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GAC-Honda's pop-up shops to sell City model
Chinese singer Joker Xue helped design a special edition of the joint venture GAC-Honda's City model. He received his "shop manager appointment letter" on Thursday in Beijing. The Sino-Japanese carmaker unveiled the all-new sedan design, with low gloss black, white sports stripes, scarlet brake caliper, and announced the singer-themed Mode Choice pop-up shops will hit more cities. Providing KTV cabins and virtual reality test drives for the visitors, the pop-up shops will open in Guangzhou and Foshan in Guangdong province, Wuhan in Hubei province and other key cities. The customer experience will feature interactive Xue content, the brand ambassador for the compact model.
BMW sees profit rise 7 percent on new 5-Series
German luxury automaker BMW said its net profit rose 14 percent in the second quarter as earnings were boosted by the new version of the 5-Series sedan. Profit rose to 2.21 billion euros ($2.60 billion) in the April-June period from 1.95 billion euros a year earlier. The profit figure beat analyst expectations for 2.01 billion euros as compiled by financial information provider FactSet. Revenues rose 7.4 percent to 49.2 billion euros.
Tesla fending off worker complaints on pay, safety
Tesla said on Wednesday that demand for its electric cars was speeding along and revenue was rising, as the upstart automaker strived to rev production while keeping workers happy. Money taken in by Tesla's automotive unit leapt to $2.3 billion in the quarter that ended on June 30, more than 90 percent greater than the amount taken in during the same period last year, the California-based company said in an earnings release. Tesla, which has yet to report a profit, logged a loss of $336 million attributable to shareholders, which was in line with expectations.
Motoring - Agencies
(China Daily 08/07/2017 page19)