World Car News #Update
Global car manufacturers will take the stage in Beijing Today, Wednesday, April 25th with new car models to woo the world’s largest auto market as China promises to liberalise the industry.
Industry behemoths like Volkswagen, Daimler, Toyota, Nissan, Ford and others will display more than 1,000 models and dozens of concept cars at the Beijing auto show.
The Beijing International Automotive Exhibition is a barometer of the state of the world’s biggest passenger-vehicle market. New cars are launched, startups vie for attention against their multinational rivals. This year’s show is significant for some key reasons: China is beginning to open up its automobile market after two decades of restrictions on how much foreigners can own in local car ventures; secondly, the electric vehicle juggernaut is beginning to gather steam; and then there’s a looming trade war.
With almost all car manufacturers getting all set for the exhibition, anxiety is mixed with rational inquisition as to which cars are to be introduced. With automakers like: Tesla, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Audi and BMW among others all in for the race, the Beijing auto show just got more intense.
Auto China 2018, the industry’s biggest sales event this year, is overshadowed by mounting trade tensions between Beijing and US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to hike tariffs on Chinese goods including automobiles in a dispute over technology policy.
The impact on automakers should be small, according to industry analysts, because exports amount to only a few thousand vehicles a year. Those include a GM SUV, the Envision, and Volvo Cars sedans made in China for export to the United States.
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