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The Roewe SUV has been in development, or rather undergoing the gluing of a badge to its front end since early 2007. With the Roewe SUV being largely based on a Ssangyong Kyron as SAIC were a former major stake holder in Ssangyong, however it ended in tears with Ssangyong’s bankruptcy which forced SAIC out of the boardroom but not before Ssangyong accused SAIC of stealing tech, now it appears that Renault are interested in buying out Ssangyong.

The Roewe SUV has been spotted out yet again, this time apparently cold weather testing yet one more time, and the Chinese media are saying that it will be launched by the end of the year. Interestingly, the Roewe SUV has been heavily modified for the Chinese market, with it being lengthened by 10mm and widened by 8mm and has had a height increase of 10mm. The front grill has been reportedly dropped from the original Ssangyong design, and the Roewe 350 style grill will be adopted as the new face of Roewe, which we might see spread over to the Roewe 750 as well.

So maybe by the end of the year we might be able to report on the Roewe SUV rolling down the production lines, it has already gained government approval for production so it might be closer than we think. Previously MG-Rover attempted to turn the Ssangyong Rexton into an MG SUV during their dying days of attempting to rebrand other car companies cars as their own, thankfully this one never made it to the market.

Honda’s growth for 2010 could well be derailed if they don’t get their workers back inside, however the workers demands appear to be on the rather high side on paper.

From the BBC:

Honda has had to halt production at its four Chinese car assembly factories, because of a strike over pay at one of its China-based parts plants.

The Japanese company said talks were continuing to try to resolve the dispute at the parts facility in the southern city of Fushan.

The strike at the plant, which makes gearboxes and engine parts, started last week.

Honda said it hoped to resume production as soon as possible.
Resolution efforts

According to newspaper reports, the 1,900 staff at the parts facility want their monthly wages to be increased from 1,500 yuan ($220; £151) to 2,500 yuan.

“We are still trying to resolve the labour dispute with the help of the local government at the Fushan plant,” said Honda’s China spokesman Zhu Linjie.

Like most of the world’s leading carmakers, Honda has enjoyed a big rise in sales in China.

It sold 219,514 cars in China during the first four months of this year, up 39% on a year earlier.

Honda runs three of its four car assembly factories in China as joint ventures with Chinese carmakers to supply the domestic market.

It has two factories in association with Guangzhou Automobile and one with Dongfeng Motor Corporation.

Honda’s fourth Chinese factory makes its Jazz small car model solely for export.

UK workers may not fear:

Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover is going to start assembling vehicles in China, the BBC can confirm.

“We will need to manufacture at least two models in China,” said chief executive Carl-Peter Forster in an interview.

“We’ll take one to two years to set it up, but first we will need a partner.”

The company said the move into China is not a shift out of the UK, where it is planning to hire an extra 1,000 workers this year.

The new jobs that are being created will be temporary and are linked to the production of new compact Range Rover model due next year – the production version of the Land Rover LRX that was revealed earlier.

“It takes a year or two before the jobs become permanent,” said Mr Forster, who is also chief executive of Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover’s parent company.

Last year, Jaguar Land Rover’s workforce in the UK was reduced by about 2,500 people to 16,000.

Jaguar Land Rover has recently seen a big increase in global sales of both its Jaguar models and its Land Rover 4×4 vehicle marque – which includes the Range Rover models.

During the year to March, 193,982 vehicles were sold and this year the company expects to sell more than 200,000.

Pre-tax profits came in at £32m for the year, after two years of losses during the downturn.

“It’s been a very good year for us,” said Mr Forster.

Much of the growth came from China, where Jaguar sales rose 38% and Land Rover sales rose 55% during the year. The market is also strong in India, where the company will start producing Land Rover models next year.

But Mr Forster was eager to stress that China, or indeed India, would “never be the centre for Jaguar Land Rover, it will remain in the UK”, he said.

“Most of the volume growth [in these markets] will benefit the UK operations,” he said.
Rapid growth

In future, Jaguar Land Rover is aiming to grow sales in new markets on the back of a much broader model line-up.

