China Auto News of the Week (June 8 - June 12, 2009)

BMW makes China gov't vehicle purchase list

Shanghai, June 12 (Gasgoo.com) German luxury car maker BMW has made the list of Chinese government's car purchase for high-ranking officials and public services, a lucrative market segment formerly dominated by rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz, state media said today.

An executive of BMW said its Chinese venture BMW Brilliance Automotive will be the supplier of BMW cars for the Chinese government officials and agencies, and the purchase will be conducted across the country. There are several reasons for the BMW cars to be bought by the Chinese government:

(Click the title to read the full article)

Foton set to sell 75 hybrid buses to Taiwan

Shanghai, June 12 (Gasgoo.com) Beiqi Foton Motor has recently secured an order from a bus service company in Taiwan for 75 hybrid AUV buses, Beijing Times reported today. This will be the first batch of Foton hybrid AUV buses to be sold outside mainland China.

In addition, Foton Motor is in talks with auto sales companies from Britain and the United States about exporting the hybrid AUV buses to these two markets. Foton hybrid buses are likely to be exported to more other overseas markets in the future.

China stops importing some Renault vehicles

Shanghai, June 11 (Gasgoo.com) China's quality regulator has found certain models of vehicles made by French automaker Renault S.A. to have severe safety problems and decided to stop importing them, xinhuanet.com reported.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) banned the Laguna Ph2, Scenic/Long Scenic, Megane Ph2 and Megane Ph2 Coupe-Cabriolet. The ban came into the effect on June 4.

Beijing Auto expresses interest in Volvo

Shanghai, June 11 (Gasgoo.com) Beijing Automobile Industries Holding Co., China's fifth-largest carmaker, has expressed an interest in buying Ford's Volvo unit, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Chinese government-owned Beijing Auto, which failed in a bid last month for General Motors Corp.'s Opel business in Europe, is expected to send a group of executives as early as Thursday to Volvo's headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden and tour its R&D and manufacturing facilities, the report quotes informed sources as saying.

SAIC Jan-May sales near 1.4 mln units, up 26%

Shanghai, June 10 (Gasgoo.com) - SAIC Motor's vehicle sales in the first five months rose about 26% from a year earlier, to 1.39 million units, xinhuanet.com reported today, citing the company's chairman. The auto giant expects to sell more than 2 million vehicles in 2009.

SAIC's vehicle joint ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen AG did well during the period, while average monthly sales of its own-brand vehicles exceeded 6,000 units, the company's chairman Hu Maoyuan told a shareholders' meeting yesterday.

Top 10 brands sell 761,200 cars in Jan-May

Shanghai, June 10 (Gasgoo.com) China's top 10 sedan brands in terms of sales from January to May saw their sales come to 761,200 cars, accounting for 29 percent of the country's total sedan sales during the period, said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on Tuesday.
The top ten sedan brands in the first five months were Buick Excelle (94,300 units), Elantra Yuedong (93,400), Jetta (88,400), BYD F3(86,400), Santana (73,200), Elantra (70,600), Chery QQ (69,900), Xiali (65,500), Accord (63,600) and Camry (55,900).

SAIC Motor may sell over 2 mln vehicles in 2009

SAIC Motor, China's largest automaker, may sell more than 2 million vehicles this year, up sharply from its previous target if the country's economy remains on track, its chairman said on Tuesday.

After experiencing moderate growth in 2008, SAIC's vehicle sales jumped roughly 26 percent to 1.39 million units in the first five months, as Beijing's stimulus policies drew buyers back into showrooms, data from the company showed.

Beijing Auto may bid for Saab after Opel deal fails

Shanghai, June 9 (Gasgoo.com) Beijing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC), the local partner of Germany's Daimler in China, may bid for General Motors' Saab unit after its attempt to acquire Opel looks unlikely to succeed, an unnamed market source was quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying on Monday.

The source said the Chinese government has intimated that it would support domestic automakers to acquire oversea assets.

China auto sales may reach 11 mln units in '09

China's automobile sales will "definitely break the 10-million-unit barrier" in 2009, the China Passenger Car Association said, raising its forecast for the automobile industry this week on the back of a robust growth in vehicle sales in May, the fifth consecutive month it has climbed this year.

The association said "automobiles sales in China will touch 11 million units this year, on the basis of the total number of vehicles sold across the country in the first five months."

Tengzhong to make Hummer vehicles in China

Shanghai, June 8 (Gasgoo.com) Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. has put forth its bid to General Motors to acquire the U.S auto giant's Hummer unit for $300 million, and will invest about 8 billion yuan ($1.17 mln) in Hummer's Chinese production, said sina.com today.

Tengzhong is a little-known Chinese manufacturer of dump trucks and industrial machinery. The company will spend about $300 million to buy the Hummer brand, technologies, R&D, production line and sales network," excluding Hummer's any military versions and their related technologies and sales.

China May passenger car sales up 55% y/y

Shanghai, June 8 (Gasgoo.com) China's passenger-car sales, including mini-vans grew a faster-than-expected 55 percent in May, the most since the beginning of this year, data from China Passenger Car Association showed.
Sales of passenger cars, multipurpose vehicles, sport utility vehicles and minivans rose to 812,178 units in May, up 54.7 percent from a year earlier, the association said.