Fisker Looks for Strategic Partners in China, Hasn’t Built a Car in Six Months

The Karma might look gorgeous but things aren’t looking very good for its maker, Fisker, right now. In 2012, despite having delivered some 2,000 Karmas, it’s had its federal loan frozen, issued a number of recalls on the Karma, saw its battery supplier, A123 Systems, go bankrupt and 16 of its cars being destroyed by hurricane Sandy and, to top it all, it hasn’t built a single car in the past six months.

So the company is looking for partners and investors. And what better place to turn to than a country that wants to acquire high-end EV technology? That would be China; according to a report from Reuters, Fisker’s top executives are trying to find a strategic partner that would help them get things started again.

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Chinese-Israeli Qoros Brand to Debut GQ3 Cross Hybrid and Estate Concepts in Geneva

Newly formed automobile brand Qoros has shared fresh information about its presence at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show in the beginning of March.

Besides the world premiere of its first production model, the GQ3 compact saloon, Qoros will also display two new concept models named the Cross Hybrid Concept and Estate Concept, both of which are based on the sedan.

"Intelligent modular vehicle platform technology allows us to create new vehicle concepts quickly and efficiently," commented Vice Chairman of Qoros Auto, Volker Steinwascher. "The Qoros GQ3 is the first of many models that will be based on this platform, and the technology will allow us to develop a complete model family in a very efficient manner."

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China's GAC Group Shows Off its Goods, Announces Chrysler Tie-Up at 2013 NAIAS

Towards the end of the previous decade, we remember several Chinese automakers making their way to the Detroit Auto Shows vowing to begin selling cars in the United States. Unless we missed something, that never happened.

At this year's event, the only carmaker from China is the GAC Group (Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Ltd), which brought along three vehicles, including the Trumpchi sedan that's loosely based on the Alfa Romeo 166, the Trumpchi GS5 SUV and the electric-powered E-jet concept saloon you see in the live shots from Detroit.

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Chevy to Display 5 Global Offerings in Detroit, Would You Like to See Any Coming to the US?

Undeniably, the big stars at Chevrolet's North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) booth will be the seventh generation of the Corvette and the all-new Silverado pickup truck.

However, GM's best-selling brand will also showcase some of its global offerings sold in other markets outside the United States.

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VW’s Budget Brand Ready to Launch with 3 Family Cars, Supermini and Possibly an SUV

One would think that 12 brands, which are currently owned by Europe’s number one and the world’s number three automotive group, would be enough. Apparently, they are not: VW Group executives must have had their fingers crossed behind their backs when they recently vowed to put an end to their brand shopping spree.

While VW is not going to buy another carmaker yet (as far as we know, at least) it is getting ready to launch a new global budget car brand that will compete with the likes of Dacia, Lada and Chinese companies like Geely.

It’s a shrewd move by the Germans as, by the end of 2012, entry-level cars costing up to €10,000 (US$13,000) will account for a global sales volume of 13 percent, or 8 million units.

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Saab’s New Owner NEVS Announces US$300 Million Chinese Investment Deal

Things have been conspicuously quiet for some time now as far as Saab is concerned; especially considering the shenanigans that the Swedish carmaker has been involved in the past two years.

Now, Saab is making headlines again as its new owner, National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS) that acquired many of its assets when it went bankrupt last year, announced that it has signed a deal with the Chinese city of Qingdao.

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China Investment Fund Reportedly Interested in Acquiring a 4-10 Percent Stake in Daimler

The China Investment Corp. fund may acquire a stake at Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, according to a report posted on China's state-run People’s Daily website.

The report, which was absent from the print edition of the Chinese news agency, cited an unidentified Internet posting claiming that the fund was interested in acquiring a holding between 4 and 10 percent in Daimler.

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Audi Sells More Than 400,000 Cars in China for the First Time in 2012

The brand with the four rings set a new sales record in the Chinese market last year delivering 405,838 vehicles in China and Hong Kong, representing a 29.6 percent increase over the previous year.

Of the 400,000 vehicles sold, 322,700 were built locally, including 89,488 examples of the Q5 SUVs (+64.9 percent), 132,872 A6L sedans (+17.3 percent) and 100,340 units of the long wheelbase version of the A4 (+18.7 percent), with the rest being imported from Europe.

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China Poised to Overtake Europe as the World's Biggest Car Producer in 2013

Even if Europe wasn't experiencing economic and structural problems that have deeply affected the domestic car industry, it would only be a matter of time before China with its growing economy and massive population overtook the Old Continent as the world's biggest automotive producer.

However, with Europe in a deep recession, it's just going to happen faster than we thought.

In fact, according to projections made for the Financial Times by five forecasting groups, including IHS, LMC Auto and PwC consultancies along with investment banks UBS and Credit Suisse, China will produce more vehicles than Europe this year for the first time ever.

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China's BYD Wants to Build All-Electric Busses in the U.S.

The Chinese maker of all-electric vehicles that gained a lot of attention in 2008 when investor Warren Buffett bought a 10 percent stake in BYD for$230 million, is now actively looking to build an electric-bus assembly plant in the States.

Micheal Austin, vice president of BYD America, broke the news to WardsAuto, adding that the company has not yet decided on the location for the plant. "Clearly, there are a lot sensitive negotiations that must go on before any of that happens," said Austin.

