Various government ministerys have to approve the joint venture, the JV is expected to land in Changshu city, close to Shanghai, and will use the same facilities as Qoros, another Chery joint venture partner. Total investment is expected to peak at 12 billion RMB with both parties investing 6 billion RMB to see production reaching 130,000 units per year.

Chinese media reports indicated that Chery is currently looking to raise the funds for the JV with multiple Chinese banks, but this was denied by Chery’s General Manager Mr. Jin Yi Bo. Chery’s Chairman also revealed to Chinese press that Chery are preparing to IPO soon.

Rumors circulating on the internet last week indicated that Chery would supply the engines to Chinese made JLR products from their own expansive ATECO range which includes large displacement V6, turbo assisted mid range displacements and smaller sub 1.0L units, although the chances of Chery engines being fitted in England’s finest is still rather slim.

JLR’s move into the Chinese market comes somewhat late when compared to German manufacturers who introduced themselves into China over a decade ago, or in Audi’s case two decades ago. JLR’ has seen its sales figures rise in China considerably, last year Land Rover sold 34,993 cars in the Chinese market, a sales increase of 58% over 2010, Jaguar sold 3897 units.

James Muir, Chairman of SEAT, said: “SEAT has arrived in China. We are launching our success story on this market with our state-of-the-art, attractive city showrooms and with the SEAT Leon as the entry model.

“Here in China, we are observing a groundswell of increasingly discerning customers that want to differentiate themselves with their cars. SEAT stands for emotional design and state-of-the-art engineering, for guaranteed driving fun mile-for-mile. Our unique combination of design and performance, of technology and precision secures for us an enormous potential within this key marketplace.”

The SEAT dealer network in China has planned to expand further over the next few months, reaching 15 operations by the end of 2012. This summer will see showrooms open in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanning, Xi’an und Xiamen, with Beijing and Shanghai following.

The Leon Cupra is on sale in China from 240,000RMB to 290,000RMB.

Chinese dealers are struggling with the rising number of unsold cars that’s threatening to deepen price cuts, according to the nation’s biggest automobile dealers’ association.

Dealerships for Honda Motor Co. (7267), Chery Automobile Co., BYD Co. (002594) and Geely (175) Automobile Holdings Ltd. carried more than 45 days of inventory as of the end of April, exceeding the threshold that foreshadows debilitating price cuts, Su Hui, vice president of the auto market division at the state-backed China Automobile Dealers Association, said in an interview yesterday.

“Unsold cars are crowding dealer lots in cities from Guangzhou in the south to Xi’an to the west,” Su said in a phone interview yesterday from Beijing. “It’s like a contagious disease that will spread.”

The warning signals that vehicle deliveries reported by companies, which have risen more than analysts’ estimates for the past two months, aren’t fully translating to consumer sales. Demand was the slowest in the first four months since 1998, weighing on automakers from General Motors Co. (GM) to Volkswagen AG (VOW), which are counting on the world’s largest auto market to offset slumping sales in Europe.

Volvo has handed the XC90 platform over to its Chinese owners ahead of a new version launching in 2014, the National Business Daily is reporting that Geely will use the XC90 platform to develop yet another high end brand for the Chinese market with the XC90 being the highlight of the new brand. The agreement to hand over the XC90 to Geely was signed on March 9th of this year, but it is not yet clear if any other vehicles were included in the transfer. The next generation XC90 is currently in development and will hit the market in 2014.

The XC90 is no new vehicle, the P2 platform on which the XC90 is based was first aired in 1999 and was developed prior to the Ford purchase of Volvo, the same platform underpinned several cars such as the S80, Ford Taurus and Lincoln MKS sedan

Geely launched their first SUV at the Beijing Auto Show, the GX7 SUV is the first AWD product from the company, the compact SUV is powered by a 1.8L engine and a six speed manual gearbox.

The entire line of John Cooper Works Minis—Countryman, hatchback, Clubman, Convertible, Coupe, and Roadster—will be equipped with a slightly revised version of the 1.6-liter powerplant found in the previous generation of JCW models. Those revisions result in an output of 208 hp and 207 lb-ft of torque, the same as the last JCW powerplant.

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When Robert Thomson invented the pneumatic tire a century and a half ago, a rubber doughnut inflated with air was only one of several ideas the Scotsman proposed for softening the ride and reducing the power required to propel the carriages of his day. Thomson also suggested filling what he called his “aerial wheel” with sponges, springs, and/or horsehair to avoid flats caused by “concussion between the wheel and the roadway.” (more…)

C/D: Your first official appearance as CEO of IndyCar was at the Chicago auto show in 2010. You seemed so cheerful and innocent then.

RB: “Naïve” might be a better word.

C/D: You had never been to an IndyCar race then and had zero experience in motorsports when you took over a troubled organization. Good decision?

RB: I expected it to be challenging. When you make changes, there are always going to be people who don’t like it. My job is to look forward, to take the sport into the future, and I know I will ruffle feathers. But the past two years, we’ve had significant success in viewership, and sponsorship has increased. (more…)

Russ Ruedisueli, 53, is sitting in his office at Chrysler’s Technology Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan, although he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t sit so much as crouch, muscles tensed and twitching, as if he’s attached to a pair of unseen jumper cables beneath his desk. You’d figure the guy was in pain except for his perpetual smile. (more…)

This is a story of unlikely scenarios. The first concerns the Subaru BRZ, a rear-wheel-drive sports car from the company famous for making all-wheel-drive station wagons pretending to be SUVs. It’s equally unlikely that this Japanese car finds itself on southern France’s Route Napoléon, one of  Europe’s best driving roads and the main link between swanky Cannes and the base of  the French Alps in Grenoble. (more…)