Autoblog

Thanks to our colleagues reporting from their home turf on Autoblog Chinese, we now have the first official shots of the Rover 75-based sedan from Roewe, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.'s (SAIC) newly minted brand. We've shown you spy shots of the large sedan, but these are the first official pics that show off the new sedan's front end. The shape of the face is a bit Rover-esque, but the new fascia incorporates a large chromed grille frame that's bisected by body work a la Audi, new headlight clusters and vertically stacked fog lamps at the corners. We are also given a few interior pics that, quite honestly, look decidely unlike what we usually think of (rightly or wrongly) as Chinese craftsmanship. The sedan's inner sanctum uses a combination of matte gray plastic, beige plastic and leather, as well as a light wood trim. A satellite navigation system is present, as well as what looks like the shifter for a 5- or 6-speed automatic transmission with no manual control. We've surmised in the past that engine offerings might include a 1.8-liter and 2.5-liter, the smaller of the two perhaps sporting a turbocharger. The pics show a tachometer with a redline of about 6,750 rpm, though that's hardly a telling clue. Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer to discover the mechanical details of Roewe's first offering that's destined for export all over the world.

More pictures can be found after the jump.

[Source: Autoblog Chinese]

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China's biggest automaker announced Monday that it's injecting another $1.25 billion into its drive to export SAIC-brand vehicles worldwide. Monday's announcement follows February's news that the company had established a $460 million unit to build SAIC cars based on the Rover 25 and 75 models.

SAIC's new investment will fund five lines to build 30 new models by 2010, more than doubling the automaker's production in the process. By 2010, SAIC plans to sell over 200,000 of its own cars, including 45,000 sold overseas.

SAIC has faithfully followed the path established by many other Chinese technology-based enterprises, partnering with leading foreign companies in its domestic market to acquire competitive technologies, and buying intellectual property to jumpstart its own brands. A key partner in this process has been the Chinese government, which has mandated a minimum 50 percent Chinese ownership of any automotive venture established in China by foreign companies. Meanwhile, carefully crafted import tariffs have helped grow China's domestic auto parts manufacturers.

Now that the industrial infrastructure is in place, SAIC and other Chinese automakers are ready to take their show on the road. Just like their Japanese and Korean predecessors, they appear destined to become a permanent feature in the global automotive marketplace.

[Source: Reuters, Boston Herald]

The latest twist in the ongoing saga of the collapse of British automaker MG Rover is the resurrection of the Rover in China - twice. In its own inscrutable fashion, the Chinese government has authorized both Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. and Nanjing Automotive Corp. to produce versions of the Rover 75 sedan (pictured at right).

This bizarre turn of events resulted when SAIC bought the intellectual property rights to the Rover 25 and 75 sedans, but lost a bidding war for the production tooling to Nanjing Auto. Both companies are state-owned, with powerful allies in Beijing, so the central government came up with the Solomon-like decision to allow both companies to produce Rover-based cars.

Neither company owns the rights to the Rover brand name, still held by BMW, but both are trying to acquire it.

Of the two, Nanjing Auto has the biggest plans, including exports to the UK and Spain and revival of MG models.

Unfortunately, both companies' political clout seems to exceed their automotive engineering and production expertise. Nonetheless, both companies are forging ahead, with an SAIC model to be launched "soon" and Nanjing's version expected in late 2007. If you want a preview of what they might look like, check out the MG Rover website here.

Shanghai Automotive and SAIC Motor have announced that the two companies are setting up a $457.6 million joint venture to produce Shanghai Auto cars based on MG Rover technology. The new cars will be the first to be developed under the Shanghai Auto brand.

Shanghai Auto, General Motors' principal Chinese partner, was beaten out by Nanjing Automobile in its bid to buy MG Rover outright, but it does own the rights to build the Rover 25 and 75 models. The joint venture aims to produce 120,000 cars annually, starting this year with cars based on the Rover 75 (shown above).

[Source: Automotive News]