Auto car sports

Audi reached a new milestone on Wednesday with the sale of its one millionth vehicle in China. The car was a metallic blue Q5 crossover, which was handed over to a customer from Changchun. The German company said of the 1 million cars delivered to Chinese customers, 950,000 were produced in Changchun and the other 50,000 imported. "This record is yet another milestone in the history of Audi in China," remarked Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG. "We were the first premium brand in China 22 years ago and have been the unrivaled market leader in this segment ever since – a success story we're extremely proud of." As demand in China for luxury cars continues to boom, Audi believes it can reach the next million there by 2014. "Over the entire year, we will deliver well over 200,000 cars to customers in China," stated Dr. Dietmar Voggenreiter, President of Audi China. "And we have already set our sights firmly on the next sa...

MG Rover's old Longbridge car plant is set to comeback in a big way when SAIC / MG begins building its first all new car in 15 years at the end of the year. The plant will start producing the MG6 mid-size model from knocked-down kits imported from China, preceding the UK relaunch of MG as a "value brand" in 2011. 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). Shanghai Automotive (SAIC) bought the intellectual property rights to some of MG's cars and engines after the collapse of parent company MG Rover in 2005. Meanwhile, Nanjing Automobile bought much of the production equipment back in 2007. The latter's 2007 estimate of selling 50,000 cars...

Industry insiders are reporting that China's SAIC has expressed interest in buying a stake of General Motors come its public offering in November, though it has yet to make a solid commitment. GM has declined to comment on the matter. 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. The government has rejected suggestions that the IPO should be limited to domestic investors, however the Treasury has state that no single investor or investor group would receive, "a disproportionate share or unusual treatment." The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of GM shares will include those held by the U.S. Treasury, a union-managed retiree trust and the Canadian government. The government's plan is to offload their stake in GM in one month, though GM CEO Dan Akerso...

The chips are finally hitting the fan. China has put the word out there that it may play a big power card in the near future: give us all the secrets to your tech, or we won't let you build and sell in our ever-growing Chinese market. According to the Wall Street Journal, executives have been given a proposal that would provide China with a majority share in any joint venture involving foreign companies introducing "key new-energy components...such as advanced lithium-ion batteries and high-power electric motors". This would allow China to gain control of the technology that minority shareholders (i.e. anyone else) bring to the table. In response to this, one anonymous executive said, "[This is] tantamount to China strong-arming foreign auto makers to give up battery, electric-motor, and control technology in exchange for market access. We don't like it." Another executive has claimed this sort of scheme simply "raises the hurdle" in building elec...

Now here's something you don't hear very often these days; a North American-made product exported to China . Yes, it's actually true - even though we're not sure how long it will last for... Ford has announced that the recently refreshed in the States Edge sport utility vehicle, which is built in Ontario, Canada, is on its way to the company's dealers in China with sales set to start in October. Ford Motor China Vice President Nigel Harris told reporters that the automaker expects modest sales of 4,000 to 5,000 examples of the Edge per year. However, crossover-sport utility sales in China have been doubling every two years and are already up more than 90 percent in the first seven months of this year, according to the Dearborn-based automaker, so there's a good chance Ford may be able to sell more cars in the long-term. Currently, SUV sales account for about 14 percent of China's passenger car market, but Ford's research shows 25 percent of car owners i...

Dongfeng Nissan, Nissan's Chinese comrade in arms, has announced that it is creating a new brand for the Chinese market. Called Venucia (Chinese Name: Qi Chen) from the Roman goddess Venus, its goal is to help expand and diversify Dongfeng Nissan's lineup with two brands to draw in customers: Nissan, and now Venucia. The first Venucia model will be fully engineered and built by Dongfeng and is planned to be on Chinese streets in 2012. In order to get the brand rolling, Dongfeng is readying "design, R&D, manufacturing, marketing and [a] sales network". Dongfeng managing director Fumiaki Matsumoto says, "In the future, we aim to sell more than one million vehicles annually and the new brand will play an important role by offering practical models with class-leading quality." The brand's Star Alliance logo is made up of five stars indicative of the five promises that Venucia intends to make to its customers: "respect customers, create value, do the...

Talk about lucky; here's a video of a Chinese motorcyclists who seemed to have all the right moves when he slammed into a little carry-all truck. As you can see from the clip after the jump, he was either extremely skilled or extremely lucky to be thrown off his ride the way he was. If this accident weren't captured on CCTV, it would be the kind of stunt I'd expect to see in some 90's Jackie Chan movie. In that case, however, there would be people swarming the guy and dude would be using the formerly-known-as-a-motorcycle debris to whoop evildoers' behinds instead of probably being in shock. Hey, at least one or two of the surrounding drivers stopped to lend a hand. Any (I'm guessing) Mandarin speakers out there, feel free to throw us a translation of the text in the comments below. By Phil Alex Via: Gizmodo / Jalopnik _______________________________ VIDEO _______________________________