Beijing sees rapid growth in E-town car business

The Beijing Economic Technological Development Area's automobile industry has done 50-billion yuan ($8 billion) of its overall production since its foundation, for a 20-percent increase over last year, putting it just behind the electronics industry, giving it greater prominence in the area and making it new growth point, along with biomedicines.

So, here are some of the updates from the Economic Technological Development Area, also known as E-town, on prominent automobile enterprises, as described by E-times weekly, the local newspaper.

Beijing Benz

This company has seen a lot of progress and has set a benchmark for China's car industry in manufacturing, quality, personnel, and green production and has opened the door to the global market over the past year with its advanced technology. It wants to see Chinese luxury cars in the international market and expects good results this year with more new products, projects, factories and opportunities.

Changchun Auto's new projects

This company has a car interior contract with Beijing Benz Auto, the leading car company in E-town, with its HQ (Daimler AG), in Germany. To keep its car part deliveries on time, it has put more than 100 million yuan into new facilities, which will go into production this March, with annual output expected to reach 60,000 sets of interior accessories. With Beijing Benz, E-town is booming and attracting more car brands and related industries, including the Beijing Lear Corp, a leading global supplier of automotive seating and electrical power systems, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Having these auto parts companies in the area cuts logistics cost a lot, and many of them are seeing their orders growing. The manager of Changchun's Beijing Benz project, Wang Chunxu, says that his company has had a lot of benefits since coming to the area.

Beijing Automotive's e-vehicle

This group is working with the Bopai Car Care Co to put 500 new electric vehicles on the market, with a complete car maintenance package introduced already this year. The two signed a contract on Jan 20, on developing China's new energy car market. Last year, the group handled orders for 5,510 cars, making it the No.1 Chinese car company in e-vehicle sales and one of the the world's top four. Its GM, Zheng Gang, says that new energy vehicles are vital to his company in the coming years. Its two new e-cars -- the ev200 and es210 -- for family use, hit the market this year, with the ev200 ranging from 227,000 yuan ($36,300) to 247,000 yuan, and the es210 going for 347,000 yuan. To promote its new energy brands, the group has a "Light life" campaign across the country, with a return-to-nature, free lifestyle approach, in clothing, food, housing as well as transportation. Meanwhile, Bopai has given the car service business a lot of surprises with its car maintenance that started last November.

Edited by Fang Sha and Roger Bradshaw