Rolls-Royce is hot but not in China

Rolls-Royce is not that hot in China: British luxury car brand Rolls-Royce delivered 6,021 cars to customers in about 50 countries in 2022, an increase of 8% year-on-year and the first time in the brand’s 118-year history that sales have exceeded 6,000. Greater China was the brand’s second-largest market (after the U.S.), but the only major region in which sales declined in 2022.

WeChat video ecommerce, on the other hand: Yesterday, WeChat, Tencent’s 腾讯 ubiquitous networking app, held its annual Open Class Pro workshop aimed at WeChat content creators, during which a facilitator revealed that ecommerce gross merchandise volume (GMV) on the app’s video platform (视频号), which was launched in 2020, increased by 800% year-on-year in 2022.

Electric vehicle price decreases (but not yet): According to Cuī Dōngshù 崔东树, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, Tesla’s recent vehicle price cuts will not be implemented by other local brands, at least not until after the Spring Festival. By March, according to Cui, the price of lithium will have dropped and brands will introduce new models, and some may introduce price cuts at that time.

AVIC’s billions: Earlier today, state-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) 中国航空工业集团 held a work conference on its performance in 2022, reporting that it delivered a total of 659 civilian aircraft, achieved $1.4 billion in international subcontracts, and had net profit of 23.64 billion yuan ($3.48 billion).