China

China's car brands are often looked upon with disdain by those in the west, based on reputations for flimsy build, poor styling and worrying crash test results. New brand Qoros hopes to change that when it launches at this year's Geneva Motor Show in March, with the debut of the GQ3 compact sedan...

Despite lower-than-predicted sales of its Leaf battery electric hatchback, Nissan is pushing ahead with its aggressive electric-car program. At the Guangzhou Auto Show yesterday, its Chinese partner unveiled its own plug-in electric car, the Venucia E30. And, surprise, surprise, it looks just like...

No, Springo isn't a new scratch-off game. It's apparently the name of a new Chevrolet battery electric vehicle, though we'll never see it in North America. The Chevy Springo electric car will go on sale in China (and possibly other countries) at roughly the same time that the U.S. gets limited...

As more and more people enter China's middle classes, demand for automobiles is increasing all the time. So is the quality of China's cars. As the kudos of imported brands becomes more attractive, Chinese companies are working hard to compete. Some are even breaking out of China and into the...

Swedish carmaker Saab endeared itself to many throughout its history, with a reputation for unique design and technological innovation across several decades. That made watching its slow death last year excruciating for fans of the marque, and as the company closed its doors, the future for Saab...

It's been a very, very tough 18 months for lithium-ion cell maker A123 Systems. In late May, the company said there was "substantial doubt" about its ability to remain in business. Now, A123 has announced a tentative deal to recapitalize the company that would--if approved--give an 80-percent...

Five to eight years ago, Chinese carmakers were going to blast into the U.S. car market and sell huge volumes of inexpensive small cars--just like the Germans, Japanese, and Koreans before them. Then, two or three years ago, Chinese auto companies were going to leapfrog directly into electric cars...

Last week, something miraculous happened: after more than a year of being prepped for burial, Saab rose from the dead. Of course, there had been previous attempts to revive the quirky car company -- notably, one led by Chinese investors Pang Da and Youngman (subsequently, a Chinese bank and...

Chinese carmaker BYD is facing tough times ahead, following reports that its stock has fallen 43 percent since its February high. As China's figurehead for electric vehicles, BYD is best-known in the U.S. for its e6 electric crossover, and being part-owned by billionaire entrepreneur Warren...

Most Chinese carmakers have backed away from plans to attack the U.S. market, and their hopes of dominating electric cars have slowed. But Chinese maker BYD continues to develop and test the e6 all-electric crossover utility it hopes to sell in the U.S. within a couple of years. Now, we've had the...

When Coda Automotive started production and sales of its 2012 Sedan earlier this year, it ended years of doubt and confusion about the firm’s abilities to bring a highway-capable electric car to market. Yesterday, Coda CEO Phil Murtaugh confirmed Coda’s intent to manufacture a second...

You don't hear as much worrying these days about the threat of Chinese automakers entering the U.S. market with inexpensive cars. Nor do you hear concerns over Chinese electric-car makers swamping sales of the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt, which have racked up more than 23,300 sales between them...

Well, the numbers are in. Despite the lingering effects of economic recession, the world's auto industry built more vehicles in 2011 than ever in history: 80 million, in fact. That's a new record, and the number is 3 percent higher than the 2010 total. The data comes from the International...

You'll already be familiar with ethanol-powered cars, but what about methanol? Both are alcohols, but methanol is even simpler than ethanol, containing only one carbon atom. It has less energy content than ethanol, and only half that of gasoline, but it's easier to produce. The fuel is now...

Several years ago, the U.S. auto industry worried that Chinese carmakers would use inexpensive cars to gain a foothold here, just as Japanese and Korean makers had done. That hasn't happened, for many reasons--one being that making cars good enough to sell here is remarkably hard. More recently...

General Motors has revealed the eight Chinese cities in which the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car will be sold. The Volt will go on sale in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Foshan towards the end of this year. However, with GM not keen to hand over some...

If you thought the Nissan Leaf was a hard sell in the expanses of North America, then you may be surprised to learn it's doing far less well in one of its natural habitats. Cities are where electric cars often make the most sense, but the fashion and luxury-conscious buyers in smog-ridden Hong Kong...

Since July, the Internet has been home to serval renderings claiming to be of the new electric car being developed by German automaker Daimler and its Chinese auto partner BYD. So far, no-one within BYD or Daimler has confirmed the authenticity of the pictures, but according to The Wall Street...

The electric car being jointly developed by Daimler and BYD for the Chinese market is expected to debut in prototype form next April.

Lately it’s become obvious that China -- not the U.S. -- is the place to be if you’re an automaker wanting to develop electric cars. Daimler already has an electric vehicle partnership with chinese company BYD, and more recently General Motors announced it would start developing...