Henrik Fisker paired up with Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li to get his company back. Fisker is a co-founder of severely troubled Fisker Automotive. Li and Fisker are trying to buy the U.S. government loan to Fisker at a big discount. Henrik Fisker was ousted in March. (Read More…)

When Autoblog was invited to one of those hurried and harried press conferences at the Shanghai Auto Show, and asked GM China president Bob Socia about car exports from China to America, they were told:

“It could very well happen. It could very well happen. You know, I’m not sharing any plans with you, but we try to keep open as to what makes sense … We’re open to be doing that. There’s no reason why we can’t be exporting to the States.”

We gave the matter short shrift. We know China-made Honda Fits are in Canada and elsewhere without giving people fits. Also, we have been following GM China’s export activities for many years. GM started exporting the Sail from China in 2010, making it “the first time a world-class automaker will export from China a model it developed in the country,” as the Nikkei said. Actually, it was GM that got China’s heretofore sputtering auto export machine going.

For some folks, like Chris Butler at the Franklin Center’s Watchdog site for Tennessee, GM’s exports from China were new. Butler called GM and asked whether China will become an export base for the General: He reached spokesman Greg Martin, who said:

“There will be no exports of these cars built in China. Cars that are built in China are sold in China.” (Read More…)

Fisker is worth around 200 Karmas at retail. “A team including former General Motors Co executive Bob Lutz and China’s largest parts maker is looking to buy Fisker Automotive for $20 million, a fraction of the “green” car company’s estimated worth almost a year and a half ago,” Reuters says. (Read More…)

When former TTAC Editor-in-Chief and now Editor emeritus Edward “Op-Ed” Niedermeyer wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and warned that GM’s center of gravity shifts more and more to China, GM’s  retired multi-role fighter Bob Lutz  reamed Ed via Fortune.  Now, Bob Lutz himself appears to be an accessory in a deal that transfers  U.S.  government-financed  technology to China for pennies on the dollar.  Says Deepa Seetharaman, in-house alternative drivetrain expert at the Reuters Detroit office,  in her in-depth article: (Read More…)

By the end of 2009, China was the world’s largest auto market – something we saw coming nearly a year in advance.  When the torrid double digit growth got stuck two years later, a lot of people called a bubble. However, the bubble did not burst. Now, analysts predict a return of the double digit growth.
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The Volkswagen CrossBlue and CrossBlue Coupe will be made in China by the Shanghai-Volkswagen joint venture, Carnewschina reports today.  According to the report, the car will be built when Volkswagen’s new factory will open in Changsha in China’s Hunan Province. (Read More…)

Scaling back from its former intentions of becoming “China’s No. 1 automaker by 2015 and the world’s leading car maker by 2025,” China’s BYD now wants to become a world-class fish in Hong Kong’s taxi pond. (Read More…)

It’s a thing in China: You don’t get the car service you expect, and instead of waiting for the J.D. Power questionnaire, you hire thugs with sledgehammers. Not to beat the dealer to pulp. No, to smash your car in front of a lot of cameras.  It so recently happened to a Maserati Quattroporte. According to Carnewschina, the owner of the car (starting at 423,000 USD in China) disagreed with the dealer over a $390 repair.  After a flurry of letters, the car was smashed. (Read More…)

China’s CAAM released April sales today, and as indicated by GM’s good April showing, results are good. Sales of all automobiles are up 13.38 percent to 1,841,700 in April. Treat other reports with caution, many are the usual confusion of passenger vehicles and all cars. In China, there is a huge difference. (Read More…)

Found around the corner from Toyota

It’s not quite the all clear, but Japanese automakers (and their government-owned Chinese joint-venture partners) breathe a bit easier after receiving April sales numbers for China. Numbers had been down severely after last September’s anti-Japan riots. Latest “figures suggest that the firms are closer to recovering their lost sales,” says The Nikkei [sub]. (Read More…)

Forward contracts on popcorn skyrocketed at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as former TTAC Chief Editor Ed Niedermeyer drew massive fire for his recent op-ed  in the Wall Street Journal.  On Sunday, GM’s PR Chief Selim Bingo blasted Niedermeyer for “stepping through the looking glass” and for “carelessly comparing GM’s spending in China to that in the U.S.”

A day later, Bob Lutz joined the fray. (Read More…)

Chevy Cruze in Beijing

While GM’s head-flack Selim Bingol was swearing at Ed Niedermeyer, and that it’s not true that GM is sending its money to China, GM’s Chinese operation again outsold America. GM China sold 261,870 units in April, up 15.3%. In the U.S., GM sold 237,646 in April. In the first four months of the year, GM sold 821,707 vehicles stateside. Meanwhile in China, it sold 1,078,243. (Read More…)

A terrorist, about to enter the RenCen

Even after Ed Niedermeyer put on coat and tie as proper attire for our Via Dolorosa to  GM’s towers, GM’s Über-PR Chief Selim Bingol did not like him. “We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” said Bingol, frustrating my naive attempts at fence-mending. Instead of being sent to Gitmo,  one of the terrorists writes frequent op-ed pieces at the Wall Street Journal, causing Bingol to go on the counter-attack. (Read More…)

Our beloved Ed Niedermeyer is back in the Wall Street Journal with another op-ed, entitled “Welcome To General Tso’s Motors”. I’m sure you can all figure out the gist of it. Check it out here. Anti-GM-bias police, grab your defibrillators.

Your favorite worldwide updates are back and today the focus is on China.

It’s no secret that apart from in the Light Commercial Vehicle segment, Chinese brands have been struggling in their home market for a while (see China February 2012: When will Chinese cars rule at home?). Granted, last November in the midst of China-Japan tensions, the penetration rate of Chinese passenger cars shot up to 35%, its highest in 20 years. But it’s still incredibly low compared to Japan and South Korea, two Asian car manufacturing powerhouses that have built their success overseas on a quasi-monopoly at home.

But this could change drastically soon.

How?

Jump and see…

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