Jinshan-Based Shanghai Maple Automobile Achieves Breakthroughs in Both Production and Sales in 2005

SHANGHAI, China, Feb. 13 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai Jinshan District Government announces that Shanghai Maple Automobile, a company that has successfully based itself in Shanghai Jinshan District, recently reported news that it produced and sold 24,518 economical and home use cars in 2005, a rise of 143% year on year. The company also generated total tax revenue of RMB120 million, a rise of 155% year on year.


As a local automobile manufacturer with independent proprietary, Shanghai Maple strives to create national auto brands relying on its own R&D and on its own innovation efforts. Its products are mainly small and medium sized home cars characterized by a high performance-price ratio that have won favor from consumers. Moreover, its products have been sold to 17 countries and regions around the world and were shown at the 7th Shanghai International Industry Fair for the first time in 2005. Thus far, Shanghai Maple has set its goals for 2006, which includes the production and sale of 38,000 cars.

About Jinshan District

Jinshan, one of the 19 districts (counties) of Shanghai, is located in the southwest of the city, north of the Hangzhou Bay and west of Zhejiang Province. It is situated at the hub of the economic region linking Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo, and is inside the geographic ring of the Yangtze River Delta that is only a two hours drive away.

Jinshan District has a total land area of 586 square kilometers (about 226 square miles), equivalent to that of Singapore, and a population of 550,000. It has rich natural and cultural heritages, including beautiful beach lines, famous traditional peasant paintings, black ceramic arts and crafts, and a world-renowned petrochemical base.

China's Geely developing hybrid autos for 2007 launch - report

SHANGHAI (AFX) - Geely Automobile Holding Corp, which makes small cars with internally-developed technology, said it plans to develop more energy-saving cars, including hybrid models, the Shanghai Daily reported citing the company's top executive.

The Hangzhou-based private automaker said it has already conducted research and development into hybrid cars using its own technology, the paper said citing Li Shufu, chairman of Geely.

The first hybrid model is expected to roll off the assembly line early next year and this will kick off mass production at its plant in Xiangtan, Hunan Province in central China, the paper said.

Construction of the Xiangtan plant started at the end of last month and the facility will be able to produce 50,000 units annually initially before expanding to 100,000 units by the end of 2010, the paper said.

It said hybrid cars, which switch between an electric motor and a gas or diesel engine, can save up to 30 pct in fuel compared to standard cars.

Other domestic automakers such as Chery Automobile Corp, Shanghai Maple Automobile Corp and Chang'an Automobile Group have started to make hybrid cars while joint ventures like Shanghai Volkswagen and Shanghai General Motors are also competing to roll out such models, the paper said.

Jinhua Young Man Automobile Wet Foot in Sedan Segment

SinoCast Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)ZHEJIANG, Feb 13, 2006 (SinoCast via COMTEX) --Jinhua Young Man Automobile Group Co., Ltd., a Zhejiang-based automaker coveting the sedan segment for long, is expected to serve up its first model of sedan around June.

The Chinese automaker is set to make the new model in its passenger vehicle production base in Shandong, and it has begun recruiting distributors for the model.

Cui Wei, a senior executive of Shanghai Maple Automobile responsible for sales in the northern region, will take the helm of the passenger vehicle segment of Jinhua Young Man Automobile and will also take charge of sales of the to-be-debuted model.

Proton, a giant Malaysian automaker, has bee widely rumored to be one of the partners of the Zhejiang-based carmaker on the passenger vehicle project.

A source familiar with negotiations argued that the recent partnership is between the Chinese carmaker and Lotus Engineering, an affiliate of Proton.

Nonetheless, Lotus Engineering, famous for manufacture of roadsters, has no sedan models suitable for production in China.

The Zhejiang company will bring in existing models from Proton, a Proton employee disclosed.

The hookup has been more regarded as Proton's most recent move to attack the Chinese market, after it failed to win regulatory go-aheads for its proposal to create a production base in Humen of Guangdong in partnership another Chinese automotive company four years ago.