Short Torque

AAM car parts joint venture announced

Leading auto parts manufacturer American Axle & Manufacturing has announced it will launch a joint venture with China's Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Industry Co to make components despite protectionist rhetoric coming out of Washington. The joint venture will start production later this year and is expected to achieve yearly revenue of 300 million yuan ($47.6 million) by 2020. The rear axles and other components the joint venture will manufacture are to meet the needs of the fast-growing segments of multipurpose vehicles and crossovers, including vans, mini vans and SUVs in the Chinese automotive market.

Regulator greenlights CATL's IPO plans

China's securities regulator has approved an initial public offering application submitted by lithium battery producer CATL, which supplies batteries for new energy vehicles. The China Securities Regulatory Commission gave the application the green light at a meeting held on Wednesday, according to the CSRC website. The approval came less than a month after CATL updated its prospectus, as the CSRC is encouraging new listings by unicorn companies - startups valued at more than $1 billion.

Toyota and Suzuki to share models in India expansion

Toyota and Suzuki have confirmed an agreement to cooperate in providing hybrid and other vehicles for the Indian market. Specifically, Suzuki will supply its Baleno and Vitara Brezza models to Toyota, while Toyota will supply the Corolla model to Suzuki, the companies said. The vehicles will be sold by the respective subsidiaries of Toyota and Suzuki based in India through their sales networks. The companies said the move is aimed at invigorating the Indian automotive market to further enhance their respective products and services.

Tesla Model 3 production rises, but misses targets

Electric car maker Tesla Inc said it produced just under 9,800 Model 3s from January through March, four times the figure achieved in the fourth quarter of last year, but it's still only a fraction of the 20,000 per month that CEO Elon Musk promised when Tesla first started making the car. Tesla says it made just under 35,000 vehicles in the quarter, including the Models S and X, a 40 percent increase from last year's fourth quarter. But the Model 3, with a starting price of around $35,000, is the car that's most important to Tesla's future.

Mercedes-Benz reports record global sales

Mercedes-Benz reported the past three months marked its best quarter yet, with its global sales growing 6 percent to 594,304 vehicles. The carmaker said the biggest sales driver worldwide was China, with a new record of 169,932 deliveries from January to March, up 17.2 percent year-on-year. More than two thirds of all the cars sold in China were also produced locally. The company said SUVs constituted the most popular segment in the first quarter. In March, more than 80,000 SUVs were sold in one single month for the first time, up nearly 14 percent.

Chery launches 1st fully electric SUV, Tiggo 3xe

The Chinese automaker began offering a battery electric Tiggo 3xe 400 at a price tag starting from 89,800 to 102,800 yuan ($14,250-$16,320) from the end of March. As the pure electric version of the Tiggo 3x, the new model is driven by a 90 kilowatt electric motor outputting 276 Newton meters of peak torque. The 4.2-meter-long subcompact SUV has a wheelbase of 2,555 millimeters, with a ground clearance of 150 mm. The 49-kilowatt-hour lithium battery enables the vehicle to run 351 kilometers on one charge in comprehensive driving conditions, and 445 km at a constant speed of 60 kilometers an hour.

Motoring - Agencies

(China Daily 04/09/2018 page19)