Archive for the ‘China’ Category

Take this for what it's worth: Autocar is reporting that GM's sale of HUMMER to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery is a no-go. The news comes by way of China National Radio, which says that the deal will be 86ed "by the ruling Communist party, as it goes against the country’s attempts to cut heavy pollution...." This wouldn't be surprising--as Marty Padgett mentioned earlier this week, the sale was on shaky ground--but given the lack of transparency in the PRC and our rusty Mandarin, we can't say for sure. We'll file it under "rumor" and "news", just to be safe.

[Autocar]

We've talked a good bit about plug-in hybrids, fully electric vehicles, and the hurdles they'll have to jump before being fully embraced by consumers. Among the biggest of those obstacles is the necessary infrastructure for quickly charging the batteries in those vehicles--no matter where drivers find themselves.

The simplest approach to that problem--relatively speaking--is the one taken by Coulomb Technologies, which we highlighted just last week. Coulomb is currently manufacturing charging points for municipalities in North America and Europe--charging points with standard 110v and 220v capacity, which many automakers (e.g. Tesla) are...

The American marketplace may be sluggish right now, but manufacturers and investors are betting big on China. Not only is there a fair amount of money floating around that country--the new home of Hummer and Volvo--but China is also set to become the world's biggest auto market in the very near future. Naturally, foreign outfits are hoping to get in on the ground floor, and some of those companies are talking about electric vehicles.

We've recently seen this transfer of EV technology at work in reverse via the Coda/Hafei partnership, which will likely bring a Chinese-built electric sedan to the U.S. late next year. And another development...