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A company called GreenPix has created an astounding combination of sustainable technology and digital media virtuosity, dubbed the Zero Energy Media Wall. The system features the world’s largest (so they claim) color LED display, powered completely by photovoltaic cells which are integrated into the glass curtain. During the day, the wall — located on the Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing — harvests solar energy, then expends the charge at night in a display of undulating colors. The system goes on display this month, but if you can’t make it to China, you can watch a video of the work in action after the break.

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GM Vice Chairman Bob “Maximum” Lutz published a new post today on the corporate GM Fastlane Blog that addresses the automaker’s newest concept that debuted recently at Auto China 2008 in Beijing: the Invicta. The concept heavily hints at what the next-generation Buick LaCrosse will look like, but Bob points out that the global architecture underpinning the vehicle will be the basis of new cars for Chevy, Saab, Opel/Vauxhall and more. In the past, we would’ve expected those accompanying models to be rebadged versions with different grilles, headlights and taillights, but Bob explains how GM’s new global platform sharing process is different than the rebadging of old. In a nutshell, he says that the money saved from sharing common platforms see will be put into making everything that customer’s will see - exterior and interior design, specifically - completely different. While it’s great to hear Bob talk about how GM finally “gets it” when it comes to producing common products across an empire of brands, it’s something that other automakers like VW/Audi have been doing for years while the General kept feeding us “triplets” of every model it made. So kudos to GM for finally getting it, but it took ‘em long enough.
[Source: GM ]

The Nissan Livina “world car” will get the allroad-ish treatment next week when the new C-Gear variant bows at Auto China in Beijing. The C-Gear follows the Livina Geniss/Grand Livina minivan and Livina hatch to market, and it’s essentially just a sportier-looking, cosmetically butched-up version of the latter. There’s room for five with motivation coming from a 1.6L four matched with either a 4-speed auto or a 5-speed manual. Don’t expect to see it here — the Livina series of cars isn’t meant for North American consumption. The Chinese-market C-Gear will be produced at the Dongfeng plant in Guangdong province.

[Source: Nissan]

We’re proud as peacocks of our blogging brothers at Autoblog Chinese who, in blogging parlance, tore the 2008 Beijing Motor Show a new one. We showed you just a sampling of the dozens of cars they covered at the show, as the team from China truly left no rotating turntable unturned. If you want even more Auto China 2008 coverage, just click on one of four wrap-up pages below and don’t stop until you’ve seen every clone, concept and production car that was unveiled in Beijing last week. You may not be able to understand the language they’re speaking, but the pictures more than get the point across.

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As we learned last week, Hyundai used the occasion of Auto China in Beijing to debut its slightly refreshened Elantra. Its face now features a wider grille flanked by larger headlights, and a new lower air intake has also been reshaped. The overall effect is that the Elantra’s friendly face has been been given a healthy dose of attitude. Likewise, the Elantra’s rear also gets reshaped and loses its bulbous butt complex. We do expect these design updates to eventually reach the U.S.-market Elantra, as well as some new interior niceties like improved connectivity for digital music devices. As for when that will happen, your guess is as good as ours.

[Source: Autoblog Chinese]

If you were looking for the new epitome of capitalism’s slow-but-steady takeover of communism in China, we’ve got it for you right here. Bugatti brought its million-euro hyper-car this year to the Auto China show in Beijing, drawing hoards of spectators in its appropriate bright red paint job. What’s more is that within two hours of the car’s debut, Bugatti had already sold one.

The customer will fly to Bugatti’s Molsheim headquarters to pick out the color scheme and options (apparently no one told him he could do it online), and pay a whopping 25 million yuan (approximately $3.6 million, more than twice the sticker price) for the privilege of owning the first Veyron in China. Mao who?

Click on the images below and the press release after the jump for more on the Veyron’s unveiling in Beijing.
[Source: Bugatti and Gasgoo]

It turns out that the Geely GT didn’t corner the market on coupe concepts at Auto China 2008. Beijing Automotive — whose Wrangler-style B40 you saw earlier — is also on the case with its 700R coupe concept, a clean and attractive design with some interesting details. An accent line angles upward, merging with muscular rear haunches, giving the car a nice, aggressive presence. In front, knifelike headlamps; stylized, outboard air intakes; and a teensy main grille slit come together to give the car a good face. Out back, a similar motif finishes the car off, and the result is very attractive overall.

Of course, it’ll probably never be anything more than vaporware, but generally speaking, it makes you wonder what on Earth goes on in the boardrooms of Chinese car companies. If they have the ability to deliver clean, original designs like this, then why bother copycatting at all? The mind reels. Until originality in this vein is the norm, the phrase “Chinese car” will remain a punchline. Too bad, because stylewise, this 700R concept is no joke.

[Source: Autoblog Chinese]

The basic Jeep shape has essentially carried forward from World War II to the present day. It has also been replicated many times over by automakers scattered around the world, and variations on the theme continue to appear. The Chinese auto industry has never been shy about (ahem) “borrowing”, and Beijing Automotive has come through with one of the “better” quasi-clones we’ve seen so far. The B40 is obviously Jeep Wrangler-inspired, but rather than ape the Jeep’s signature front end, the B40 instead sports a more Land Rover-ish look (think LR2/Freelander 2). And you know what? It’s actually kind of interesting to look at.

The interior is gussied up with contrast-stitched leather seats, a nav system, and a steering wheel that looks like it’s been ripped from a modern Opel. The wheels are OEM Jeep knock-offs. One thing that jumps out at us is the door handles — they’re a flat style, similar to the ones Jeep used before switching to the circular push-button handles on the current JK Wranglers. We really like that old look better. Anyway, back to the B40 — the only technical info Autoblog Chinese has is that it’s powered by a gasoline engine. Offroad prowess is unknown, as is its production status, but at least we know what a Wrangler/Freelander love child might look like.
[Source: Autoblog Chinese]

The Brilliance BS4 sedan is a pretty good-looking car, so it stands to reason that its wagon variant would be easy on the eyes, as well. Unveiled in Beijing, the BS4 wagon is indeed a snazzy-looking, ostensibly practical machine. Power comes from a 1.8L Mitsubishi G93 four-cylinder making 134 hp (100 kW) at 6500 rpm. The BS4 wagon also comes equipped with an alphabet soup of safety feature acronyms like “ABS + EBD + EDS” but word association games involving “Brilliance” and “safety” only call to mind the BS6 Euro NCAP debacle (since corrected, allegedly… but still). The bad news continues, as a recent Inside Line review of the BS4 sedan concluded that the car was generally lackluster at best. Based on that, we can probably assume that the same shortcomings afflict the wagon. It does look nice, at least.

[Source: Autoblog Chinese]

Shanghai Volkswagen developed the new VW Lavida in China, for China. Now it’s made its big debut before the home-market audience in Beijing. Stylistically, the made-in-China design looks oddly dated, quite frankly. The petal-shaped head- and taillamps look like something you might find on a 1990’s Korean import and not a newly-minted VW, regardless of origin.

The Lavida’s positioned below the new VW Bora (also introduced in Beijing), with a shorter overall length (around 3 inches) but an identical wheelbase, so passenger comfort should be around the same as the larger car. The interior is a blend of familiar VW partsbin stuff with elements that just seem a little odd-looking in a VeeDub, like the silver audio head unit and the silver HVAC knobs set against a healthy dose of woodgrain trim. Power comes from 4-cylinder engines displacing 1.6L or 2.0L, with a six-speed Tiptronic available to handle shifting duties. It may be all-new, but it’s also pretty boring.

[Source: Autoblog Chinese]