Great Wall Sees Off-Road Sales Growth
Great Wall Motor Co. says its total off-road vehicle sales could reach 500,000 by 2025 after spinning off its Tank SUV brand and channeling more resources into the segment. China’s top SUV maker has invested 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) over the past five years in a platform for developing off-road vehicles, the company said Monday at the Shanghai Auto Show.

Porsche Customers Are Younger, Female
Porsche is looking toward another record year in China as the nation’s upwardly mobile and cash rich population embraces sports cars, the company’s China CEO Jens Puttfarcken said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

The luxury automaker delivered around 90,000 cars in China last year and we “definitely think we can have another record year” in 2021, maybe selling around 100,000 units, Puttfarcken said, adding that Porsche’s customer base in China skews younger, female and more tech-savvy than elsewhere.

Puttfarcken said that demand for two-door cars in China was picking up as the company helps to cultivate a sports-car culture. Sales of the larger Porsche Taycan are also strong, with both the high-end model and entry-level two-wheel drive model now available. Some 75% of Taycan customers in China are new to the brand, he said.

BMW’s ‘Continuous Boom’
BMW AG is off to a strong start to 2021, China CEO Jochen Goller said, with 229,000 BMWs and Minis delivered in the first quarter. That’s after sales rose 8% last year. And he’s a long-term bull, saying that with the rise of China’s affluent middle-class, the auto market will “continuously boom.”

The construction of a manufacturing plant with joint-venture partner Great Wall Motor Co. is ‘well under way,” Goller said, and the main structure should be completed later this year. Production of two Mini EVs for the Chinese and global markets will start in 2023, he said.

While rival Daimler AG has decided to make its small-car brand Smart a China-only brand, that won’t be the case with Mini, Goller said. “Mini will always be a global brand for the global market.”

Polestar Warns of Investor ‘Playground’
As billions of dollars pour into EV startups, Polestar Holding AB CEO Thomas Ingenlath warned the industry shouldn’t become an “investors playground.”

The “electric revolution is important,” the head of the Swedish EV maker said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We have to make something really important here, we should be really careful this is not only looked upon as an investors playground. Yes, funding is important, but it has to relate to real creative value to companies that produce cars.”

Polestar last week raised $550 million from new investors to help fund its growth. It’s the first time external investors have backed the company, according to Polestar, which said it’s in talks with global investors about possible additional fundraising

Tesla Present, But Low Key
The world’s biggest maker of electric cars dominates China’s auto scene but typically doesn’t have a large presence at the country’s major auto shows. This year was no exception, with Tesla sporting an understated booth.

The Palo Alto, California-based company only had four models on display, all made in China at its gigafactory in Shanghai—the Model 3 standard and Model 3 high performance, along with the Model Y long-range and Model Y high performance. It’s the first time the China-made Model Ys have been seen at an auto show.