Hello Readers,

Late Friday night here in Beijing. To end this very busy week a nice pic with a truckload full of beer and a sweet Chinese girl, sure she is the designated driver. Car is the very cool Dongfeng V21, the single-cap pickup version of the Dongfeng V27 minivan that debuted in May last year. Price for the V21 starts at 33.800 yuan, cheap indeed, but that is without the girl, or the beer.

Cheers, see y’all tomorrow.

When I published the first story (new pics!) about the JAC 43R Ford F150 clone from China I knew such a big truck couldn’t suddenly come out of nowhere, so I did some searching around…

According to Chinese sources the JAC 43R is based on an other existing JAC pickup truck, the JAC Ruiling. The Ruiling, meaning ‘Lucky Bell’, is a copy of the 2003 Chevrolet Silverado, with a Ford-style oval on the grille. Mixing Ford and Chevy, this JAC is sure a company to keep an eye on.

The front, grille and light clusters are all the same. The only big difference is that the Silverado is an extended cab pickup and the Ruiling a double cap.

The JAC Ruiling was listed in early 2009. Power comes from the same 2.8 liter 4-cylinder diesel engine that powers the upcoming JAC 43R-F150. The 43R will slot above the Ruiling in JAC’s line-up, to be sold as a more luxurious variant of basically the same car. In China so you can choose: a cheap Chevy or an expensive Ford.

How cheap is cheap? The Chevy can be yours for 64.800 yuan, or 10.300 USD.

To be continued…

Via: China2Car, Pikache, QicheChina.

We have seen the patent-application and here we have the first live spy shots of the JAC Yueyue Cross testing in China. The Yueyue Cross is based on the standard yueyue minicar ans has to appeal to young ‘n cool urban folks. The Yueyue gets a facelift at the same time with a new grille and a huge logo on the bonnet.

The Yueyue Cross has been crossed up with roofrails, slightly bigger tires and some blacked out plastic on the front and at the back. It will be powered by a 99hp 1.3 mated to a 5-speed manual or 5-speed sequential.

Some improvements inside as well, design of the dash very circular, round a’round we go…

The current JAC Yueyue. Price starts at 43.800 yuan and ends at 56.800 yuan. Power comes from a 1.0 with 68hp or the 1.3 with 99hp. Price of the Yueyue Cross will start around 55.000 yuan, it will debut at the Beijing Auto Show in April.

Via: Autohome.

BYD-Daimler is a joint venture between BYD and Daimler-Benz to make electric cars for the Chinese market. Their first car is an EV based on the old Mercedes-Benz B-class. It is expected to debut, likely still as a concept, on the Beijing Auto Show in April.

BYD-Daimler applied for patent on the EV back in July last year. It will be sold under a new sub-brand which name will be officially unveiled at the Beijing show. We will however, likely know it earlier.

It is yet unknown when it will hit the market. EV’s are extremely unpopular in China no matter how much subsidies the Chinese government is throwing at ‘m.

The utmost important reason: there is no infrastructure for charging, not on the roads, not in the cities and not in any parking lot. What exactly Benz is trying to get out of this joint venture, with a brand that has been in constant trouble over 2011, is a mystery to me…

Via: Autohome.

Friday afternoon here in a hazy Beijing, time so for another strange vehicle from China. This is a motorized tricycle inspired by the Suzuki Alto. It was made in the late 1990′s by Jinan Qingqi Motorcycle Corporation from the great city of Jinan in Shandong Province.

The vehicle was simply called ‘Qingqi Alto Trycicle’ and sold for around 10.000 yuan, mostly to taxi drivers in da countryside. It was powered by a 125cc 12kw motorcycle engine, just powerful enough to outrun a goat.

This sorta vehicles is still extremely popular in rural China, just drive some 50km out of every big Chinese city and suddenly they are all over. There are hundreds of small factories that make ‘m and many are design-wise inspired by existing 4-wheel automobiles, this Alto however is certainly one of the very best.

Green, yellow and red, which one will it be? Sadly, Jinan Qingqi doesn’t make tricycle’s anymore. They seem to be a grwon-up company now making rather impressive motorcycle’s. The Qingqi Alto Trycicle will one die soon be gone from da streets completely, we believe it is our duty to keep it alive, at least a little bit.

