Manufacturing

As one of the most important international auto shows, Beijing Auto Show has gained the respect from global auto makers. Most of global auto makers consider Beijing Auto Show as the platform to show their technology, and release their valuable information. There are at least 10 new cars will debut on Beijing Auto Show, some of them are designed for Chinese market.

New Excelle

New Excelle is the second bomb dropped by Shanghai GM which will revealed on Beijing Auto Show

Financing and technology issues could delay Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the parent of Geely Automobile, in its plan to acquire the Volvo brand from US automaker Ford Motor Co, said sources familiar with the matter on Tuesday.

According to the sources, the chances of a short-term deal now looks bleak, unless the two sides make major concessions.

"The two parties are yet to reach a definitive agreement due to unsolved obstacles and uncertainties," the sources said, without elaborating.

In December, the two companies had said a definitive agreement would be signed by the end of March and the whole deal would be completed by June 30 this year.

Geely was immediately unavailable for comment, but its President Li Shufu had last week told Reuters that the agreement with Ford would be signed as planned. The deal, when completed, would be the largest overseas purchase by a Chinese car company.

A major problem that is compounding the deal is the relatively weak position that Geely is in now compared to last year.

"Last year Ford had cash flow problems. But the situation has changed now and Ford is on a strong wicket," he said.

The US automaker had lost $30 billion in the three years starting from 2006 and put Volvo up for sale in late 2008 to help pay off its debts.

BYD Co, the Chinese carmaker backed by Warren Buffett, has given up a plan to mass produce electric cars in China by the middle of this year, the South China Morning Post said.

The company will make 100 E6 electric cars to be used as taxis in Shenzhen of Guangdong province, where BYD is based, the report said, citing BYD's Chairman Wang Chuanfu. Further development of the vehicles will depend on the success of the taxis, the newspaper said.

Paul Lin, a spokesman for the carmaker, didn't immediately answer calls to his mobile phone seeking comment. Lin on Feb 24 denied a report that the introduction of BYD's first electric car would be delayed.

BYD, 10 percent owned by Buffett's Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said March 8 it plans to market electric and hybrid cars in Europe next year including the E6. The company also planned to start selling the model in the US late this year, Henry Li, general manager of BYD's auto export division, said at the Detroit auto show in January.

James Lentz, Toyota President and COO of Motor Sales in the US, testifies before a House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on the "Response By Toyota and NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to Incidents of Sudden Unintended Acceleration" on Capitol Hill in Washington February 23, 2010.

Massive recalls of popular Toyota cars and trucks still may "not totally" solve frightening problems of sudden, unintended acceleration, the company's American sales chief conceded Tuesday, a day before the Japanese president of the world's largest automaker must confront angry US lawmakers.

House members listened in rapt silence Tuesday to the tearful testimony of a woman whose car unaccountably surged to 100 mph, then they pressed US sales chief James Lentz on the company's efforts to find and fix the acceleration problems - actions many suggested were too late and too limited.

Lentz apologized repeatedly for safety defects that led to recalls of some 8.5 million Toyota cars and trucks, and he acknowledged the changes the company is making probably aren't the end of the story.

Putting remaining doubts to rest is of vital importance to millions more Toyota owners in the United States and elsewhere, who have continued to drive but with serious concerns about their cars. Toyota sales have suffered, too, and a small army of dealers showed up on Capitol Hill Tuesday, arguing that this week's high-profile hearings are unfairly targeting their company.

"We are vigilant and we continue to look for potential causes," Lentz told the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

That search had better continue, a number of lawmakers said, openly questioning Toyota's insistence that the problems are mechanical, not linked to the vehicles' sophisticated electronics.