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China Automobile Industry, Technology (NEV, Driverless, etc): News & Images

Very nice car design impressive price range
Yes Geely design is getting better every year, well competition is very fierce (with BYD, Chery, Great Wall and such) so prices are very good, definitely bang for the buck.

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The problem for new car companies is always about their after sales service. Including the availability of their spare part, and the drop of price when the car owner want to sell their car. That's why it's tough for them to sell their merchandise. There were many Chinese vehicles Companies that want to penetrate Indonesian Market. Like Taiwanese Kymko (Motorcycle company). But it's hard for them to survive, because of the after sales service problem that I mentioned before.
 
Motor vehicles in Urumqi near 1 mln
Xinhua, April 7, 2017

Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Region, is expected to have 1 million motor vehicles on its roads by June, the city government said Thursday.

According to an official bulletin, there were 943,100 vehicles at the end of 2016, up 14.2 percent year on year. This means, on average, 10,000 cars were added to the roads each month.

The number of private cars climbed to over 750,000, up 20.5 percent year on year, with a population of about 3.52 million, this means there was one car for every 4.7 people.

Analysts said a favorable purchase tax and encouragement policies of new energy vehicles as well as the city's improving infrastructure have sustained the rapid growth of car sales.

There were 2,942 kilometers of roads, including 270 km of expressway, in Urumqi by the end of last year, 96 km more than the previous year.
 
China's self-driving truck passes test
(Xinhua) 16:06, April 15, 2017

CHANGCHUN, April 15 -- A Chinese-made self-driving truck has passed a navigation test, heralding the era of intelligent, automated heavy vehicles.

FAW Jiefang, the leading truck manufacturer, debuted the self-driving truck at FAW Tech Center in Changchun City, Jilin Province. The truck was able to recognize obstacles, slow down, make a detour, and speed up.

The truck reacted correctly to traffic lights, adaptive cruise control, remote commands and successfully overtook, company sources said.

FAW Jiefang now plans to commercialize the intelligent driving vehicle as early as 2018.

Hu Hanjie, FAW Jiefang general manager, said the company has built a whole industry chain partnership to develop, manufacture, sell, and service self-driving trucks. The participation of more firms across the sector will accelerate the technology's use on heavy-duty vehicles, Hu said.

Leading Chinese tech firms, including Baidu and Tencent, have invested in self-driving entities. Baidu, for example, has tested driverless mini cars at the annual World Internet Conference for the last two years.

Industry insiders, however, said the technology may prove more practical when it is used on trucks than private cars as truck drivers are more likely to drive tired. The new systems could cut operational costs by replacing drivers.
 
Would you buy a new car online? Lynk & Co is betting on it

Rick Popley

Apr 14, 2017


Lynk & Co.
Lynk & Co, a new car brand offering subscriptions, online shopping and built-in sharing options, aims for the U.S. market. It plans to launch here in early 2019.

If millennials prefer to make most purchases online, why not let them buy cars online? And if they're used to getting a new phone every year or two, why not give them the option to get a new car that often?

That is the approach to selling cars that a fledgling brand called Lynk & Co plans to take when it launches in China in 2018 and in the U.S. and Europe in early 2019.

Lynk is owned by Geely Automobile, the Chinese multinational that also owns Volvo, and it will sell cars online and through company-owned stores, similar to Tesla, instead of through franchised dealers similar to other manufacturers.

Lynk's entry in the U.S. would present another challenge to the franchise dealer system that has been in effect for more than 100 years, following Tesla's lead. In addition, short-term car rental services such as Maven and Zipcar are giving consumers alternatives to owning a vehicle, and companies such as Carvana are selling used cars online directly to consumers.

"We don't think the other model is wrong. We believe that if you come out with a new car brand, just bringing another really great car is not good enough, so we want to offer a totally different customer promise and a different business model," Lynk Senior Vice President Alain Visser said.

The company's approach will depart from traditional automotive retailing in several ways:

Lynk will adopt a fixed, one-price only policy globally. Lynk will offer fewer than 10 trim levels of each model, with no individual options or packages available.

Instead of sprawling suburban dealerships, the company will set up small stores in malls or pop-up stores in major cities such as Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. The company expects to have 70 to 80 U.S. sales points within about three years.

Customers will be able to buy or lease cars, but the company will focus on "subscriptions" for one, two or three years. Visser said subscriptions would be similar to leases, and customers would be able to exchange their cars for new models at the end of their terms.

Vehicles will be delivered to customers (or they can pick them up), and they will receive a walk-around explaining the car features. Lynk also will pick up and deliver cars for service.

Lynk will not own its service centers. It is negotiating with Volvo dealers to provide service.

