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Tmall sponsors Renault F1 team for Shanghai GP

The Renault Formula One team unveiled Tmall as its latest car sponsor in Shanghai on Thursday. It is the first major brand campaign since French car manufacturing group, Dongfeng Renault Autmobile, and Alibaba Inc entered into a partnership on March 7. The two parties have joined hands to offer the Koleos 120 anniversary limited edition model through the Renault Tmall store at a price of 208,800 yuan ($32,975.81) for the 2-liter version and 222,800 for the 2.5-liter version. Tmall is expecting to fuel Renault's car business with the big data from its customers.

Porsche's first quarter sales up 3% in China

Porsche AG delivered around 63,500 vehicles worldwide in the first quarter of 2018, with an increase of 6 percent compared with the previous year. This represents the most successful first quarter in the sports car manufacturer's history. China was again the largest individual market for Porsche. With more than 18,600 vehicles sold, the Chinese market exceeded last year's result by 3 percent from 18,126 units from the same period in 2017. Once again, the most successful model was the Macan. More than 23,000 of the sporty SUVs have been sold worldwide.

Lamborghini Urus SUV to debut at Beijing Auto show

Automobili Lamborghini will bring an unprecedented lineup to the 2018 Beijing Auto Show, presenting the Lamborghini Hurac��n Performante Spyder in its Asian debut, the world's first Super SUV Urus in its public debut in Asia, and the roadster version of the V12 flagship model Aventador S. Representing the three model lines of Lamborghini, the lineup is set to demonstrate the brand's passion on stage from April 25.

General Motors orders increase domestically

General Motors said that sales in the first three months of this year totaled 986,052 units, up 8 percent from the same period last year. GM and its Chinese ventures delivered 352,346 vehicles in March, up 2 percent year-on-year, according to a statement published by GM on its website on April 8. Its brands Cadillac and Chevrolet performed well in March. Sales of Cadillac rose 46 percent to 18,007 units last month. Chevrolet grew 35 percent from a year earlier to 47,017 units, and Buick deliveries rose 4 percent to 92,007 units. Sales of Wuling and Baojun vehicles fell 7.9 percent and 5.4 percent in March when compared to a year earlier.

Alibaba-backed carmaker aims to raise over $1.6b

Xiaopeng Motors, the Chinese car startup that is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Foxconn Technology Group, plans to raise more than 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) this year in a bid to take on rivals in the world's biggest market for electric vehicles. The company plans to start pre-sales of its first model, the G3 Crossover, by the end of this month, founder He Xiaopeng said. Xiaopeng is among many startups striving to become China's Tesla Inc, and reshape the auto industry as the country promotes new-energy vehicles.

Mercedes plans electric S-Class to challenge Tesla

Mercedes-Benz is developing a battery-powered sedan about the size of its $90,000 flagship S-Class, to challenge the Tesla Model S for high-end electric-car buyers. The new full-size sedan, dubbed the EQ S, will be part of Daimler AG unit's push to introduce 10 all-electric vehicles by 2022, Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche said Wednesday. The EQ line will be flanked by plug-in hybrid models offering a "totally different" battery range than today, while conventional vehicles will feature so-called mild hybrids with 48-volt technology in a shift away from pure combustion power.

Motoring - Agencies

(China Daily 04/16/2018 page19)