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Showing posts with label Brand - China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brand - China. Show all posts

MG Rover cars sold well in NZ in the late 90's. Although data from those misty times is hard to find, in 1999 I believe they were the 13th best selling brand and the biggest of any Euro marque. However, once BMW stopped being the importer, things were not the same on the sales front thereafter.
Fast forward to 2012/13 and the MG brand is about to make a comeback, initially in the form of the MG6. This has the Rover 75/MG ZT platform as a basis and the engine is an improved 1.8 K series engine. What does it have for and against it?
Plus: Prices will be competitive, sourced as they are from China (yet to be announced). Based on a Euro car means it has a respectable 4 star crash rating. It has a hatchback variant, essential in NZ as Kiwis love versatile vehicles. It steers quite well apparently too. In my eyes, it is stylish and I put value on that.
Minus: It is off the pace a little for interior quality and for some it will feel a little dated inside the cabin. NZers also love automatics and for now it is only manual. The turbo charged engine isn't that sporty for those who want that.
Overall: Will sell in very small numbers until at least the auto arrives. Hopefully potential buyers will give it a go as it is definitely a step up from other Chinese offerings.

How have Chinese brands sold here? Great Wall sell an SUV and Ute (small truck) and for nine months of 2012 sold about 750 units  in a market with 75,000 total sales. I would give that a pass. Chery sell two small cars and a small SUV at bargain basement prices, yet sold only 140 vehicles in the same period. Fail. Geely bought in a few cars for evaluation but have done nothing.
My call: MG is certainly worth a look, Great Wall if you are desperate to buy new on a limited budget. Chery to be avoided, for now anyway.

MG Returns To New Zealand


Dongfeng electric vehicle. They need design help badly

For over a hundred years, the Peugeot's have run their family business. It has just lost full control of the company, subject to shareholder approval. It will give the Peugeot family, the French government and Chinese firm Dongfeng equal control. PSA has been losing billions of Euros each year.

The good: It will bring a much needed cash injection, giving it a lifeline for survival and then potentially revive both car brands, Peugeot and Citroen. Peugeot already has a joint venture with Dongfeng, so that can be developed.

The bad: The French government wants to use its share to protect workers in France. Understandable, but if that is at the expense of necessary downsizing, it will affect any revival. Further to that, getting three parties to move together is not ideal.

The summary: I ask myself "Would I buy a Peugeot or a Citroen?" No way. Too many feel the same as I do. Something needs to get PSA products on people's shopping lists more often. The way things are going, it wouldn't be around much longer.

The Peugeot 3008.  Maybe things aren't so black now

Peugeot Family Lose Control Of PSA


 It is generally known that Chinese car makers want western car making technology. While other nations are just happy to have manufacturers set up factories and run them themselves, it is not so in China. Car firms are told if they want to sell cars in China, they have to not only make them there, but also form a 50/50 joint venture partnership with a local company.

The reason was surely so that technology would transfer and then Chinese designed and made cars could compete internationally. That generally hasn't happened as foreign firms have not allowed it, although some car makers have said of late they are comfortable with sharing sensitive technology with their partners. They must have more confidence in their motives than I.


Anyway, some Chinese firms simply do 'knock offs' of western cars. Copyright means nothing in China and the courts will not help if you complain. Of course rather than upset Chinese authorities western firms have to accept blatant copyright infringements.

You can see an example here of the Range Rover Evoque. This one bears the name Landwind E32, made by the firm Jiangling Motor Corporation or JMC. I am sure if you looked beneath the bodywork, there would be a much inferior product to the original. However, when technology does eventually make its way to China, they will make much better copies.

They will never be able to sell this in Europe or North America, but most other nations will gladly let them in. I hope they are not death traps like many Chinese cars have proven to be, as the unsuspecting buyer deserves better than that.

Landwind X6 crash test gets a zero score. Are they safer now?

The RR Evoque 'Knock Off'

I must say a nice looking SUV. I can see it selling well in Europe

Although MG/Rover was taken to China, it has carefully maintained a European connection. A design studio was set up in the UK, and all cars have a sold in the UK are assembled there. The assembly is from kits and in small numbers but the intent is there, to make the cars feel European. Porsche Engineering was tasked with improving handling for the GS SUV.

They haven't rushed things with regard to Europe, just taken their time. Now an SUV model has arrived the GS and it seems the time may be right to expand beyond the UK. The GS will be assembled the same way as the MG3 compact and MG6 medium sized cars are, at Longbridge, UK. It will be released in Europe (UK at least) in late 2016.

One would assume that an SUV will really expand sales as it is such a popular segment now. It will be a step up in assembly operations in terms of volume too. Just over 2,300 of the 3 and 5 models were sold in the UK - and that is the only market so far in Europe - so it has been a small venture up until now.

A rear shot taken at the Shanghai Auto Show
This route taken by SAIC with the MG brand is different from other Chinese car makers. It has a European input that makes it a bit different. They are assembled in Europe and apparently do OK in car crash tests! Yay. It deserves success and it will take time, something SAIC seem prepared to spend.

