China Auto News of the Week (Dec. 7 - 11, 2009)

BMW looks to China for global sales rally

Shanghai, December 7 (Gasgoo.com) German premium car maker BMW expects a gradual recovery in global sales in 2010, with double-digit growth in China to offset its domestic downturn, Reuters reported Friday, citing the company's head of sales.

"There are genuinely strong growth markets and China is leading the field there," Robertson told Reuters on the sidelines of the Los Angeles auto show. "The encouraging thing is that around the rest of the world we're starting to see a positive trend as well."

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China Jan-Nov auto sales exceed 12 mln units

Shanghai, December 7 (Gasgoo.com) China's auto sales exceeded 12 million units in the first 11 months, with sales for the full year of 2009 set to break the 13 million mark, Xinhua News reported today, citing industry figures.

The figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) show that China is retaining its lead as the world's biggest auto market amid feeble sales in the U.S., Japan and Europe. Detailed figures are expected to be released soon, Xinhua said.

SAIC sells 252,190 vehicles in Nov, up 91%

SAIC Motor, China's top vehicle producer, said on Tuesday that it sold 252,190 vehicles in November, up 91 percent from a year earlier, helped by government stimulus schemes that boosted consumption of domestic products including cars.

SAIC Motor, Chinese partner of global giants including General Motors and Volkswagen AG, sold 2.44 million vehicles during the January-November period, up 54.3 percent from a year earlier, it said in a statement published in the official Shanghai Securities News.

China automakers export 745 vehicles to EU in 9 months

Shanghai, December 8 (Gasgoo.com) Five Chinese automakers, including Brilliance, Changan, Great Wall, Jianghuai and Lifan, exported only 745 vehicles to the European Union (EU) in the first nine months of this year, SinoCast said yesterday.

Brilliance Auto and the Landwind brand of Jiangling Auto gained an export volume of eight and one, respectively. Jiangling Holding, the first Chinese auto exporter to Europe, only sold one Landwind to the continent in September.

China Nov passenger-car sales up 98%, 5 yrs most

Shanghai, December 8 (Gasgoo.com) China's passenger-car sales surged 98% year on year to 1.04 million last month, the most in at least five years, Bloomberg reported today, citing industry figures.

In November, total vehicles sales, including commercial vehicles, rose 96% to 1.34 million, and for the first 11 months, China's auto sales rose 42% to 12.2 million, with passenger-car sales surging 49.7% to 9.23 million. The full-year auto sales will likely break the 13 million mark.

Audi China Nov sales double to 16,503 cars

Shanghai, December 9 (Gasgoo.com) Audi, a premium brand of the Volkswagen group, said yesterday that its sales in China (including Hong Kong) in November more than doubled to 16,503 cars from 8,173 of a year earlier, media reported.

For the first 11 months of the year, the Audi brand sold 139,872 cars in China, 29% more than in the same period of last year. The luxury brand's 2008 full-year China sales of 119,598 cars were already exceeded by this year's sales in the first ten months.

China carmakers tap Turkey as gateway to EU market

Shanghai, December 9 (Gasgoo.com) China's automakers will never give up their ambition to enter the European market after export failures this year, and will keep adjusting their strategies, such as exploring the Turkey market, the gateway to the European Union, China Daily reported yesterday.

After establishing a factory in Mexico, Changan Auto was mulling expansion in Turkey; Chery Auto has decided to build a joint venture there; Geely Auto and Great Wall Motor have also started recruitment in this country; and Dongfeng Motor Corp plans to invest $250 million in a new Turkey plant. 

China to continue auto stimulus measures

China will extend stimulus measures in the automobile industry for one more year, with small adjustments, to further support the world's biggest and fastest-growing auto market.

The government announced the decision yesterday after an executive meeting of the State Council chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

The stimulus package, which was due to expire at the end of this month, includes a 50 percent cut in the 10 percent purchase tax for cars with an engine capacity of, or less than, 1.6 liters and subsidies for trade-in cars. It will now be extended to Dec 31, 2010.

BYD to unveil its first minibus model early next year

Shanghai, December 10 (Gasgoo.com) BYD Auto, an auto division of BYD Co. Ltd., has started testing a new model codenamed C6, and will unveil the minibus model, the first by the company, early next year, SinoCast said yesterday, citing sources.
 
After six months of internal testing in small quantities, BYD Auto, China's leading electric car maker, will start the mass production of the small bus model, which is predicted to hit the market in the first quarter of 2011, the sources said.

China to offer higher subsidy for car trade-in

Shanghai, December 11 (Gasgoo.com) The Chinese government will offer higher subsidies to car owners who trade in their old vehicles for new clean models, CCTV.com reported today. This move is expected to boost sales of new cars while helping protect the environment and achieve energy efficiency.

Since August this year, China has been accepting old cars in exchange for subsidies on new car purchases. Initially, the trade-in subsidy for each clean model was 6,000 yuan ($880) at most. Now, the subsidy has been raised to a maximum of 18,000 yuan.

Shanghai says no free license plate for green cars

Shanghai, December 11 (Gasgoo.com) This week Shanghai's economic planning body has denied earlier media reports that the city was trying to boost sales of cleaner energy cars by offering free license plates to go with these vehicles, CCTV.com said.

The Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Commission said the plan is a good idea but would be very difficult to implement. The planner claimed it has studied the possibility of free license plates for new energy cars, but fears the program would cause more problems then it would solve.