The vehicles will have a standard "sharing button" and embedded technology that will allow owners to rent their cars to others when they aren't using them.

PRIMARY TARGET

Millennials will be the primary target because they are most likely to embrace this new approach and "they are the biggest customer group in all major regions globally," Visser said in a telephone interview from Gothenburg, Sweden, where Lynk and Volvo are based but have separate headquarters.

"Those customers who do not see the advantage of going to a dealer and negotiating a price can come to us. Does that mean the dealer model is wrong? Not necessarily, but we believe there are enough customers out there who are ready for something else," Visser said.

Initially, the brand will offer one model in the U.S., a compact SUV based on the Volvo XC40 called the 01, which Visser said will be a "premium product" but priced against SUVs from volume brands. Other models will be added (and also have numerical names), though Visser didn't give details.

Lynk's blueprint borrows from Tesla, the electric car company that used a similar approach to sell expensive battery-powered cars to well-heeled buyers without relying on franchised dealers.

Auto industry analyst Maryann Keller, though, thinks that because Lynk will compete with volume brands such as Ford and Toyota, what worked for Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, won't work as well for it.

Musk "got a billion dollars' worth of free publicity because of the novelty of the car and who he is, a brilliant entrepreneur, wealthy, very charismatic, a great speaker. And it was a phenomenal car," Keller said in a telephone interview.

"I think (Lynk executives) have this strange notion that who comes to them is going to be able to click online, pick the color, pick the interior, pick whatever style — and please send it. They don't understand that the car-buying process for 90 percent of Americans is more complicated," she said.

Lynk will have to fight the same battles with franchise dealers that Tesla did to open its own stores and sell directly to consumers.

Mark Scarpelli, a Chicago-area dealer and NADA chairman, would not say whether NADA will actively oppose Lynk, but said, "That's a state issue that each state has the flexibility to say yes or no."

Each state has laws that require vehicle manufacturers to sell through franchised dealers or restrict sales through company stores, and Tesla encountered strong opposition from dealer groups in every state where it tried to set up shop. Visser said Lynk is prepared to wage those battles.

"That's why we will start in the U.S. in 2019, so we have time to prepare. As far as Tesla, we have already learned from it," Visser said, adding that Lynk will attempt to follow Tesla into some of the same major cities.

http://www.daily-journal.com/busine...cle_8fa5d9f7-bf47-5f66-93c5-5411c5037952.html
 
parking will be a headache for big SUVs like Chang'an CS95. That's why I'm reluctant to 7-seater.

Yes. Especially in major cities like Taipei. Whoever I talk to, they raise a similar concern. But, on the other hand, having a car, compact SUV, sedan or full SUV, will automatically generate parking problem。 Besides, some premium sedans are not smaller than SUVs. Even compact SUVs are shorter-narrower perhaps by 40-60cm.

:p:

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Lexus ES
 
Why SUV in China so popular? Given the density and amount of cars on road would a subcompact electric vehicle be more suitable? @TaiShang
 
Would you buy a new car online? Lynk & Co is betting on it

Rick Popley

Apr 14, 2017


Lynk & Co.
That's a very good looking SUV, good job by Geely, I love to get one! Well despite Li Shufu has made a lot of personal success (his net worth already $6.7B) but Geely is still a very young company, as per Fortune 2000 by market cap world's top 10 auto & truck conglomerates in 2016 are:
  1. Toyota Group (Toyota Motor, Denso, Toyota Industries, Aisin Seiki, Toyota Boshoku), $242.6 B
  2. Volkswagen-Porsche Group (Volkswagen AG, Porsche Automobil) $89.7 B
  3. Nissan-Renault Group (Nissan Motor, Renault, Valeo, JKEKT) $88.5 B
  4. Daimler, $75.4 B
  5. Hyundai-Kia Group (Hyundai Motor, Kia Motor, Hyundai Mobis) $67.4 B
  6. BMW Group, $60.4 B
  7. Ford Motor, $54.2 B
  8. Honda Motor, $51.1 B
  9. General Motors, $49.6 B
  10. SAIC, $34.4 B
Now Geely market cap is about $12.2 B, I wish it will be among top 10 in the foreseeable future, wish the same for BYD (now $18 B), Great Wall Motor and Chery Motor. In China domestic market, just as Li Shufu has said, government should level the playing field for them. SOE like SAIC should downplay JV business and pivot to proprietary brands.
 
Why SUV in China so popular? Given the density and amount of cars on road would a subcompact electric vehicle be more suitable? @TaiShang

i found alot of Asians prefer SUV's. my parents included, probability because it's safer and more luxurious with a lot more leg room and space. and other convenience like moving stuff around easily.
 
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