China Auto News of the Week (August 3 - 7, 2009)

Great Wall Motor to boost small car capacity

Shanghai, August 7 (Gasgoo.com) Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor Co (2333.HK) unveild plans to spend about 8.47 billion yuan ($1.24 bln) to expand its production facility in North China's port city of Tianjin, reports China Securities Journal Friday.

The investment would boost Great Wall Motor's capacity at its Tianjin plant to a 500,000 units a year. The SUV maker announced to invest 3 billion yuan in building its Tianjin plant this February, which include projects of annual production of 50,000 complete vehicles, annual assembly of 150,000 sets of KDs, production of 150,000 sets of auto parts and a logistics center.

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Yulon aims to export Geely Panda-based EV to mainland

Shanghai, August 6 (Gasgoo.com) Yulon Motor Co, Taiwan's largest automaker by market value, plans to export its first own-brand pure-electric car using the platform of Geely Automobile Holdings's Panda model to China's mainland market, the China Economic News Service reports.

Chen Kuo-rong, president of Yulon Motor, said that the company has already completed the development of an electric variant of the Geely Panda model at its Sanyi (Taiwan) plant and it is still negotiating with Geely to export the model to the mainland market.

Brilliance Auto to mass-produce $8,800 taxis

Shanghai, August 6 (Gasgoo.com) Chairman of China's Brilliance Auto said at a press conference last Friday that the company plans to mass produce 60,000 yuan ($8,800) to 70,000 yuan taxis next year.

Qi Yumin told reporters that he is impressed with Geely Automobile's black taxi cabs, which look quite different from the traditional appearance of four-door sedans.

Dongfeng Nissan to build $730-mln new plant

Shanghai, August 5 (Gasgoo.com) Dongfeng Nissan, a joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Group and Nissan Motor Co., signed an agreement on August 3 with Guangzhou municipality to build a new assembly plant in the southern Chinese city with total investment of 5 billion yuan ($730 mln), sina.com said today.

The Guangzhou Huadu-based passenger vehicle plant, which is scheduled to operate in 2012, will have a capacity of 240,000 units, boosting the annual capacity of Dongfeng Nissan's Huadu production base to 600,000 units.

Sixt New Kopel to import Chery cars to Romania

Sixt New Kopel will import to the Romanian market cars of the Chinese manufacturer Chery Automobile, following a partnership signed on 27 July, and the distribution will begin after the cars will receive a type-approval certificate in accordance with the European Union norms, the company announced on Tuesday.

Thus, New Kopel becomes exclusive importer of all brands of Chery cars in Romania, reads a release of the operational leasing and car rental company.

"Chery was not the only company we had in view but, after many efforts and market studies, finally proved to be the best solution," said the general manager of Sixt New Kopel, Dudy Perry.

China becomes biggest market of VW in H1

Volkswagen AG of Germany sold 3.1003 million vehicles around the globe in the first half of 2009, including 652,200 in China and 631,900 in Germany.

The figures reflect that China has taken the place of Germany for the first time as the biggest auto market of Volkswagen worldwide, after the global auto giant marched into China about 25 years ago.

Eight Chinese carmakers enter '08 world's top 30

Shanghai, August 4 (Gasgoo.com) A global auto industry association has recently released its 2008 rankings of the world's own-brand auto makers by output, and there are eight Chinese carmakers among the world's top 30 largest producers, FAW Group ranked 20th as the biggest Chinese carmaker with output of 638,000 vehicles, Chinanews.com reported today.

The International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, which was founded in Paris in 1919 as the "Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles" (OICA), said Chinese-brand auto sales grew by 6.7% in 2008, less affected by the global financial crisis.

Hyundai Motor plans to build third plant in China

Shanghai, August 4 (Gasgoo.com) South Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor plans to set up a third production plant in China to meet growing demand for its vehicles, Reuters reported today.

Hyundai was in talks with Chinese companies to build a factory in the country, an unnamed industry source said. The Korean carmaker may also buy a Chinese carmaker which is urged by government to make an acquisition amid a shake-up in China's auto industry.

Shanghai GM reshuffles managers again

Shanghai, August 4 (Gasgoo.com) On Friday, Shanghai General Motors officially announced the third major reshuffle of its top management since April, mainly in the production and logistics sectors, xinhuanet.com reported.

Wang Yongqing, who was previously general manager of Shanghai GM Dong Yue Motors, has become deputy general manager and an executive committee member of Shanghai GM to take charge of the joint venture's manufacturing, logistics, quality control, among other duties.

Brilliance Auto, Daimler in talks for SPV JV

Shanghai, August 3 (Gasgoo.com) Brilliance Auto, the Chinese partner of BMW AG, is in talks with Daimler AG to form a special purchase vehicle (SPV) joint venture in China, according to newspaper reports.

"Brilliance is discussing a manufacturing tie-up with Daimler now and a deal could be reached before the end of the year," Reuters said, citing an unnamed executive from Brilliance Auto.

Qi Yumin, chairman of Brilliance Auto, told The Beijing News that the two sides are expected to create a JV on the development of SPVs.