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Honda new Vezel launches in Suzhou

GAC Honda launched the new Vezel last Tuesday in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, at suggested prices ranging from 127,800 to 176,800 yuan ($18,623-$25,763). The small-size SUV has two powertrain variants. The 1.5-liter turbocharged engine has a maximum output of 130 kW and a top torque of 220 Newton meters. The car body is as long as 4,340 millimeters, with the wheelbase stretched to 2,610 mm with six colors. The SUV is equipped with intelligent driving assistant system Honda Sensing and intelligent connectivity system Honda Connect that provides a number of intelligent features. The last version of Vezel hit the market in China in 2014 and has sold more than 600,000 units to date.

PSA debuts factory in Kenitra, Morocco

French automotive giant PSA on Thursday opened a factory in Morocco to assemble 100,000 cars per year as it seeks to double its sales in the Middle East and Africa. The factory, launched at an official ceremony attended by King Mohamed VI near the city of Kenitra in northern Morocco, aims to increase its annual capacity to 200,000 units. It was built over four years in a "free zone" area south of the Mediterranean port of Tangiers, and will create 2,500 full-time jobs. The French multinational manufactures cars and motorcycles sold under the Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands. PSA's French rival Renault moved into Morocco in 2012, opening its largest car assembly plant in Africa and creating 7,000 jobs.

SAIC Motor, Mansour sign deal in Cairo

China's auto industry SAIC Motor and Egypt's largest car sales company Mansour Automotive Group signed on Monday in Cairo a joint venture agreement to manufacture MG brand cars in Egypt. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Chairman of SAIC Motor Chen Hong said his company has initially built an automotive industry chain that integrates research and development, manufacturing, marketing, logistics and finance into a global market. "This time, the Mansour Group has joined forces. SAIC's new products, technologies and models will be actively introduced into the Egyptian market to provide local people with more high-quality localized products and services," he said.

Renault, Nissan team up with Google's Waymo

Renault and Nissan said Thursday they had teamed up with Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit of Google-parent company Alphabet, to explore the development of driverless mobility services in their home markets. With the high cost of manufacturing driverless vehicles, auto firms are looking primarily at using them for use as transportation as a service, comparable to what's currently provided by taxi and ride-sharing firms. "The agreement is designed to bring together the strengths of each party and expand expertise by assessing market opportunities," the companies said in a joint statement. Under the exclusive agreement, the three will work together to research commercial, legal and regulatory issues related to providing driverless transportation-as-a-service offerings in France and Japan.

Electricity pricing unclear in Germany

Pricing structure of electricity for electric cars is still chaotic and lacks transparency, according to a research by the German product tester Stiftung Warentest published on Tuesday. In many cases, customers in Germany do not know in advance the costs of kilowatt-hours, according to Stiftung Warentest. Many charging stations in Germany do not have a display showing the total amount. Instead of billing by price per kWh, some operators levy a fixed monthly fee, while others bill per minute when the car is being recharged. As an empty battery draws power faster than an almost-full one, and because of the cars' different capacities, there are significant differences in how much electricity vehicles use each minute to charge.

Motoring - Agencies

(China Daily 06/24/2019 page19)