An MG SUV Coming To Europe



I find the China car giant SAIC's UK operation interesting, based at Longbridge, Birmingham, UK. They have a design centre there, which you can learn more about by clicking here. The interesting part is how they make cars there also (click here for an earlier article).

It started in 2008 when MG TF production restarted but only 900 cars were made over nearly three years. Then the MG 6 GT 5-door hatchback was introduced, soon followed by the 4-door (Magnette). The MG 3 super mini began in 2012, and by 2014 there were some 400 people working there, up from about 200 when production recommenced. Now the new MG GS SUV is being launched about now (I wrote about it here), which should broaden the brand's appeal. It will be imported fully built up from China.

Dealerships have been added steadily and now a sizable number have come on board. A list of those can be seen by clicking here. It's taken a while to establish a network but more models and a determination to see this through by SAIC will have helped dealers to make the decision to join.

I expected them to lose heart and disappear after a few years of losses. However, the whole process has been handled with patience and steady progress has been the result. The car assembly is from kits, so tooling costs haven't been a huge cost. Labour is probably the major UK component.

It amazes me that in the 21st century, where everything is hurried and has to be of enormous scale, this small assembly operation exists at all. Yet it is working and is growing. No attempt has been made to reach outside the UK for sales but with so much to do within Britain, I guess that is not yet a priority. As a cheese advertisement in New Zealand says "Good things take time".

The sales data below is about as good as I can ascertain. If anyone can add or clarify the data, please do so with a comment or on rdc1234@gmail.com.


YearMGTFMG 6MG 3Total

2009374374

2010285285

2011247115362

2012
77413787

2013
291209500

2014
6981,6282,326

2015
5492,6033,152

2016
1401,1241,264

Total9062,5675,5779,050

SAIC's UK


When I did some research for an article on the subject of MG production in the UK, it became apparent that whether there was car production at all was a source of much speculation - often leading to friction on certain forums. Part of the problem was cars were assembled (from kits) in batches as there wasn't enough volume to have ongoing production. So whenever the assembly line stopped, some said that was the end while others said not so. Then another batch would be processed.

The cars were only for the UK and many noted the dealer network and sales promotion was poor. Budget brand Dacia could use Renault dealerships but MG had to build its dealer network from scratch. This slow build up process and stop-start assembly style didn't make the operation cost effective. I said this in a recent article on the subject (which can be seen by clicking here): It amazes me that in the 21st century, where everything is hurried and has to be of enormous scale, this small assembly operation exists at all. Yet it is working and is growing. 

Now we know such a small assembly operation and limited sales didn't add up at all. Future cars will be imported from Asia. I would never have tried what SAIC did. Surely a better way would have been build up the dealer network and sales before considering the feasibility of local assembly.

It will hardly impact on the local economy as few were involved in such a basic and limited arrangement of production. Most staff employed by SAIC in the UK are in design and engineering and that will remain. It had more of a symbolic meaning. At least now the warring factions who seemed to be irritated over whether car assembly is happening or not can now return to peaceful co-existence.

Picture source: Autocar.

SAIC MG Gone From UK Manufacturing


What can you say about the largest market in the work numerically that you can find no one publishing imported car sales by brand? All the figures below is for locally made only. For many brands it will only make a small difference, but for others really distorts the result. That is why I cannot get too excited about the Chinese car market. It's as if Asian nations don't like to be reminded about the existence of imports.

Total sales were up another 17.1% in 2016, yet another year of increase. That's now nearly 24 million cars. One can only wonder if the bubble will burst soon. As a brand, VW is well ahead but overall it is a fragmented market, with too many local car makers. Many of them struggle to survive. Others spring up like mushrooms, seemingly out of nowhere.

1213141516Brand2016%+/-
11111VW3,006,21512.6%13%
65422Buick1,229,8045.1%15%
76753Honda1,196,6645.0%22%
19131064Changan1,149,8204.8%23%
22235Hyundai1,142,0164.8%11%
43346Toyota1,064,7044.5%5%
34577Nissan1,015,6054.2%14%
128688Ford951,3964.0%9%
152016109Haval938,0193.9%42%
99171410Geely778,8963.3%46%
4034281711Baojun760,2923.2%51%
4236201512BAIC711,2463.0%36%
2017151313Dongfeng680,6172.8%27%
-119914WuLing667,6292.8%-2%
1010111215Kia650,0012.7%6%
5781116Chevrolet538,6712.3%-15%
1315121617Audi536,2892.2%5%
814131918Chery505,4522.1%24%
1112141819BYD494,1162.1%9%
3637353120GAC371,0061.6%95%
2325262121JAC366,1141.5%6%
2221182022Peugeot349,3561.5%-14%
1822212423Škoda330,0881.4%18%
3133302824Zotye328,8751.4%47%
3031322525Mercedes326,6901.4%28%
2724222326BMW311,0151.3%8%
2427252627Mazda269,5461.1%19%
--392928Huansu268,5351.1%20%
2119192229Citroën248,5091.0%-17%
2929343630SAIC Roewe241,3281.0%142%

Picture source: Changan.
Data source: Carsalesbase.
Text source: RayCee.

China Car Sales - Brand / 2016

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