Motors Tracker

Carmaker BAIC Group plans to add to its stake in China Auto Rental, consolidating its position as main shareholder in the nation’s biggest car rental company. BAIC will buy an 8.05 percent stake in CAR from the second-largest shareholder Amber Gem Holdings for HKD529 million (USD68.3 million), raising its total holding to 28.91 percent, Beijing-based CAR said in a statement today. Amber Gem is a unit of private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Its stake will fall to 6.7 percent. As a major auto manufacturer in China, BAIC uses its self-built vehicles in its mobility services. Securing the controlling stake in CAR will help the firm expand in the sector. CAR said the deal will be completed alongside BAIC’s agreement last week to buy a 20.87 percent stake in the rental company from major shareholder Ucar for HKD1.4 billion (USD180.6 million). CAR’s former actual controller, Charles Lu, resigned as chairman and non-executive director early last month, dragged down by a fraud scandal at Nasdaq-...

Chinese ride-hailing service provider Ucar Group, which is listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations, received a notice from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on July 16 that it has opened an investigation against it based on suspected information disclosure infractions, the company said in a statement yesterday. The inquiry will not restrict the Beijing-based firm's production and operations, does not involve its finances, and will not materially adversely impact its normal operations, per the statement. Ucar informed the board of directors of Beijing-headquartered China Auto Rental, which is Chinese biggest car rental company, and in which Ucar holds a major stake, that it had inked a non-legally binding agreement with automaker holding company BAIC Group on May 31 this year for BAIC to buy up to 450 million CAR shares from Ucar, equal to about 21.26 percent of CAR’s total issued share capital, CAR, announced on June 1. Beijing-based NEEQ has halted trading...

China’s car sales may dive as much as 20 percent this year regardless of last month’s year-on-year records for sales and production, according to a new forecast from a major auto industry association. Sales could drop 20 percent compared with last year if the novel coronavirus continues to spread worldwide or they may fall 10 percent if it comes under control overseas as well as in China, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. The situation overseas remains uncertain and demand has not yet recovered, so export-dependent companies are still not out of trouble, the CAAM said, adding that demand is likely to soften after measures to boost consumption in various countries come to an end. China’s automakers should focus on changes in their domestic market with timely adjustments to the pace of production and sales, it added. In June, sales jumped 11.6 percent from a year earlier and 22.5 percent from the previous month to 2.3 million vehicles, the CAAM said. Some 2.325 mill...

China’s automobile market continued to recover last month as the Covid-19 pandemic came under control and the economy revived, while the market share of luxury cars hit a new high of 14.9 percent. About 1.7 million passenger cars sold in China in June, continuing steady growth over four straight months, but still a 6.2 percent annual slump, mainly because many auto prices were discounted last year due to the shift from the fifth-phase national emission standards to the sixth,thus inducing a higher baseline for comparison. Retail sales of passenger cars nationwide totaled 7.7 million in the first half in a yearly drop of 23 percent stemming from the fallout of Covid-19 and China’s Lunar New Year holiday that proceeded its full onslaught, according to statistics the China Passenger Car Association released yesterday. Luxury car sales grew a yearly 27 percent in a 9 percent rise over May, with a record 14.9 percent market share, spurred by demand for high-end vehicles as a consequence of ...

Orders can now be placed in China for Tesla’s Cybertruck, a pure electric light commercial vehicle with sports car speeds. Reservations can be made for as little as CNY1,000 (USD142), according to the US electric car giant’s China website. The model, slated to be released next year, is available for between USD39,900 and USD69,900 in the US.Orders for the Cybertruck has exceeded 620,000 as of March this year. Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the California-based startup sold over 30,000 units in China in the first five months of the year. It topped the country’s new energy vehicle sales in May.