China Auto News of the Week (June 16 - June 20, 2008)

Fiat denies any cooperative relationship with China's Zotye

Shanghai, June 16 (Gasgoo.com) Fiat has denied it has any intention to build up cooperative relationship with China's Zotye Holding Group Co, Beijing news reported today.

Paolo Arpellino, chief representative officer of Fiat's Chinese office, said in a clarification statement that "Fiat has no cooperative relationship with Zotye in any case, to say nothing of joint venture partnership."

Citing words from a Zotye official, state-run Xinhua newspaper reports in April that Zotye may set up a joint venture with Fiat if everything goes well.

Zotye just unveiled its own brand models built on technologies from discontinued Fiat models at this year's Beijing Auto Show. The company had bought from Fiat the assembly line and tooling and intellectual property rights for the Lancia Lybra by mid-2007.

Also, Paolo said Fiat is still in talks with Chery but admitted that no major progress has been made so far. Fiat and Chery signed a memorandum of understanding to build a 50:50 passenger vehicle joint venture and an engine supply contract in August 2007, but the talks began to stall in early 2008 when Fiat pulled out of Nanjing Auto.

In the joint venture, Chery and Fiat had plans to locally produce Fiat Linea, Bravo and Grand Punto, but Fiat cannot satisfy Chery's desire for another model - Alfa Romeo.

Chery adds 200,000-unit-a-year output

Shanghai, June 17 (Gasgoo.com) China's Chery Automobile announced last week to add a 200,000 unit-a-year car plant for production of fuel efficient cars, the Beijing Morning Post reported today.

Construction on the plant will begin this year, it said, adding, Chery expected to launch operations by 2010. The project will boost the automaker's annual production capacity of complete cars to 850,000 units from the current 650,000 units within two years.

 Guangzhou Toyota to open second plant next year

Shanghai, June 17 (Gasgoo.com)Guangzhou Toyota Motor Co. will more than double its capacity by launching production at a second plant next year, reports Beijing Morning Post.

Guangzhou Toyota, a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corp. and China's Guangzhou Automobile Group, is planning to build a new production facility with an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles. The move will increase the joint venture's overall annual capacity to over 400,000 units.

The report said that Guangzhou Toyota plans to sell 210,000 vehicles in China this year, with 175,000 Camry vehicles and 35,000 Yaris vehicles, a compact sedan which has gone on sale last week. As production of Yaris was just started, capacity shortage may emerge in the second half of this year for the automaker.

China's top 10 passenger-car makers by May sales unveiled

Shanghai, June 17 (Gasgoo.com) China sold a total of 420,500 passenger vehicles (including sedan, SUV and MPV) in May alone, up 14.5 percent from a year earlier but down 6.6 percent from April, China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

FAW Volkswagen was the top seller in May with sales of 39,691 units, followed by Shanghai VW and Shanghai GM, with 38,420 and 36,707 vehicles sold each.

Of the top 10 passenger car makers in China, only Guangzhou Honda and FAW Toyota saw their monthly sales increase in May from the previous month, amid the pervasive auto sales depression as a result of the devastating earthquake on May 12.

GM, Ford, Chrysler to export $2 billion vehicles, auto parts to China

Shanghai, June 17 (Gasgoo.com) General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC agreed to export North American-built vehicles and parts worth more than $2 billion to China in separate agreements signed Monday in Washington, the Associated Press reported.

GM said it will sell and export $1 billion worth of vehicles, component kits, machinery and equipment to one of its Chinese partners, Shanghai General Motors, through 2010. The company said the deal includes Cadillac vehicles built in the United States.

Ford officials said its deals, valued at $800 million, include the export of 30,000 vehicles as well as transmission parts to its joint venture, Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co. Ford did not disclose which models would be exported.

Chrysler will reportedly export around $400 million Jeep brand vehicles to China within this year and the next. The automaker already signed agreement with China Automobile Trading Co on Monday.

Hualing signs $30 mln heavy truck export deal

By Kelly 

Shanghai, June 20 (Gasgoo.com) Anhui Hualing Automobile announced that it had signed an export deal on 1,000 Hualing heavy-duty vehicles valued at $30 million with famous Thailand company "Double A," according to auto.sina.com.cn.

Anhui Hualing Automobile Co., Ltd, a holding subsidiary company of China Anhui Xingma Automobile Group Co. Ltd., focuses on manufacturing heavy-duty vehicles.

China's top five SUV brands for Jan-May

By Ally  

Shanghai, June 20 (Gasgoo.com) China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has unveiled top five hot selling SUV brands in the Chinese market from January to May.

The top five SUV models are Honda CRV, Great Wall Hover, Hyundai Tucson, Chery Tiggo and Kia Sportage, which together posted sales of 107,496 units in the first five months, representing 59.99% of China's SUV market in that period. 

In May alone, the top selling SUVs models in terms of sales include Honda CRV, Chery Tiggo, Great Wall Hover, Hyundai Tucson and Changfeng Liebao. A total of 23,333 units of the five brand SUVs were sold in May, accounting for 61.58 percent of the total.