Yang Jian

General Motors is pressing ahead to mass produce the Cadillac Lyriq crossover, the brand’s first full-electric vehicle, in Shanghai even though the city remains locked down because of COVID-19. Pre-production of the Lyriq started at the Cadillac plant in Shanghai last week, GM’s China unit said. 

New-car dealership vehicle stockpiles rose slightly in April from March, as more than one-third of Chinese cities resorted to full or partial lockdowns to control coronavirus outbreaks, undercutting consumer activity and retail operations.

New vehicle sales in China fell 48 percent to 1.18 million in April, a 10-year low for the month, as the coronavirus outbreak negatively impacted production and shipments, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Wednesday.

SAIC Motor Corp., seeking to ease investor fears about the negative impact on its operations from the latest wave of coronavirus outbreaks, plans to spend 1.6 billion yuan ($240 million) to 3.2 billion yuan to buy back shares on the Shanghai stock exchange. 

Volvo Car Corp.’s deliveries in China nosedived 48 percent from a year earlier to 8,579 in April. The Swedish carmaker blamed the latest slump on resurging coronavirus outbreaks in China, especially in eastern parts of the country.

Proton Holdings, the Malaysian carmaker partly owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, plans to launch sales of two rebadged Geely crossovers in South Africa in September, expanding its global presence.

Sales at BYD rallied 134 percent year over year to 106,042 in April after the largest Chinese electrified-vehicle maker phased out production of gasoline vehicles in March.

Cariad, the Volkswagen Group's software unit, formed a China subsidiary in Beijing to develop products tailored for Chinese consumers. 

Retail sales of new passenger vehicles in China will drop 32 percent to 1.1 million in April as coronavirus outbreaks disrupt vehicle production and shipments in multiple regions, the China Automobile Dealers Association said.

The S1, a compact crossover, is marketed under Honda’s EV subbrand e:N and priced from 175,000 yuan ($26,636) to 218,000 yuan after government subsidies.

Great Wall Motor Co., the largest domestic Chinese light-truck maker, failed to generate more profit on increased revenue in the first quarter because of rising raw material prices. 

Audi, the luxury brand of Volkswagen Group, continued to lag behind its two German archrivals, BMW and Mercedes Benz, in first-quarter sales. All three German luxury brands posted lower sales in the first three months, with output and demand undermined by the resurging coronavirus outbreak and supply-chain bottlenecks. 

Wholesale and retail sales of new vehicles contracted sharply in the first two weeks of April with production, shipping and deliveries severely disrupted by spiking coronavirus cases and other supply-chain bottlenecks, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association. 

Sales at Volkswagen Group, the largest carmaker in China, plunged 24 percent to around 754,000 in the first quarter. 

CATL, China’s largest battery producer for electric vehicles, has become the first EV battery maker to provide domestic battery swap services. The first batch of four battery swap stations went into operation in the east China port city of Xiamen this week, CATL said.