On August 8, the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) and Chongqing government co-hosted a signing ceremony for local joint venture projects. ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF) and Qijiang Gear Transmission Co., Ltd. (Qijiang Gear), which had been under cooperation talks for over 15 years, signed a letter of intent during the event, to form a commercial vehicle transmission joint venture. Klaus Billetter, vice president of ZF Investment (China), and Xie Huajun, chairman of Chongqing Machinery & Electronics Holding Group, Qijiang Gear's mother company, presented the signing ceremony. The German and the Chinese are expected to ink the official joint venture contract by the end of the year.

- by Pei Dajun In a marriage of convenience, partners can hardly achieve synergy if they do not work for a common goal.

PARIS - Leading suppliers of diesel technology in Europe expect Chinese demand for diesels to increase substantially during the next decade.

BEIJING - Co-hosted by the America's Center for Foreign Investment (ACFI) and Hybrid Kinetic Motors Corp. (HKMC), a media and investor briefing event was held on June 9 at the platinum 5-star Legendale Hotel in downtown Beijing.

- by Yu Linglin   Once upon a time regional auto markets were vastly uneven. As a result, joint venture carmakers sold their cars primarily on the tier-1 market whereas homegrown carmakers tended to sell more vehicles on tier-2 and tier-3 markets. This is no longer true now. Both JV and homegrown carmakers are now converging on the same markets.

- by Zhong Ren   Once upon a time, "to drive a BMW and ride in a Mercedes-Benz" is a dream for many people. Now, this once distant dream is fast becoming reality in China.

LOS ANGELES - It seems BYD and Los Angeles have been cut out for each other in the pursuit of their green dreams.

- by Chen Zhijie   Eighteen months ago BYD assaulted Chery's mini car backyard with its F0. In mid-March this year Chang'an came back to the 1.0-liter A00-Class market by launching Benni Mini, obviously with F0 as the principal rival.

Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Automobile Co., has just returned to Beijing after spending Chinese New Year holidays in Göteborg, Sweden, where Volvo headquarters is located. Li and his team are readying for the final signing of an agreement with Ford Motor Co. on acquiring Volvo.

DEARBORN, MI - Ford's bid to sell the Volvo brand to China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group drew nearer to a closing date on Sunday after a last-minute snag on Ford's side was resolved.