BMW builds its first assembly plant in South America
 
BMW has began the construction of its first car assembly plant in South America, in the Brazilian city of Araquari. The project required an investment of over 200 million euros and the plant should be operational in autumn 2014. The Brazilian site will produce the Mini Countryman and the BMW 1 Series and 3 Series, X1 and X3, all from CKD. The production capacity of this new plant is expected to be of 30 000 vehicles per year.

It is therefore a small assembly plant compared to most plants built in the world today by BMW whose capacity is between 150 000 and 300 000 units per year.

BMW has faced several factors of change currently : a market for premium brands growing in the world but increasingly competitive, a sluggish European market, European BMW factories close to saturation, a Chinese market with great potential on which BMW production is slowly increasing day by day.

This is why BMW believes in a strong potential for sales of Premium brands in South America (increasingly richer middle class), this also explains why BMW have built a factory on the continent rather than export its vehicles from Europe, China or the United States. This plant will only provide vehicles for the whole of South America and will not export vehicles outside.

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The Opel plant in Zaragoza should double in size in four years
 

The Opel plant in Zaragoza, Spain will have produced less than 240 000 vehicles in 2013 (the objectives of the manufacturer were 280 000), which is one of the worst figures registered by the plant over the past twenty years. But the site of Zaragoza should bounce back next year as Opel has provided a considerable recovery plan including the arrival of new models, including models from abroad.


The carmaker plans to produce 480 000 units in 2017 (Inovev estimates 420 000 units), in other words double the production in four years. To achieve such a volume, Opel has scheduled the arrival of the Mokka mini-SUV in 2014, the new generation Meriva in 2016 and the new generation Corsa in 2017 coupled with the production of the new generation Citroën C3 Picasso in 2016 (transferred from the PSA plant of Trnava to Zaragoza, thanks to the recent agreement between GM and PSA).


En 2014, Opel therefore foresees the Zaragoza production at 20 000 units  for the Mokka, 60 000 for the Meriva, 145 000 (5 door) Corsa, 35 000 (3 door) Corsa, transferred from the German Eisenach plant where they were exclusively manufactured, to the Spanish plant of Zaragoza. And 25 000 redesigned Corsa (Their launch is programmed for 2014), in other words 285 000 vehicles in total.


It won't be before 2015 that the activity of the Spanish site will take a real boom in production with the rise of the face lifted  Mokka and Corsa ,  and then in 2016 with the arrival of new generation Meriva and Citroen C3 Picasso.


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Insight of the Korean PC market over the 11 months 2013
 

South Korea is the fourth largest car market in Asia (behind China, Japan and India) with just under 1.2 million passenger cars sold in the first 11 months of 2013.


In a particularly dynamic continent (thanks to China and the ASEAN countries ) Korean market is almost stable in 2013 compared to 2012 (-0.24%). Foreign carmakers progress versus Korean carmakers (Hyundai-Kia, Renault Samsung, GM Korea and SsangYong Motor) with a growth of nearly 10% and a market share of 12%.


Local carmakers suffer from cumulative effects of the late renewal of Korean carmakers vehicles range and delay in production, a consequence of strikes at Hyundai and Kia.


Nevertheless, the market is still dominated by the Hyundai-Kia Group, which holds nearly 70% market share, followed by Chevrolet (formerly Daewoo, 9.4%), Ssangyong (4.8%) and Renault-Samsung (4.3%)


The analysis by segment  and body type highlights the predominance of D segment (41,7%)  and C segment (28,7%). The market is divided into sedans (66% of body type), followed by SUV (22.8%), what is higher than what we can see in China or in Europe (around 16% for both zones).


By models, the Kia Picanto, city car of the A segment, is the second best-selling vehicle behind the Hyundai Elantra,
a
sedan of the C segment.


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Great Wall is going to start exporting vehicles from Bulgaria
 
Since February 2012 the joint venture between the Chinese carmaker Great Wall and the Bulgarian assembler Litex, assembles vehicles for the Chinese brand in Bulgaria. Production in 2012 did not exceed 1 000 units (all produced for the local market) and the year 2013 is expected to end on a production of 3 500 units (including 2 500 passenger cars and 1 000 pick-up vans) all delivered to Bulgaria, representing a market share of over 10%.

Starting from January 2014, the joint venture will begin exporting vehicles throughout Europe, starting with Italy which is an important market for Great Wall, since the Chinese manufacturer sells a thousand vehicles there each year (imported from China).

The plant of the joint company called Litex Motor Corporation, based in Lovech in Bulgaria assembles three models (from CKD from China) : the Voleex C10 a sedan, the Steed 5 a pick-up van and an off-road leisure vehicle the Hover H6, one of the most popular off-road vehicles in China.

In late 2012, another Chinese automaker, BYD announced that it planned to set up in Bulgaria thanks to a partnership with the Bulgarian company Bulmineral. The two companies plan to build an assembly plant in Breznuik in order to assemble electric cars and buses.

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PSA unveils the DS 5 LS specifically designed for the Chinese market
 
Citroën unveiled the world premiere of the fourth vehicle of its DS range, intended exclusively for the Chinese market (for the moment) : DS 5 "LS", the initials LS mean "Luxury Sedan". Compared to the European DS 5, the body of the DS 5 LS is completely different with a sedan design (the European DS 5 is hatchback) with a grille on which the Citroën logo has disappeared completly,  replaced by a DS logo.

Indeed, in China DS is a brand in its own right, separate from Citroën and Peugeot. Sales networks are also separate, as well as production plants (Shenzhen Changan for DS, Wuhan Dongfeng for Citroën and Peugeot).

In fact, PSA repeats the operation carried out in 1989 by Toyota with Lexus, Nissan with Infiniti and Honda with Acura, namely the creation of a separate and differentiated brand in terms of service and price.

The DS 5 LS (a term that has already used by Lexus) will be produced in the Shenzhen plant, which has a production capacity of 200 000 vehicles per year. Wider and longer (4.70 m) than the European DS 5, the LS version also features a separate trunk, the DS 5 LS meets the usual Chinese luxury codes. However, it shares the same technical platform as the DS 5. The DS 5 LS is expected to have 50 000 customers in 2014, that same year a new DS will be launched exclusively for the Chinese market, the DS-X, an SUV based on the DS 5, and should also be marketed at about 50 000 units per year when it reaches cruising speed. 


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