China Auto News of the Week (January 21-25, 2008)

Beijing Auto may seek tie-up with Soueast Auto

By Ally   From:Gasgoo.com January 25 2008

Shanghai. January 25 (Gasgoo.com) - Following the merge of SAIC and Nanjing Auto last month, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. (BAIC) is reportedly seeking a tie-up with an automaker in China's southeastern province of Fujian, Chinese newspaper Beijing Times said.
 
BAIC has made a few rounds of negotiations with Fujian-based Soueast Automotive but no details has been revealed, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed company source.
 
BAIC chairman Xu Heyi confirmed Wednesday that his company plans to merge with another Chinese automaker. He confirmed that a final decision will be reached by the end of this year, but did not elaborate.
 
Separately, China's third-largest car maker Dongfeng Motor Group Co is in talks to acquire smaller domestic competitor Hafei Automobile Group. Unlike Beijing Auto and Soueast Auto, Dongfeng has already launched a due diligence investigation on the mini-vehicle maker Hafei, according to an anonymous source yesterday.

China sets criteria for "small displacement" vehicles

By Ally   From:Gasgoo.com January 24 2008

Shanghai. January 24 (Gasgoo.com) - China's National Development & Research Commission (NDRC) has unveiled clear-cut criteria for the so-called "small displacement" vehicles, for which Chinese government has pledged to offer preferential policies.
 
Under NDRC's criteria, small displacement vehicles must meet three standards: fuel economy (mileage), emission standards and car size.
 
Fuel economy:  for cars weighing between 1660 kg and 1770 kg, small displacement requires consume less than 9.3 liter per hundred kilometers; for cars weighing between 2180 kg and 2280 kg, small displacement requires an oil consumption of 11.07 liter per hundred meters.
 
Emission standards: all small displacement vehicles must meet EU-III tailpipe emission standards.
 
Car size: for sedans, small displacement cars must be no longer than 4.2 meter in length; for hatchbacks, small displacement cars must be no longer than 4.0 meters in length.
 
NDRC officials said the government encourages the development and use of energy saving and environmental friendly cars.

Sinotruck receives orders of 140,000 trucks for 2008

By Tony   From:Gasgoo.com January 24 2008

Shanghai. January 24 (Gasgoo.com) – China's largest heavy truck maker, China Heavy Truck Corporation or Sinotruck has received purchase orders of 140,000 heavy trucks for 2008, the company announced on its web today.
 
The truckmaker's export orders for 2008 have doubled its export orders of last year, Sinotruck announced on its 2008 business conference.
 
Company official attributed the huge increase of sales order to the launch of 2008 heavy models, which are at once fuel efficient and complies with EU-III tailpipe emission standards. Currently, the truckmaker has converted all of its 2,700 models to the new 2008 production platforms.
 
Sinotruck plans to sell 125,000 heavy trucks this year. With these sales orders, the truck would not have any trouble achieving its sales target for the year. Last year, Sinotruck sold 100,619 heavy trucks, up 65.99 percent from one year earlier.
 
The truckmaker expects a 40 percent year-on-year sales increase in January this year.

SAIC, Brilliance Auto to develop DCT Technology

By Joanne Jiu   From:Gasgoo.com January 23 2008

Shanghai, January 23, (Gasgoo.com)--Shanghai Automobile Gear Works (SAGW), a subsidiary of Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) signed a cooperation agreement with Brilliance Group today in Beijing.
 
Under the agreement, the two companies will work together to produce transmissions for sedan vehicles and develop Double-clutch Transmissions (DCT) technology, according to local media reports.
 
Both parties will increase investments in their current joint venture--Shenyang SAIC-Jinbei Transmission Co., but the exact figure for the new investments remains unclear. Both sides believed that DCT technology represents the future of China's automatic transmission market, which is now dominated by international players.
 
After the new investment, each party will hold a 50 percent stake in the joint venture.
 
The joint venture will have an annual capacity of half a million transmissions, of which 100,000 will be automatictransmissions (AT). Currently Chinese brand automakers still lag behind foreign competitor as regard of the AT technology.

Shanghai GM to launch first hybrid vehicle in June or July

By Tony   From:Gasgoo.com January 23 2008

Shanghai. January 23 (Gasgoo.com) – Shanghai GM will launch its first hybrid vehicle, a LaCROSSE equipped with E-co Hybrid system in June or July of this year, the company announced yesterday.
 
LaCROSSE will be the first middle and high end Hybrid vehicle to be launched in Chinese market. The vehicle could reduce fuel consumption by at least 15 percent. Besides LaCROSSE hybrid, Shanghai GM also plans to launch three low fuel-consumption engines this year.
 
Toyota Prius, the first Hybrid vehicles sold in Chinese market, started local production in China at the end of 2005. However, the vehicle's sales performance in Chinese is encouraging: the model sold only 414 units last year, according to China National Association of Passenger Vehicle Manufacturers.
 
Experts say there are two factors leading to hybrid vehicle's discouraging sales: first, hybrid vehicles usually are 180%-190% more expensive than conventional vehicles; second maintenance costs for hybrid vehicles are twice as much as conventional vehicles.
 
Honda Civic hybrid is the second hybrid vehicles imported to Chinese market by Dongfeng Honda just two month ago. The importer has not release any report on this vehicle's sales performance in Chinese market so far.
 
The launch of LaCROSSE hybrid will make Shanghai GM the third joint venture automaker to deliver a hybrid vehicle in China following Toyota and Honda. Toyota Motor Corp is currently the only carmaker that builds a hybrid car in China. Honda started to sell imported Civic hybrid in China starting late November.
 
Last week, China's first local brand hybrid vehicle Jiexun rolled off assembly in Changan Automobile. The hybrid vehicle can save up to 20 percent fuel consumption compared with conventional vehicles and its tailpipe emission can meet EU-IV standards.

Dongfeng Citroen second plant to start trial production in June

By Tony   From:Gasgoo.com January 22 2008

Shanghai. January 22 (Gasgoo.com) – Dongfeng Citroen second plant will start trial production in June and will go to full production by the end of this year or early next year, Chinese newspaper, Beijing Morning News cited a company official as saying.
 
"It may be too late for the second plant to produce C4 or new Elysee,” said an unnamed company official. “I guess the first vehicle produced at the second plant will be Citroen C5.”
 
Earlier reports say that Citroen C4 will be locally produced in China this year. The model will be the first Citroen car that makes its debut in China and globally simultaneously.
 
Dongfeng Citroen's second plant including the whole process of welding, painting and assembling in Wuhan and an engine and transmission facility in Xiangfan, Hubei province.
 
In 2007, Citroen sold 115,000 vehicles in Chinese market, which include 31,314 C-Triumph vehicles, 31,449 Elysee vehicles, 28,004 Fukang vehicles, 6,852 Picasso vehicles, according to China's National Association of Passenger Vehicle Manufacturers.

Chery to build first national laboratory on environment friendly auto technology

By Ally   From:Gasgoo.com January 21 2008

Shanghai. January 21 (Gasgoo.com) - Chery Automobile has obtained permission from China's National Development and Research Commission to build a national auto engineering laboratory, the only national lab of its kind to be ever built in the country, China Business News reported.
 
Chery said the lab will concentrate on developing environment-friendly technologies for the automobile industry. But it did not elaborate on any details over the lab.
 
Chery will develop more mid-high end sedans in future, but all these models will feature environment-friendly technologies.
 
By the end of 2007, Chery has invested 1 billion yuan ($13,804) to develop technological solutions that could help lower fuel consumption, while it already made improvement in mild hybrid technologies.