Automotive News

Shanghai, October 23 (Gasgoo.com) On October 11, Tianjin FAW said it will produce the company's first A-class car based on Toyota's ninth-generation Corolla platform. On October 18, FAW Car put its Hongqi Shengshi (HQ3) onto the market, and the next day the company launched its 2009 Besturn model and started construction of its second plant.

These moves are seen as a sign of FAW's gradually focusing its human, financial and material resources on making cars of its independent brands, said Beijing News today, citing an industry analyst. These all-out efforts to promote its own-brand models are closely related to FAW's in-house development plan, which says that the Chinese car giant aims to sell 2 million vehicles by 2010, and half of them must be FAW's own-brand vehicles.

FAW HQ3

In 2007, FAW sold 1,465,000 vehicles, which include 620,000 own-brand vehicles. This means that FAW has to produce and sell by 2010 another 400,000 own-brand cars at least to fulfill the sales target of 1 million own-brand vehicles.

According to FAW's in-house development plan, the Hongqing brand will target the high-end markets but its sales have to be boosted, the Besturn brand will fortify its B-class market by promoting its low-price-high-quality features, and Tianjin FAW will expand its A0-class and A-class markets.

In addition to promoting the three independent brands, FAW's another important task is to enhance its research and development (R&D) capabilities. Recently the FAW Technical Center has recruited many auto engineers, designers and other talents for the in-house development of sedans, buses and mini-cars.