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Audi and BMW lead the way in Chinese market

The first six months witnessed German luxury brands Audi and BMW leap forward in China, fueled by steady market expansion.

Demand in China for Audi expanded by 5.9 percent year-on-year to 290,126 units in the first half of the year, and the monthly volume grew by 6.6 percent in June to 51,008 units. The automaker made gains primarily with its compact models: more than 81,083 units of the Audi A3 and Q3 were delivered to Chinese customers from January to June, a jump of 21.7 percent.

Accumulated sales of BMW branded cars increased by 5.8 percent to 986,557 units from January to June in the Chinese mainland market. The monthly sales in June jumped 9.7 percent to 189,097 units. SUVs powered the solid growth, as the new X1 registered worldwide sales of 17,031 units last month, a surge of 79.3 percent.

FAW reports loss in first half of the year

FAW Car Co, a publicly traded unit of State-owned China FAW Group, is performing poorly.

The Changchun-based company will register a loss of 850 million yuan ($127 million) for the first six months after making a profit of 168.8 million yuan in the year-earlier period. This is because of Chinese consumers favoring sport utility vehicles, according to the company.

"The company's products are concentrated on sedans, and this segment has slowed even though overall passenger-vehicle sales maintained steady growth in the first half of the year," the Changchun-based company said in a statement to the Shenzhen stock exchange.

"Sales have also declined in line with the competitiveness of aging models. In the second half, the company will strive to accelerate the introduction of new models and try its best to increase sales," the statement said.

SUVs accounted for 35 percent of total passenger-vehicle sales in China in the first six months, compared with 27 percent in the same period a year earlier, according to the China Passenger Car Association.

Porsche dealers to recall 1,479 cars

Dealers will recall 1,479 imported modified Porsche vehicles in the Chinese mainland, the country's quality watchdog said.

The cars are being recalled because a circlip on the brake pedal hinge might become loose, causing dislodgement of the brake pedal, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

The recall affects modified vehicles, all imported, manufactured between March 2010 and January 2016.

Dealers will fix the circlip or install a new one if necessary free of charge.

California rejects VW plan to fix 3-L diesels

On Wednesday, regulators in California, the United States, rejected a plan by Volkswagen AG to fix some 16,000 3-liter diesel vehicles involved in the automaker's costly emissions cheating.

The measures proposed by the German automaker were "incomplete, substantially deficient and fall far short of meeting the legal requirements," said the California Air Resources Board. Authorities would "continue the on-going technical discussions" with Volkswagen to "ensure a legally and technically acceptable resolution is reached which fully mitigates the excess emissions," the board said in a statement.

Volkswagen called the rejection by regulators a "procedural step".

Motoring - Agencies

(China Daily 07/18/2016 page18)