China Auto News of the Week (Feb. 23 - Feb. 27, 2009)

Dongfeng, Changan may bid for Volvo in Apr

Shanghai, February 27 (Gasgoo.com) Three interested companies may place indicative bids for Ford's up-for-sale Swedish brand Volvo Cars in April, according to Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri (DI).

Reuters noted that DI quoted unnamed sources as saying that the three bidders include Chinese carmakers Dongfeng Motor Group and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co, and "a European constellation".

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China's private cars on road up 28% y/y in 2008

Shanghai, February 27 (Gasgoo.com) China has 19.47 million private cars on roads by the end of 2008, up 28% from a year earlier, official statistics released by National Bureau of Statistics of China showed.

The total number of motor vehicles for civilian use reached 64.67 million (including 14.92 million tri-wheel motor vehicles and low-speed trucks) by the end of 2008, up 13.5 percent, of which private-owned vehicles numbered 41.73 million, up 18.1%, according to the "Statistical Communiqué of the People's Republic of China on the 2008 National Economic and Social Development”.

VW to double China sales to 2m cars by '18

Shanghai, February 26 (Gasgoo.com) German auto giant Volkswagen AG announced in Beijing today that it plans to double its annual vehicle sales in China to 2 million units by 2018, sina.com said today.

"We are targeting to sell 2 million vehicles [a year] in China by 2018 with the earliest possible timeframe, from the current annual sales of 1 million," said Winfried Vahland, executive vice-president of Volkswagen Group and president and CEO of Volkswagen's China operations, when releasing the company's new strategy.

China to pay $615m for Jaguar, Land Rover cars

Shanghai, February 26 (Gasgoo.com) Chinese firms will agree to pay a combined $615 million for 3,000 Jaguar and 6,000 Land Rover automobiles during a government-led trip to the U.K., the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the situation.

The trip, headed by Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and including some 200 business executives, headed for Europe this Tuesday and will visit Germany, Switzerland, Spain and the U.K., according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

China sells 325,362 buses in '08, Jinbei No. 1

Shanghai, February 25 (Gasgoo.com) China achieved bus sales of 379,405 units in 2008, a report by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed, without giving comparative data.

Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co led China's bus-making industry by selling 61,100 buses in 2008, a figure more than double that of its closest follower, Zhengzhou Yutong Group Co, which sold 27,600 buses. Jiangling Motors Co trailed the two with 26,600 buses sold last year.

Hella acquires full stakes of its Chinese relay JV

Shanghai, February 25 (Gasgoo.com) German auto-parts supplier Hella has announced that it has completed the acquisition of its previous joint venture Hella Hongfa (Xiamen) Automotive Electronics (HAE) in China recently.

Hella said it has acquired the 30 percent share held in HAE by former partner Xiamen Hongfa Electroacoustic, turning HAE into a wholly owned subsidiary of Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., a tier-one supplier of automotive lighting and electronic equipment.

Malaysia's Proton likely to cooperate with SAIC

Shanghai, February 24 (Gasgoo.com) Malaysia's Proton Holdings Bhd is in talks with China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC) possible cooperation, an executive of Proton told Gasgoo.com today.

A recent report said that Malaysian automaker Proton is planning to cooperate with SAIC to build its premium models by using SAIC’s Roewe and MG platforms.

China aims to merge carmaking groups to 10

Shanghai, February 24 (Gasgoo.com) Earlier this month, the Chinese government issued its detailed plan to consolidate the auto sector, including decisions to merge the country's major auto-making groups to 10 from 14, and to subsidize rural buyers of new vehicles, China Securities Journal reported on Tuesday.

The auto industry "boost plan," released by the State Council, China's cabinet, on Feb. 11., has detailed the guidelines on lifting the auto market demand, subsidizing the trade-in of old vehicles with new ones, scrapping road tolls, government's buying more Chinese-brand cars, standardizing auto financing and loans, normalizing the used-car market, expanding urban transportation systems, speeding up mergers of auto-making groups, supporting auto R&D efforts, and others.

China's Baoya electric car rolling to U.S. market

Shanghai, February 23 (Gasgoo.com) This year to date, Chinese carmaker Shandong Baoya Vehicle Co., Ltd. has received orders from the United States for 4,800 Baoya electric cars.

The Baoya electric car features the company's own core car-making technologies, including driveline technology for the chassis of electric cars and technologies for adaptation and optimization of drive motors, said Baoya's general manager Zhang Haibo.

Weichai Power denies talks with GM France unit

Shanghai, February 23 (Gasgoo.com) Chinese state-owned Weichai Power Co announced today that it has not had any discussions with the shareholders of General Motors on acquiring the U.S. automaker's auto parts plant in France, Reuters reported, citing a Weichai statement posted on China Securities Journal.

In its exchange statement, Weichai Power said that last December it contacted the GM unit in Strasbourg about possible cooperation, but they had not had any discussions with its shareholders on the issue of acquisition. Up to now there has been no intention or agreement of any kind on this issue.