New heights in Shanghai
Porsche has sent us a picture of a Panamera (above) being hauled into the service lift of the Shanghai World Financial Centre for its launch at Auto Shanghai on April 19. The German marque's 94th-floor launch highlights foreign marques' ambitions in a more muted show, says the Business Post's automotive correspondent, Kandy Wong, who attended the show.
'The luxury brands are obviously aggressively trying to grab a larger share in China,' she says. 'This time I found that the carmakers used less money for marketing, especially the local carmakers ... they remained a bit low-key this time.' This year's show 'was not as boisterous' as the past three, she says, despite internet waahs for BYD's M6 (above), Chery's cutie-cute QQme (middle) and Dongfeng's Hummer-like 'Brave Soldier' Mengshi (below). Wong says she was impressed with Dongfeng Motor's Fengshen S30, which is 'about the same size as the Peugeot 307, powered by a 1.6-litre 16-valve engine from PSA and built off the Citroen ZX platform'.
'Geely has also spent lots of money to hire a Italian design house to work on their cars' appearance.' But look out for the Riich G6, she says. The 5-metre sedan, 'is powered by Chery's self-developed, EU4-compliant gasoline engines', Wong says. 'There's a four-cylinder turbocharged 2-litre unit, capable of 125 kW @ 5500 and a 3-litre V6 with 143 kW @ 5500rpm.'
What's on in Hong Kong:
Lexus Show featuring the new hybrid RX450h and a range of Lexuses at Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong, 10am-8pm, today and tomorrow.
