GAC and Fiat Chrysler have NOT made any agreement to transfer a majority stake of FCA to GAC.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has not made any agreement with China's Guangzhou Automobile Group to sell a stake, said FCA Chairman John Elkann.

Fiat Chrysler already has a partnership with GAC to manufacture Jeeps in China. Earlier this month, an Italian newspaper said GAC was considering a bid for a majority stake in Fiat.

GAC also wants to enter the U.S. market with Fiat Chrysler's help.

Asked whether French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen also could make a good partner, Elkann said Fiat Chrysler was looking for a transformational deal. "This [a PSA partnership] would not fall in this category," Elkann said.

According to a report in Les Echos on Tuesday, the French government is weighing a possible sale of part or all of its 14 percent stake in PSA.

Elkann made his comments Wednesday during a shareholder meeting of Exor, a holding company that owns Fiat.

Jaguar Land Rover see's locally produced product push sales higher in China.

Jaguar Land Rover's China sales increased 10 percent year on year to 9,135 vehicles last month, reflecting higher demand for vehicles produced locally.

In February, Jaguar Land Rover began reporting sales of its joint venture with Chery Automobile Co. Last month, the partnership accounted for 54 percent of Jaguar Land Rover's total China deliveries, an increase from 41 percent in February.

For the first four months, Jaguar Land Rover's China sales rose 17 percent from a year earlier to 37,099 vehicles.

Jaguar Land Rover, a unit of India's Tata Motors, did not disclose China sales for individual models.

The company currently produces the Land Rover Evoque crossover and the Land Rover Discovery Sport in China, which is the company's largest market.

Later this year, the automaker will add a third locally built model, the elongated Jaguar XFL sedan. 

Automotive News China

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LDV, the defunct British van maker, sold to SAIC, is making a comeback, with UK sales restarting.

SAIC Motor Corp. has started shipping Chinese-built LDV brand vans to the United Kingdom seven years after it acquired LDV Group, a bankrupt U.K. commercial vehicle maker.

On Dec. 29, SAIC Commercial Vehicle Co., a subsidiary of SAIC Motor Corp., initiated the shipment of 3,000 LDV V80 vans to the United Kingdom.

The vehicles will arrive in Birmingham. SAIC Commercial Vehicle says it plans to open as many as 10 dealerships in the United Kingdom to market and sell the vehicles.

The van is built on a platform that SAIC bought in 2009 from LDV Group. The vehicles are produced in Wuxi, a city 140 kilometers west of Shanghai. They are fitted with a 2.5-liter turbocharged gasoline engine and a six-speed manual transmission.

SAIC Commercial Vehicle has yet to disclose prices for the LDV V80 to be sold in the United Kingdom. In China, the van has a starting price of 124,800 yuan ($19,200).

The company also has developed a multipurpose vehicle dubbed G10 on the same platform purchased from LDV Group.

In China, the V80 van and G10 MPV are marketed under the Maxus brand. Outside China, they are distributed under the LDV brand.

In 2015, SAIC sold roughly 35,000 V80s and G10s globally. Exports of the two models were estimated at 4,900 vehicles. Australia is the largest overseas market for the two models.

SAIC also sells passenger vehicles under the Roewe and MG brands. The vehicles are developed mainly with technologies that the state-owned Chinese automaker bought in 2005 from bankrupt U.K. carmaker MG Rover.

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Honda Motor Co in China topped the One Million annual sales, with more to come with new and revised models.

Honda Motor Co. sold more than 1 million vehicles in China last year, beating its 2015 target of 950,000 cars and light trucks, the company said on Monday. Honda said it will release detailed sales figures for 2015 on Friday.

Japanese marques have trailed Western competitors such as General Motors, Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. in the world's largest auto market, in part because of anti-Japanese sentiment that periodically flares among Chinese consumers.

But Honda and Toyota Motor Corp. regained momentum last year, posting strong sales growth largely on the back of popular crossovers and helped by improving relations between the countries. Toyota is to report 2015 full-year sales results on Tuesday.

Honda and Toyota posted double-digit sales growth in the first 11 months of 2015. Their full-year growth is expected to contrast sharply with the overall market, which is predicted to grow 3 percent this year.

Aiming to maintain its momentum, Honda said it will introduce 15 new or redesigned models, including eight tweaked for China, in the next three years. One model will be a new budget crossover, a segment that is outpacing the overall market. The crossover will go on sale in 2016.

Honda's 2015 overall sales volume in China is still set to trail rivals Toyota and Nissan Motor Co., which both topped 1 million sales in the first 11 months of 2015.

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Volkswagen Group suffers it's first decline in China sales for TEN YEARS, Porsche was the only saviour.

Volkswagen Group's China sales fell nearly 17 percent year on year to 250,000 vehicles in June as the country's slowing economy continued to hamper foreign mass-market brands. It also marked the first time in 10 years that the company's China sales fell in the first half of a year.

In June, VW brand deliveries plunged nearly 22 percent, Audi volume declined 5.8 percent and Skoda sales decreased 15 percent. Porsche was a bright spot, with sales up 71 percent.

In the first six months, Volkswagen Group sold 1.74 million vehicles in China, a decline of 3.9 percent from a year earlier. First-half sales in China last fell in 2005, when deliveries slumped 14 percent.

Auto sales have slowed this year in China after economic growth moderated, more cities capped the number of new vehicles, and a volatile stock market diverted funds from auto purchases. Demand has slowed for VW and other carmakers in China despite increasing discounts and financial assistance to distributors.

