Motors Tracker

The joint venture between SAIC Motor and German auto giant Volkswagen Group will soon start to produce Audi-branded cars. “Volkswagen and its Chinese joint venture partner SAIC Motor plan to invest CNY4.13 billion (USD590 million) to revamp their car plants in Shanghai to make new Audi sedans,” according to a Reuters report published today that cited a government document. The SAIC-Audi project is proceeding as planned, online news outlet The Paper reported, citing Audi China, the wholly owned unit of German luxury carmaker Audi, and SAIC Volkswagen, the joint venture between Audi’s parent firm Volkswagen and SAIC. The matter is sensitive. Volkswagen’s China-made Audi vehicles are mainly produced by another JV, Changchun, Jilin province-based FAW Volkswagen, which is not in favor of the deal. When the SAIC-Audi project was first broached in November 2016, it was met by a storm of criticism and had to be shelved. SAIC Volkswagen so far only produces the Volkwagen and Skoda marques. It w...

The number of vehicles carmakers recalled in China in the first half increased over the same period last year, with Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz leading the pack. Mercedes-Benz yanked back 788,300 vehicles from among almost all its domestic and imported models, as shown by  data from the State Administration for Market Regulation. Vehicle makers had issued 67 recall notices in the world’s biggest auto market as of June 30, encompassing over 3.2 million cars, in a yearly 16.4 percent increase. German producers flagged a total of almost 1.4 million, making up 43.1 percent of the first-half score. Japan’s carmakers called back over 1.37 million, or 42.7 percent. Honda Motor brought over 770,000 vehicles back in for repairs on May 29 in the largest single recall of Japanese cars in China this year. The massive actions by Honda and Mercedes-Benz related to fuel pump problems and involved more than 1.4 million defective autos in all. This year has also seen burgeoning recalls of new energy ve...