BAIC building R&D base for own-brand clean cars

Shanghai, February 20 (Gasgoo.com) Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC, or Beijing Auto) broke ground yesterday in a suburb of the capital city to build an auto research and development (R&D) base as part of the carmaker's own-brand clean vehicle strategy, xinhuanet.com reported.

The 1.68-billion-yuan ($246 mln) project, named Beijing Auto Industry R&D Base, will have two SUV platforms and four sedan platforms. Together with Beijing Auto Design Institute and the commercial car R&D center of Beiqi Foton Motor, the new R&D base will help BAIC speed up its strategic development of new-energy own-brand vehicles.

Construction of the facility, covering 158,000 square meters in suburban Shunyi district of Beijing, is scheduled to be completed and put into operation by the end of 2011. It will focus on developing and making BAIC's Beijing-brand passenger vehicle models.

Beijing Auto Design Institute has been developing BAIC's own-brand vehicle products for two years. At the 2008 Beijing auto show in April, BAIC displayed three Beijing-brand sedan concept models, three SUV models and two hybrid cars. The "Beijing" sedans have drawn much attention.

"Currently, the concept designs of our Beijing-brand vehicles have completed and their engineering development has started," said a top executive of BAIC yesterday. "We are developing four new vehicle models simultaneously, including new-energy ones."

In 2010, BAIC will start to launch a series of own-brand vehicle products and at least one new model will go to market in each of the coming years. Most of them will be clean new-energy vehicles, said the executive.

Chinese automakers have been racing to roll out self-branded cars and new energy vehicles as the central government aims to upgrade the auto industry that has assembled vehicles for global rivals for many years.