The Sail is a five door sub-compact hatchback that has been developed at GM’s Technical Center in Bangalore to ensure that it will meet the needs of the Indian buyers.
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The development program calls for the reduction of manufacturing complexity by consolidating three engine families into one and increasing the interchangeable global components.
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The Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, which is jointly owned by the two companies, will undertake the development of the new architecture, with GM and SAIC teams working together.
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With the Baojun brand, GM wants to compete in the fast-growing market for new cars in smaller Chinese cities targeting first-time buyers with a budget of around $10,000. Domestic Chinese rivals include Chery Automobile, Geely Automobile Holding and BYD.
The solution – to companies such as BAIC, Dongfeng, Chang’an and others – is to seek talent abroad; in Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and USA. Research and development centres are popping up in Nottingham and Detroit and recruitment fairs are being held in Munich, Stuttgart and Aachen.
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In 2010, the two brands sold 160,397 cars, most of which were delivered in China, with only 2,000 units exported to other markets. This past April, MG launched its new mid-size MG6 in the UK, the first new car to be assembled at the British firm’s Longbridge plant in 16 years. The company said that when it completes the development of a diesel version, it will offer the car to rest of Europe. "We will not go into mainland Europe without a diesel," UK managing director, William Wong, told Autonews.
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Lending even more evidence to China’s growing importance for automakers, Volkswagen is planning to develop two new bespoke vehicles, one with each of its partners in the Middle Kingdom, Autonews said in a report today. Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co., which is a joint venture between China’s SAIC Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, will produce a new luxury sedan, while VW’s second joint venture in the country with the China FAW Group Corp., FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co., will develop a dedicated electric vehicle for the partnership's newly launched Kali brand.
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The all new car will be available initially as a five-door fastback, with a four-door saloon to follow later on. The automaker optimistically told the Financial Times that customer clinics have compared the MG6 with the likes of the Ford Mondeo, Skoda Octavia and even with small BMWs. Prices in the UK are said to range between £16,000 to £20,000 (US$25,425 to US$31,780).
The U.S. government is eager to unload its 61% stake in GM after taxpayers bailed out / loaned the iconic automaker to the tune of US$50 billion. This comes despite the political ramifications of selling part of the brand to foreign investors or sovereign-wealth funds.
Having already announced the Roewe N1 Concept, China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) that owns the rights to the MG Rover brand, revealed that its 2009 Shanghai Auto Show booth will also host the world premiere of the MG6 Concept. The five-door liftback model is based on the underpinnings of the Roewe 550 which was designed as SAIC's successor to the Rover 45.Although details are still sketchy, the MG6 will most likely lead to a production version that might very well find its way into Europe where MG Rover already sells the resurrected TF LE500 in the U.K.
Powertrain options for the MG6 will be identical to those offered in the Roewe 550 including a 1.8-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder petrol engine.
Chinese carmaker NAC MG has announced But we ask; more than 16,000 pounds for a car that's practically a facelifted version of the original MG TF that was introduced in 1995? That's a lot for a car that was already outdated compared to its rivals when it went out of production in 2005, let alone in 2008. For example, prices for the Mazda MX-5 1.8 start from 15,750 pounds while you can get a nicely equipped MX-5 1.8 Icon for 16,825 pounds. We drove the last TF130 back in 2005, and while the MG had its fun side, even then, it showed its age in more ways than one.
A teaser shot of Shanghai Volkswagen’s forthcoming Chinese built and designed mid-size sedan that will debut at the Via: es.autoblog.com
Hot on its heels from the purchase of domestic rival car maker Nanjing Auto –see here, SAIC Motors today announced that it has agreed to pay 923 million yuan ($127 million) to Shanghai Electric Group Co Ltd in order to acquire a 50.32 percent slice of Shanghai Diesel Engine Co. "The purchase will enable SAIC to develop its own engines and complete products with well-established core spare parts," said SAIC in a statement that it issued. "It will lift our company’s competitiveness in the commercial vehicle segment." -Continued after the jump
The Chinese Group has announced that it plans to produce 600,000 units annually of its own brand of vehicles by 2010, a number that includes 200,000 passenger cars and 400,000 commercial cars. SAIC’s overall plan is to reach an annual production of 2 million units, for both passenger and commercial vehicles, by then. Most of the vehicles produced by SAIC today are made in collaboration with its joint ventures (GM and Volkswagen AG), and all those cars carry the foreign partners' brand nameplates.
State-owned Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC) has come to an agreement with Yuejin Motor Group (also state-owned…) to buy its Nanjing Automobile’s auto-assembly and component-making businesses. The deal, which is valued at 2.1 billion Yuan or approximately $286 million, will set Of course a deal like this wouldn’t have been carried out without the consent of the all-mighty Chinese government who wants to see more mergers in China's fragmented passenger car market which kinda reminds the US and European car industry in the first half of the 20th century when there where like 50 or more independent car makers. -Continued
Interestingly, Nanjing Automobile owns MG Rover assets along with the right to the brand MG, while Shanghai Automotive (SAIC) obtained design rights for two Rover models including the 75 which it sells under the name Roewe.
Before some of you start screaming "COPY CAT", know that this Rover 75 based sedan is 100% legitimate. The owner of the newly established ROEWE car company is Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp (SAIC) and it has bought the intellectual property rights to build Rover's 75 in 2005.The 750E will be officially unveiled at the
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The Chinese company will name it's versions of the Rover 25 & 75, "Roewe" with the 75 being named 750E (Rong Wei in Chinese). The Rover 75 based 750E, pictures of whom you see here, will be officially unveiled at the Beijing Auto show, which runs from Nov 17 to 28. As for the company's logo, the resemblance with the original is obvious.
Most interesting though is the fact that SAIC has plans to export the 750E to Europe and the
Technorati: Roewe+750E, Rover+75, Rover+25, China, SAIC, Carscoop, autos, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles
"We feel it is in interests of our Land Rover business to have the Rover brand. We are acquiring it and we're not looking to sell it. We believe it is a valuable asset for us"That's what a Ford spokesman told Reuters concerning the company's decision to exercise its right to buy the Rover brand name from BMW. What the spokesman didn't say is that Ford was "scared to death" when it heard that Chinese automakers SAIC and
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The newspaper states that a spokesman for BMW confirmed a report in the German financial daily newspaper, Handelsblatt stating, "A binding agreement was made".
Although it seems like a done deal, BMW will need to obtain Ford's consent due to legal issues as the latter owns Land Rover -acquired from the BMW Group a few years ago. Basically, this means that Ford will give its consent only if the future owner of Rover's name strictly avoids any conspicuous connections with SUV vehicles.
I think that Ford should be very, very, very cautious with this one. Can you imagine the surprise on the face of a Ford's Group manager if he sees a Rover LT3 or a Rover Sport in the 2007