German-US automaker DaimlerChrysler said yesterday it was planning a new sales offensive in China by vastly expanding its dealer network, marking a fresh attempt to shore up its Asian operations.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said the company would boost the number of dealers of its luxury brand Mercedes Benz to 217 in 68 Chinese cities by 2012, up from 33 dealers in 23 cities in 2002.
DaimlerChrysler spokesman Toni Melfi said the company would not comment on specific figures cited in the report but acknowledged it had major plans in China.
"I cannot confirm the exact numbers but we do plan to greatly expand the dealer network and expand our metropolis strategy to Chinese cities," Melfi said.
DaimlerChrysler also aims to use low-interest loans for dealers and customers to speed up sales.
"We will bolster the sales of DaimlerChrysler brands with financial services," management board member Ruediger Grube told the paper.
Grube said the company was also trying to form a joint venture for trucks and buses, adding that it was the "first company worldwide" to deliver energy-efficient buses running on fuel cells to China, which is plagued by an energy crisis and has dramatically hiked oil imports.
"There are already three operating in Beijing," he said.
Grube said that beyond China, DaimlerChrysler was also eyeing the Indian market for an expansion drive.
He said that in the "medium term" Daimler would sell three million cars per year there and noted that Mercedes already claimed 60 percent of the market share for luxury automobiles.
"That shows we are on the right track. And we will continue to strengthen our investments there," he said.
DaimlerChrysler's Asia strategy was called into question in April when it decided to pull the plug on further financing for its Japanese partner Mitsubishi, which is posting heavy losses.
The move, which came as a surprise, was widely interpreted as a setback for the company's ambitious international expansion campaign.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
RSS