China Auto News of the Week (Jul. 28 - Aug. 1, 2008)

Great Wall Wingle gets EU's green light for export

Shanghai, July 28 (Gasgoo.com) Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motor announced the company has been approved to export its high-end pickup Wingle to the European market, reported xinhua.net today.
 
According to test results released by the British Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), the Wingle model has passed 26 tests in safety, emission, noise and other aspects. Thus VCA confirmed that Great Wall’s Wingle has met European standards.

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Zhongxing pickup Grand Tiger to roll into Poland

Shanghai, July 31 (Gasgoo.com) Polish carmaker Pol-Mot Holding is to start assembling the Chinese pick-up Grand Tiger, with the annual output expected to reach 1,500 units, and the first batch of the vehicles will roll off line in September, reported China Business News yesterday.

The Grand Tiger pickup is a new model of Hebei Zhongxing Automobile Manufacture Co.Ltd., designed according to the world's latest pickup trend. It belongs to the fifth-generation pickup range as the Toyota Tundra pickup model popular in North America and Nissan Frontier 2006 pickup. The Grand Tiger has editions powered by the 2.7L Toyota (gasoline) engine and the 3.2L Nissan turbo (diesel) engine.

U.S. Tiger Truck opens facility for Chinese trucks

Shanghai, July 31 (Gasgoo.com) Changan Auto Group vice president Wu Xuesong and general manager Yang Qing of Changan's global sales company flew to the U.S. yesterday to attend the inauguration ceremony of Tiger Truck's assembly plant in Poteau city, Oklahoma for making Changan-designed trucks, reported China Youth Daily today.

The plant is reportedly the first U.S.-based assembly facility to turn out vehicles with a Chinese heritage. A series of commercial vehicles carrying the Changan Auto badge will be manufactured in this newly-built American plant, and the privately-held Tiger Truck company will become the first "American manufacturer of Chinese vehicles."

VW China may stop making Santana, Jetta by 2010

Shanghai, July 31 (Gasgoo.com) Volkswagen AG may replace the current generation Santana and Jetta with new car models by the end of this decade, a senior official from Volkswagen's China operations said recently.

Dr. Zhang Suixin, Managing Director of Volkswagen (China) Investment Co told the Beijing-based Jinghua newspaper in an interview that the automaker had delayed its plan to give up the two models repeatedly because there's still huge demand for them in the Chinese market.

Santana built by Shanghai VW, and the Jetta model produced by FAW VW remain the two best-selling cars in China in the first half, with sales of 122,147 and 109,547 respectively.

Longbridge car plant back in action to make MG TF

Full-scale car production is due to restart today at one of the UK's most famous plants after a three-year closure.

Chinese company Shanghai Automotive (SAIC) will begin manufacturing two-seater MG TF sports cars at the former Rover plant at Longbridge in Birmingham.

A number of pre-production MGs have already been made at the West Midlands plant whose assembly lines were halted in April 2005 when MG Rover went into administration.

SAIC said in July that nearly half of the 700 MG TFs it hopes to produce by the end of the year had already been sold.

Another 10% cars to go off roads for cleaner Beijing

Shanghai, August 1 (Gasgoo.com) Chinese authorities have outlined a series of contingency measures that would kick in if Beijing's weather is "extremely unfavorable" during the Olympic Games that begin August 8. Under the emergency plan, another 10% Beijing vehicles will go off the roads, reported xinhuanet.com today, citing the Ministry of Environmental Protection as saying on Thursday.

"If the air quality is forecast not to meet the standards in the following 48 hours, the contingency plans would be initiated," stated the emergency measure, which would make private cars whose last two license plate digits match the last digit of date (from August 8 to 24) to be off the roads. This may reduce the number of automobiles on the capital's roads by 60%. Tianjin and Hebei would begin implementing similar restrictions. 

Volkswagen DSG plant in China to operate in 2009

Shanghai, August1 (Gasgoo.com) Volkswagen DSG (Direct Shift Gearbox) factory in China will start its trial run by late 2009 and will start mass-production at the beginning of 2010 with an annual output of 300,000 gearboxes for the first phase, reported Beijing News, citing Volkswagen (VW) China.

The VW DSG factory, whose construction started at the end of 2007 in Dalian, is invested with over $400 million by VW and is near to the FAW VW Engine plant. The new factory will produce the DQ200 seven-speed DSG dual clutch transmission, a global high-tech AT (automatic transmission) which can lower energy consumption effectively.