“The brands are strong and attractive and we don’t cover all the segments yet,” said Mr Forster. “We don’t even have a full engine line-up. There’s so much growth potential.”

But although the company is hoping to grow, it is still planning to go ahead with its plan to close either its factory at Castle Bromwich or its Solihull factory within 10 years.

“We are talking about having one efficient operation rather than two inefficient operations,” Mr Forster said. “We are not necessarily talking about getting rid of people.

“We want to grow the business and we want to make sure we can provide jobs for the people.”
Government support

Jaguar Land Rover’s plans to retain and grow its operations in the UK are beneficial as the company also supports many suppliers, Mr Forster insisted, urging the government to keep up support for research and development to ensure the industry’s strength in the future.

“The question is, will there be a technology base in the UK or not,” he said.

“The centre of gravity for the [European] auto industry is on the Continent and we have to pull the centre of gravity towards the UK.”

Tata Motors bought Jaguar and Land Rover from US group Ford for £1.15bn in 2008.

Yet more news of an eventual bust in the Chinese auto market:

The global auto sector looks poised for a recovery, but some analysts remained wary of the prospects — particularly for the Japanese, Chinese and Indian markets — because of the potential for rising manufacturing costs and uncertainty surrounding consumer spending.

“The recovery of the global auto sector looks to be stronger than the macroeconomic recovery in many regions, driven by demand and pricing,” Moody’s Investors Service said in an industry outlook report released Thursday.

Significant capacity was removed in the U.S. through restructuring, and there’s been an “increase in demand, which picked up by 13% between January and April 2010 compared to the same period a year ago, with the U.S., China and emerging markets such as India and Brazil the key drivers,” said Falk Frey, a senior vice president in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group.

Moody’s upgraded its outlook for the global automotive manufacturing industry to positive from stable on May 19 after raising it to stable from negative in February.

The ratings agency, however, “cautions that these changes do not mean it believes there is nothing but open road ahead of these companies.”

“Certain key risks remain that could yet threaten the recovery” for the auto industry worldwide, the Moody’s report said.

“Rising prices of raw materials, especially steel and precious metals, could squeeze margins towards the end of 2010,” Frey said.

And “sovereign worries in Europe could slow down the economic recovery, reduce consumer spending and impact financing in the case of spill-over effects to the banking system,” he said.
China caution

Those risks appear to be even more prevalent for the Asian auto industry.

China’s auto industry may even be set to see “negative growth” in the fourth quarter of this year.

At an annual shareholders’ meeting earlier this week, SAIC Motor Corp.’s /quotes/comstock/28c!e:600104 (CN:600104 17.27, +0.01, +0.06%) President Chen Hong said he expected China’s vehicle sales to contract in the fourth quarter, analysts at Yuanta said in a recent note to clients.

But Chen maintained his confident outlook that SAIC will sell 3 million cars in 2010 — a year-on-year increase of 13%, the Yuanta analysts said.

And a research note last week from Goldman Sachs said China’s car market will maintain double-digit growth over the next three years, despite the government phasing out its stimulus package.

By 2020, analysts at Goldman Sachs said they estimate that China’s light-vehicle market will total 30 million units per year — 28% of global demand.

Could it be that the Chinese auto market is beginning to saturate? It could well be, especially in larger cities like Shanghai where the cost of license plates, parking fees, and ever rising gasoline prices are starting to make consumers take a better look at public transport yet again. This could be a knock on effect that we will see trickle down through other Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, especially as tier 2 cities are now starting to develop comprehensive public transport systems that involve subway systems.

This article in the USA Today quotes CCT’s recent posting on Chinese Q1 sales and they believe that a weakening Chinese automotive market is going to push Chinese automakers into heading abroad earlier than expected to help them continue with their record sales that they’ve so far enjoyed.

China, as we all know by now, is the hottest car market in the world. Every major automaker in the world has sought to establish a beachhead there. But now there are signs car-buying frenzy is starting to weaken.

