Short torque

Qoros slashes prices of vehicles

Young Chinese automaker Qoros announced a price-cutting plan on Feb 22, with some models seeing a 17-percent slash in sticker prices, in the company's latest move to meet its goal of selling at least 30,000 units this year. Industry insiders said the move might help boost sales after the brand was criticized as too expensive. They said its sales would grow further when the brand's Qoros 5 SUV hits the market later this year. The joint venture between Chery and Israel Corp saw its sales reach around 14,000 units in 2015, a year in which more than 21 million passenger cars were sold in China.

Chery starts e-car plant construction

Chinese automaker Chery began work on a new plant capable of manufacturing 60,000 pure electric vehicles a year on Feb 23 in East China's Anhui province, Xinhua News Agency reported. The 1.56-billion-yuan (around $240 million) factory in Wuhu will produce pure electric vehicles with aluminum alloy frames. The first phase of construction is set to be completed in September and will produce 10,000 pure electric cars each year. The first model of this production line will be a small SUV. The second phase of construction will be finished by the end of 2017. Chery aims to boost its annual sales of new-energy vehicles to 200,000 units by 2020. It sold 14,000 NEV units in 2015, a 66-percent rise year-on-year.

VW Import appoints new MD

Axel Schroeder will succeed Till Scheer as managing director of Volkswagen Import, a unit under Volkswagen Group Import China. Scheer was appointed head of Volkswagen Japan effective Mar 1. Schroeder joined Volkswagen in 1994 and worked at SAIC Volkswagen's Skoda division from 2005 to 2009 in Shanghai. He then moved to the Czech Republic to serve as Skoda's chief marketing officer for three years before he took up the post of Volkswagen Brazil's marketing director from 2012.

Four carmakers announce recalls

Four carmakers are recalling vehicles in China, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said last week. Toyota China and its joint venture Tianjin FAW Toyota are recalling 433,338 RAV4 SUVs from Mar 31, because collisions could cause the metal framework in the rear seats to damage seatbelts. Honda's joint venture Dongfeng Honda plans to recall 533,350 CR-V SUVs, made between Apr 12, 2006 and Jan 12, 2012, from July 31 due to the possibility of flying shrapnel when the front airbags deploy.

Guangqi Honda is recalling 382,090 cars from July 31 for the same airbag problem. Vehicles to be recalled include the Fit cars made from 2012 to 2014, City cars made from 2012 to 2014, and Everus S1 cars made from 2011 to 2013. Possible shrapnel as a result of faulty airbags has also prompted Mitsubishi to recall 23,195 imported Pajero SUVs from Sept 20, 2016. The models were made from Dec 6, 2007 to July 21, 2014.

Chang'an Ford Automobile Co is recalling 191,368 cars from Feb 26, due to a brake booster fault, which may cause the driver to brake car harder than expected. The affected models are the Focus manufactured between July 15, 2013 and Feb 18, 2014, and the Kuga made between July 14, 2013 and Mar 1, 2014.

Motoring

(China Daily 02/29/2016 page19)