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Spy Shots: This is the Revamped 2014 Buick LaCrosse Sedan

Back in September, just before the Paris Motor Show kicked off, General Motors came out with an announcement saying that over the next 12 months, its Buick brand is set to receive five new or refreshed models.

Among the cars including in the list were the Enclave and Encore crossovers, and the 250hp Verano Turbo that we've already seen, and the Regal and LaCrosse sedans.

We still have to wait and see what Buick has in store for the Regal, but as far as the LaCrosse is concerned, these spy shots of a camouflage-free prototype found in China, pretty much tell us the cosmetic story.

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Lucky Scooter Rider Survives Highway Bump Unscathed

Here's another tale from Asian roads - one that has a happy ending, though, as you will soon see for yourself, it could have easily gone the other way with painfully disastrous results…

The driver of the car, the sounds of which reminds us of a Subaru model, was going faster than what the road traffic permitted, and at the same time, a scooter rider in the middle lane failed to look over his shoulder while changing lanes.

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Investors Value Mercedes-Benz Cars at Less than Half Compared to Arch-Rival BMW

It’s been more than a year since Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche vowed that Mercedes-Benz would reclaim the number one place in the premium segment from BMW by the end of the decade. He even sent a letter to his employees, saying that the company “should be far ahead of the pack”.

For the time being, though, the gap is widening, instead of closing and the three-pointed star is still trailing both BMW and Audi in the race for the number one spot.

The latest report by Bloomberg says that market capitalization at BMW is up to €45 billion (US$58.8 billion) compared to €42.2 billion (US$55.5 billion) for Daimler. After subtracting around €20 billion (US$26.3 billion) for its truck business, investors value the Mercedes-Benz passenger car division at €22 billion (US$28.9 billion), or less than half the value of its Munich-based rival.

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Someone Should Find this Driver and Report Him/Her to the Police

Making an honest mistake while sitting behind the wheel is one thing, being careless or to put it bluntly, a complete asshat, is quite another.

On Sunday, the driver of a previous generation Honda CR-V (possibly in Taiwan - if we're wrong, tell us in the comments) was filmed by a motorcyclist making an extremely dangerous move on the road when he or she drove between a Nissan Sentra and a scooter driven by a father with his child riding at the back, almost knocking them down.

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Yema Auto's All-Electric and All-Audi Looking Mustang F16 Enters Production

It's been a little over a year since China's Yema Auto dazzled us with its replication capabilities when it introduced a new breed of clone concepts at the Chengdu Auto Show 2011 with the T-SUV (call me VW Tiguan), E-SUV (Infiniti EX) and the F16 and E-Taxi twins (Audi A4 Avant).

In the time that passed since then, Yema Auto's engineers worked hard to finish the development of one of those models, the F16, that is now ready for a small-scale production in battery-powered form under its sub brand Mustang.

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New and Blue Audi R8 China Edition Looking for 80 Wealthy Chinese Customers

With a population in excess of 1.3 billion and a booming economy, something tells us that Audi won't have much of a problem finding 80 buyers interested in its limited run R8 China Edition that was built exclusively for the country featured in its name.

In what will likely sound odd to the ears of Westerners, the cars will be numbered from 1 to 99, and that's because Chinese consider 4 an unlucky number, so Audi decided to eliminate it.

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China's Qoros Offers First Glimpse of its New European Sedan

Qoros is the latest Chinese carmaker to attempt to crack the difficult European market with its first ever production model that will be revealed in a world premiere at next year's Geneva Motor Show.

We still don't know the name of the car, but Qoros has already told us that it will be a compact sedan model in the likes of the Volkswagen Jetta and Ford Focus.

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Ex-GM Engineer and Husband Convicted of Stealing Hybrid Tech Secrets to Sell to China's Chery

Last Friday, November 30, former General Motors engineer Shanshan Du and her husband Yu Qin were found by a jury of nine women and three men guilty of conspiring to steal the Detroit carmaker’s trade secrets.

The 53-year old Du was found guilty of conspiracy to possess trade secrets without authorization and two counts of trade secrets, and not guilty of three counts of wire fraud. Her 51-year old husband was found guilty on all six counts, as well as a seventh, that is obstruction of justice.

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Kia Loses the Right to Use Quoris Name in Europe to China's Qoros

We don't how many European or Korean, for that matter, carmakers would like to associate one of their top products with a Chinese brand, but Kia found itself in a legal battle with China's Qoros over the name of its new rear-wheel drive flagship saloon, the Quoris, and it lost - at least in Europe and for the time being.

The Korean carmaker introduced the full-size luxury sedan in its home market as the K9, but in July this year, it announced that the export version would be named Quoris, which the company claims is derived from the English words 'Core' and 'Quality'.

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China's 2012 Guangzhou Auto Show in 300+ Photos

Being the most populous country in the globe with more than 1.34 billion citizens, and not to mention, the world's second-largest country by land area, it's only natural that China plays hosts to several automobile shows throughout the year in a number of regions.

This week, it's the 10th edition of the Guangzhou Auto Show. Guangzhou is the third largest city in the country and is located in southern China, approximately 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Hong Kong.

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