The sedan is priced from 82,800 yuan ($12,100) to 111,800 yuan, the Global Times reported.
The Emgrand EC718 is the first "global model" independently developed by Geely. It is designed by European and American standards and regarded as the symbol for Geely strategy restructuring. The EC718 is ready for mass production in Geely's Ningbo plant in Zhejiang province.
