Changan Automobile

Changan is an old company based in the center of China, the Chongqing megacity. It was set up for the militaries 140 years ago in 1862 in Songjiang, Shanghai. Then it was moved to Nanjing city during the sino-japanese war, before moving to Chongqing. ChangAn is the name of the antique chinese capital Xi'an. In modern times, ChangAn Group started to make small cars in 1982, in 1984, the engines were manufactured by Jialing, the latter also based in Chongqing, is currently one of the biggest motorcycle manufacturer in China. In 1995 ChangAn merged with the Jialing unit that supplies engines to form Chang An Automotive. In 1996, ChangAn Automobive built three factories, got listed on the stock market in Shenzhen.

Chang An a compact car maker

ChangAn Automotive is today the biggest compact car manufacturer in China. The workforce numbers 20 000 employees, with an asset of 1.13 billion euros. ChangAn Group has seven subsidiaries in the automotive sector : ChangAn Automotive, ChangAn Ford Automotive, ChangAn Suzuki Automotive, Nanjing ChangAn Automotive, Hebei ChangAn ShengLi Automotive, Hebei ChangAn Automotive, and ChangAn Transglobal Automotive. In 2001, the value of the output of ChangAn Automotive Group amounted for more than 1 billion euros.

Changan's industrial assets

ChangAn Automotive has a production output of 300 000 cars, 360 000 engines, and is among the 5 chinese company that has special attention from the chinese government. Until today, the total cars made by Changan amounts for 1.3 million cars and 1.4 millions engines, Changan is today the 20th carmaker. In 2002 ChangAn Automotive has set up the goal for the following 3 years : 500 000 cars/year, 400 000 engines/year. Those figures are a bit old in 2008.

Changan's cars

Changan's most reknown car is the Benben, a small car that rivals the Chery QQ6 and A1, and of the BYD F0. The CM8 is an MPV that is the result of the cooperation with italian design bureau IDEA. Thiq MPV is quite narrow compared to its width. Compared to old Changan MPV, the CM8 looks more modern, but it hasn't reached high sales when it was launched because of its price. Recently Changan made a breaking news by disclosuring the Jiexun which is an hybrid car. Changan, traditionally a commercial carmaker is shifting to the passenger car manufacturer. And the coming years will see lots of novelties from Chongqing's carmaker, they will be more or less inspired by its JV partner. About its joint-ventures products, Mazda (S-MAX, Focus, Mondeo, Carnival and Suzuki (TianYu SX4, yuyan, lingyang, outuo) are the one that are currently sold in China. The Volvo S40 is also built in China.