Proof? The China Car Times reported earlier this month that auto sales rose a healthy 34% in April compared to the same month last year, but were down about 10% compared to the previous month, March.

And there’s this: China has provided subsidies for 90,000 trade-in vehicles this year after it raised level of funding to help attract consumers, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement posted on its website today. Drivers cashing in their cars are well compensated:

Bloomberg says China tripled the maximum amount it provides to consumers who trade in old vehicles for new ones this year to as much as $2,635, Bloomberg says.

Hmm. America had its Cash for Clunkers, but this sounds like its going on longer and with more depth. If China’s car market stays weak, it will increase the incentive to export to the U.S. So far, no Chinese cars have reached our shores — but experts say it’s a matter of time.

So will this lead to greater sales of Chinese cars abroad? It appears that Geely have already prepared for the eventual slowdown of the market by aiming to have a larger percentage of their sales being export sales. The great innovator, Great Wall Motors is already exporting several thousand units per year overseas, and plans to increase sales in 2010 and 2011. So perhaps USA Today are onto something, perhaps Chinese cars will be heading to Europe and the USA in very near future.

Now that the Dodge and Ram Truck brands have been separated, Dodge has unveiled a new logo that eliminates the old ram’s head design. The new logo features two diagonal red stripes after the Dodge script.

According to Dodge, the logo exudes a “forever young” attitude and emphasizes Dodge’s performance-car history. (Hash marks give us the same feeling.) Use of the new logo will be limited to Dodge websites, marketing, and merchandise. The two red stripes won’t appear on Dodge dealerships or vehicles.

Related posts:

1. Dodge Unveils Ram Bianco for SEMA

British firm Gordon Murray Design has detailed its plans for an electric city car called the T.27. It’s based on the company’s planned T.25 gasoline-powered city car and will be even smaller than the Smart Fortwo.

The overall design measures just 98.4 inches long and 51.2 wide, with weight pegged at around 1500 pounds. The dimensions mean the T.27 will be eight inches shorter, 10 inches narrower, and 300 pounds lighter than the Fortwo.

The T.27 will be powered by an electric drivetrain from Zytek Automotive with a 12-kWh lithium-ion battery and a 25-kW motor. The performance claims ensure the T.27 is relegated to city-car duty: 0–62 mph in “less than 15 seconds,” a top speed of 65 mph, and an overall range of 80 to 100 miles.

The company plans to have a prototype ready by next April and hopes to keep the entire production process within the U.K. And yes, Gordon Murray Design is led by the same Gordon Murray who designed the McLaren F1 supercar. Think about that one for a second.

Related posts:

1. 2009 Mini Cooper Electric Vehicle – Spied
2. Nissan Electric Vehicle Due in 2010 – Car News
3. Mitsubishi and PSA Announce Electric Vehicle Based on i MiEV

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And now, Nissan builds a Rogue for the boys.

Besides being a type of box that exchanges money for music, “juke” is a football term, a fake-out in which a runner seems to go one direction when actually he’s headed in another. Juking is man’s work, and the little Nissan Juke crossover is likewise targeted towards men because, well, the similarly priced Nissan Rogue crossover just isn’t.

Keep Reading: 2011 Nissan Juke – First Drive Review

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1. 2011 Nissan Juke – Official Photos and Info
2. 2011 Nissan Juke @ 2010 Geneva Auto Show – Video
3. 2012 Nissan Juke – Feature

Saab Story: With the clock ticking loudly, Saab’s new owner dusts off some old names.

In the 20 years that General Motors owned Saab, it failed to turn the Swedish automaker into a profitable business. Last year, when GM spiraled toward bankruptcy, it was faced with killing off unprofitable brands or selling them. So Saab—that sometimes innovative, strangely stylish, and somewhat professorial brand—went on the block.

Keep Reading: Spyker Mines the Past for Saab’s Future – Feature

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2. Spyker Still Vying to Buy Saab
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