Car market growth

    GERMAN automotive association VDA expects Chinese passenger car market growth to drop to as low as 6 percent this year from 12.7 percent in 2014, it said yesterday.

    The biggest economic slowdown in a quarter of a century is crimping sales growth in China, but foreign automakers led by Volkswagen and General Motors are still investing in new plants. German carmakers increased their share of the Chinese market to 23 percent in the first two months of the year from 21.2 percent in 2014, VDA President Matthias Wissmann said in the text of a speech to the Shanghai auto show.

    Shanghai GM

    SHANGHAI GM, a joint venture between General Motors and China’s SAIC Motor Corp., plans to spend 100 billion yuan (US$16 billion) over the next five years developing new vehicles, Shanghai GM president Wang Yongqing said Sunday.

    The automaker will use that money for 10 new or upgraded models a year until it has roughly 40 product lines as it tries to corner at least 10 percent of the Chinese market, Wang told reporters before the Shanghai autoshow, which starts today.

    Toyota hybrid cars

    TOYOTA Motor Corp., the world’s largest automaker by sales volume, plans to launch two hybrid cars in China this year as part of efforts to launch vehicles that will help to reduce pollution in the country.

    The gasoline-electric hybrid cars, called Levin Hev and Corolla, will be launched in China in the second half of the year, the Japanese company said Sunday.

    Toyota’s joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group will make the Levin Hev, while its joint venture with FAW Group will manufacture the Corolla. China has been the world’s largest car market since 2009, with sales rising 6.9 percent to 23.5 million vehicles in 2014, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in January.

    Solar capacity

    CHINA increased its total grid-connected solar power capacity by 5.04 gigawatts (GW) in the first quarter of 2015, an increase of 17.9 percent compared to the end of last year, the top energy regulator said yesterday.

    The National Energy Administration said that total solar power capacity now amounted to 33.12 GW. Of the total, 27.79 GW was in the form of solar power stations, with the remainder consisting of distributed power sources.