Automotive News - 2008 Guide to China's Auto Market - (Page 25)

DOMESTIC AUTOMAKERS Dongfeng Motor Corp. No. 1 Dongfeng Ave., Wuhan Economic-Technological Development Area Wuhan City, Hubei Province 430056, P.R. China (86) 27-8428-5000, www.dfmc.com.cn Top executive: Xu Ping, general manager In the United States, it would be called teaching the elephant to dance. Dongfeng Motor Corp., a large state-owned automaker, wants to build its own brand of light-duty vehicles. Most of Dongfeng’s vehicles are trucks and commercial buses. Dongfeng is building an r&d center and a plant in Wuhan to develop passenger vehicles, with a total investment of about $1.33 billion. The plant, scheduled to start mass production in early 2009, will have an annual capacity of 160,000 vehicles. Capacity will be expanded to about 330,000 with the second stage, which is scheduled to start construction in 2010. The automaker says the Wuhan plant mainly will produce mid-sized, large and luxury passenger vehicles. Dongfeng also is acquiring other Chinese automakers to build its brands. The company will take over Hafei Automobile Group and Dongan Auto Engine Co. in the first half of this year. The two companies now are subsidiaries of China Aviation Industry Corp. Hafei, of Haerbin City, is a minivan and small-car manufacturer that sold about 240,000 vehicles last year. Dongan mainly produces small transmissions and 1.0- to 1.3-liter engines. China Aviation will transfer control of the two subsidiaries by setting up a joint venture with Dongfeng. Also, Dongfeng will increase production of Dongfeng-badged minicars at Dongfeng YuAn Vehicle Co. in Shiyan City, Hubei province, this year. Dongfeng YuAn is a joint venture of Dongfeng Motor and Chongqing’s YuAn Group, which produces components and motorcycles. Annual capacity for the minicars is 100,000 units initially. Eventually, the partners 25 DONGFENG JINGYI expect to increase capacity to 200,000 units. The minicars will have engines with displacements ranging from 0.8 liters to 1.3 liters. At affiliated plants in Liuzhou and Zhengzhou, Dongfeng Motor produces a small number of pickups, SUVs and sevenseat vans. Total output was about 23,000 units last year. Dongfeng can rapidly boost production capacity of its own brand of cars in the coming years. But can it market the vehicles? The company mainly has produced commercial vehicles, which largely depend on business-to-business relationships, not marketing skills, to sell. Besides establishing its own brand of light- duty vehicles, Dongfeng also must keep good relations with all of its foreign partners: PSA/Peugeot-Citroen SA, Nissan Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. Here are the 2007 sales of Dongfeng Motor’s joint ventures with global automakers: ■ Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Co.: 271,915, up 33.6 percent year on year. ■ Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co.: 207,255, up 2.9 percent. ■ Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co.: 127,086, up 100.5 percent. ■ Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co.: 101,427, down 11.8 percent. — Kevin Huang Domestic JV: Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor Co. No. 286 Pingshan Ave., Liuzhou City Guangxi Province 545005, P.R. China (86) 772-3281-218, www.fxauto.com.cn Top executive: Cheng Daoran, general manager 2007 2006 Capacity 40,000 40,000 Production 19,266 19,237 Unit sales 22,341 18,818 Models produced: Dongfeng Future, Joyear Ownership: Dongfeng Motor Co. Liuzhou Industrial Holding Co. 75% 25% Global JVs: Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co. – Wuhan, Hubei Province – Honda CR-V, Civic (Page 13) Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co. – Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province – Kia Carnival, Optima, Cerato, Rio, Sportage, Accent (Page 13) Dongfeng Motor Co./Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Co. – Guangzhou, Guangdong Province – Nissan Bluebird, Bluebird Sylphy, Geniss, Livina Geniss, Tiida, Teana, Sunny (Page 14) Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co. – Wuhan, Hubei Province – Citroen Fukang (ZX), C2, Elysee, Picasso, Kaixuan (C-Triomphe), Peugeot 206, 307 (Page 16) Zhengzhou Nissan Automobile Co. – Zhengzhou, Henan Province – Nissan Paladin (Page 14) 2008 GUIDE TO CHINA’S AUTO MARKET Automotive News • J.D. Power and Associates • Automotive Resources Asia http://www.dfmc.com.cn http://www.fxauto.com.cn

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