The VW brand is also suffering from a lineup of mostly older SUVs and crossovers that now compete with lower-priced competitors from Chinese automakers.

While VW's decline in China reflects the weaker market, the carmaker has also been slow to adapt to changing tastes, said Robin Zhu, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

"VW has problems of its own," said Zhu, who is based in Hong Kong. "The brand in particular is a very sedan-centric fleet in an environment where there is this big switch to sport utility vehicles."

To revive sales over the long term, Volkswagen plans to launch a line of low-priced vehicles -- including a sedan, SUV and hatchback -- in China in 2018.

The vehicles, to be built in China, will be priced from 8,000 to 11,000 euros (53,800 to 74,000 yuan).

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Chinese built Volvo S60 sedans are now going to be exported to the United States of America.

Volvo Car Corp. started exporting S60 sedans built in China to the United States last week as part of its plan to expand sales and market share globally. The vehicles, which are produced at Volvo's plant in the southwest China city of Chengdu, will be transported to Shanghai for shipment to the U.S.

The S60 will arrive at dealership showrooms in the United States in about two months, Volvo said. The company did not indicate how many vehicles it intends to export.

Volvo says the exports will help boost annual worldwide sales to 800,000 vehicles. The company hopes to boost deliveries in China to 200,000 units "in the medium term."

Volvo has two plants in China. Aside from the S60, the Chengdu plant also builds the XC60 crossover. Its plant in the northeast China city of Daqing assembles the XC Classic, the previous generation of Volvo's XC90 SUV.

Volvo, which is owned by private Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., delivered 24,043 vehicles in China in the first four months. That is virtually unchanged from the same period last year.

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CHINA - Foreign brands are cutting prices across the ranges and models in an effort to boost sales.

In this market, price wars are normally started by Chinese automakers trying to compensate for a weak brand image and obsolete technology. But nothing is normal in China anymore. This time it's global brands -- not the domestics -- that are launching a price war.

General Motors and Volkswagen AG -- the two biggest foreign automakers in China -- have cut prices to ease dealer inventories and reinvigorate flagging sales. Those two companies alone control 30 percent of the country's passenger vehicle market.

On April 12, Volkswagen's two joint ventures -- Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW Volkswagen -- cut prices on their entire VW brand lineup by 5,000 to 10,000 yuan ($800 to $1,600).

General Motors went even further. This week, Shanghai General Motors Co. reduced prices of 40 Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac models by 10,000 to 53,900 yuan.

Flagging sales

The price cuts come at a time when the entire market appears to be losing steam. In April, light vehicle sales in China rose just 3.7 percent, significantly weaker than the industry's 9 percent increase in the first three months.

In response, other global brands are starting to allow dealers to offer steep discounts. For example, Ford dealerships now offer a 12 percent discount on the EcoSport subcompact SUV. 

Until now, sweeping price cuts by global automakers was unheard of. In truth, they had little choice. Last month, Shanghai GM's sales dropped 7 percent year on year and VW brand deliveries dropped 7.5 percent.

Toyota and Honda bucked the trend: Toyota's sales rose 8 percent and Honda's 12 percent. But Nissan sales in April fell 19 percent.

Even the luxury market, which once seemed immune to the slowdown, is showing signs of weakness. Last month, Audi sales edged up 0.2 percent, while BMW deliveries rose only 0.6 percent. Only Mercedes showed strength, with sales up 21 percent.

Angry dealers

Why have the global brands run out of steam? Two factors -- angry dealers and newly competitive Chinese automakers -- played a big role, according to Zhu Bin, LMC Automotive's forecasting manager for China.

First, global automakers have reduced inventories and lowered sales targets to appease angry dealers. In the past, foreign brands often propped up sales by dumping abnormally high inventories on their dealers. Burdened with growing losses, many dealers threatened to stop ordering new cars.

With the backing of the China Automobile Dealers Association, dealers demanded lower sales targets and compensation for their losses.

It appears that global automakers kept their promises. According to the dealers association, inventories of foreign vehicles built in China dropped to 45 days in March, from 50 days in February. 

Even as foreign automakers adopted more conservative market strategies, Chinese automakers began to gain market share with a new generation of inexpensive compact SUVs.

Domestic Chinese brands sold roughly 238,000 SUVs in April, a jump of 91 percent from a year earlier. Those robust sales helped Chinese automakers to grab 41 percent of the market, up nearly 4 percentage points from a year earlier.

Most of those SUVs were priced from 70,000 to 110,000 yuan. That's about the same price range as compact foreign sedans, but car buyers were lured by the SUVs' dynamic styling and high seating positions, Zhu said.

"Say a customer wants to buy a car with 80,000 yuan. In the past, he would choose a VW Santana, but these days he may well buy a compact SUV developed by a domestic brand," Zhu noted.

Slowing economy

Now a third factor has come into play -- China's economy is losing momentum. According to government data, the economy grew 7 percent in the first three months, down from 7.4 percent in 2014.

But the government's growth estimate may be too rosy, says Jochen Siebert, head of JSC Automotive, a market consultancy with offices in Shanghai and Stuttgart.

Citing steep drops in railway freight transportation and electric power consumption, Siebert argues that the Chinese economy may be significantly weaker.

If so, consumer demand for passenger vehicles -- especially luxury cars -- inevitably will decline. "Statistics indicate economic growth and premium brand vehicle sales are highly correlated," Siebert said.

Siebert expects more foreign automakers will join the price war that GM and VW have started. Further, that price war may spread into China's luxury market.

There are only two ways that automakers can respond: by cutting prices or slashing production. Siebert's conclusion: "Cutting vehicle prices is normally the first step."