China has picked a car made jointly along with South Korea's Hyundai as its preferred vehicle to replace the capital's vast and often dilapidated taxi fleet ahead of the 2008 Olympics, state press said yesterday.
The vehicle in question is the mid-sized Sonata saloon, about to begin manufacture by a 50-50 joint venture of Hyundai Motor Co and Beijing Automotive Industry Corp, the China Daily said.
Although taxi operators will officially be able to choose what vehicle to use, the city government is drawing up minimum standards for the cabs, with the Sonata as "first choice", the report said.
"Taxi companies may choose models based on the upcoming standards," Liang Jianwei of Beijing's Taxi Management Division told the newspaper.
The news is a major boost for the Sonata's manufacturers, given around 20-30 percent of Beijing's 64,000 often battle-scarred taxis are replaced every year, the report said.
However it is a potentially serious blow for a joint venture set up by French carmaker Citroen, a variant of whose ZX model currently comprises more than 70 percent of Beijing's taxi fleet.
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