I’ll be back with more tricycles soon.

Via: Mycar168, HC360

This is the mighty SinoAmo Mercedes-Benz GL450 stretched limousine. It debuted back in 2010 at the ‘Fifth Shanghai International Automobile modification Fair’. The modifications are done by SinoAmo from Changping District in the great city of Beijing.

The monster GL is stretched by 90 centimeters in the middle, bringing the total length to 5984 and the wheelbase to 3965mm. Power came from the standard 4.6 V8 that pooped out 340hp and 460nm. Top speed was rated at 235km/h.

A lotta luxury inside. Leather, carpets, tables and a TV.

Price for all this pretty: 2.5 million yuan, or 396.000 USD, that is including the Benz GL450 which costs 1.6 million yuan in China.

Your driver is waiting.

Via: BITauto, SinoAmo.

Here we have a very special second hand car on sale in Beijing. This is a 2004 Tongtian Glow, or Tongtian Geluo in Chinese. It was made from 2004 until 2007 and developed by the Jiangbei Machinery Plant from Jilin Province.

In 2005 Jiangbei was absorbed by Jiangnan Auto from Henan Province. The Tongtian Glow was based on the Suzuki Alto that was also made by Jiangbei under license from Suzuki, that car is still in production today as the Jiangnan TT. Production of the Glow ended in 2007 when Jiangnan was bought by Zoyte Automobile.

In early April 2010 spy shots appeared from a brand-new Tongtian Glow that was developed by a company called Jilin Tongtian. Yes, the Tongtian had gone back home… The new Tongtian was expected to debut at the April 2010 Beijing Auto Show but sadly never appeared. Since then it has been very silent.

Now back to car on hand! The Tongtian Glow was powered by a 0.8 three-cylinder that came straight from the Suzuki alto, it pooped out 38.5kw and 63nm, good for a 130km/h top speed. Later on in its life the Glow was also available with a bigger 1.1 4-cylinder with the same power, 38.5kw, but slightly more torque, 83nm. Interestingly Tongtian claimed a slower top speed for the 1.1, only 120km/h, this was probably caused by the extra weight of the engine.

The blue car on pics if for sale in the Beijing area, it has run 90.000 kilometers and costs only 7000 yuan, that is exactly 1110 US dollar. Is has insurance until November this year. Buy?, check her out here.

Three Tongtian Glow at a dealer. Front design was inspired by the Volkswagen Polo MK4.

Would you buy one from the girls?

Talking about girls…

… and more girls.

Additional info via: Hudong.

Only 3 days ago we published the first pics of the JAC 4R3 pickup truck which is basically a Ford F150 clone with a much smaller engine. The story went wild all over the world and is now officially our Most Popular Story Ever. Today we have a bunch of new and better pics from the JAC 4R3 pickup truck, taken somewhere near the factory. Yez, this crazy 43R is very real indeed…

Power comes from JAC’s own ‘HFC4DA1-2B1′ 2.8 liter 4-cylinder diesel engine, good for 108hp and 240nm. The JAC 43R will likely debut at the Beijing Auto Show in April. Price is yet unknown but based on similar sized and powered pickup trucks it won’t be much more expensive than some 100.000 yuan or 16.000 USD. Size (unconfirmed): 5030×1720×1735.

Via: Hexun.com.

Reuters cites “two people with direct knowledge of the matter” who are saying that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Chery Auto are working out the final details of a deal to start a joint venture for making JLR-cars in China.

Parties have asked the Chinese central government for approval and aim to announce the forming of the joint venture at the Beijing Auto Show in April.

Well, we will see. JLR and Chery have been talking and talking for over a year now and the Chinese government has just announced it will be much more strict in approving new foreign investment in the auto sector. It seems to me the JV ain’t a sure thing just yet.

According to Chinese sourced cited by Businesweek the Chinese government has decided that the upcoming Hongqi (Red Flag) C131 will be China’s next official government car for minister-level officials.

This could easily count for some 100.000 vehicles and would be a big coup for Hongqi. Current official government car is the Audi A6L which is made in China by the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture. FAW is also the owner of the Hongqi-brand and will so win some and lose some, but at least they can keep all the profits on the Hongqi for themselves.