FAW to invest $818 mln in own-brand vehicle R&D

Shanghai September 17 (Gasgoo.com) A month after announcing it will invest 1.79 billion yuan ($265 million) to revive its luxury car brand, Red Flag (Hongqi in Chinese), First Auto Works (FAW) said yesterday that it will spend 5.57 billion yuan ($818 million) on research and development of own-brand vehicles, The Beijing News reported Friday.

The company will build a R&D center in Changchun, capital of Jilin province, which will also be the largest technical R&D center in the country. With an area of 440,000 square meters, the center will help research and develop self-developed models, including Red Flag, Besturn, etc..

The models developed by the center will be transferred to FAW-Xiali, FAW Jilin, FAW Car Co and other subsidiaries for production, FAW R&D Center Director Li Jun revealed.

FAW aims to boost sales to 5 million vehicles and takes 20% market share by 2015, Li said.