China’s car market has deepened its slump this summer, with sales plunging and a flood of new product driving automaker margins to record lows, putting the world’s biggest auto market on pace for its first-ever double-digit annual decline, industry data shows. Sales of new passenger vehicles fell 25 percent to 1.35 million in July for a seventh-straight month of declines, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Aug. 12. Deliveries dropped 24 percent to 9.6 million in the first seven months of the year. The figures, which cover sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses, reflect stalled economic growth, higher fuel prices and a 5 percent purchase tax on electrified vehicles imposed in January. The unprecedented decline marks a reversal for a market that has been the industry’s growth engine for two decades. It is forcing automakers to look abroad for sales growth, pushing exports to record levels. That strategy, pursued by Chinese and international carmakers alike from their underutilized plants in the country, masks mounting pressure on their local businesses. China’s overseas pressure valve, meanwhile, is stoking competition in the global car market. Exports for all major Chinese carmakers have stayed robust this year. For the first seven months, 5.35 million passenger vehicles were shipped overseas, up 73 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. #china# #news# #cars# #automotive# #autoindustry#

Jaguar Land Rover will produce new U.S.-specific models with Stellantis partly to get on the “right side” of the tariff barrier and reduce its dollar exposure, the company’s chief financial officer said. JLR and Stellantis announced in May that they would collaborate on new vehicles for JLR under the Defender brand focusing on the U.S. market. Richard Molyneux, JLR’s CFO, confirmed on the company’s earnings call Aug. 13 that it would include production in the U.S. at Stellantis facilities, once a memorandum of understanding between the two companies is formalized at the end of this year. The models would be developed with help from Stellantis, rather than JLR shifting production of its stronger-selling models to Stellantis facilities in the country. “At our scale, it doesn’t make sense for us to localize production of existing vehicles into North America,” Molyneux said. “We sell circa 30,000 Defenders in the U.S. each year. We can never localize efficiently at 30,000 units, or even at 50,000 units.” #JaguarLandRover# #JLR# #Stellantis# #JLRStellantis# #automotive# #autoindustry#