Changan Auto fuels up for independent cars

Over half of the year 2010 has passed. With the increasingly intensive market competition, the development of independent brands, which is a matter of the development of China's auto industry, is the center of attention in the auto industry. Xu Liuping, Board Chairman of Changan Automobile, indicated, "In terms of independent brands, I feel that the challenge in this year is much bigger than that in last year and self-owned brand itself is facing increasing pressure." However, he showed firm confidence in the development of independent brands of Changan Automobile: "Given the current situation, the independent brands of Changan Automobile are rapidly growing."

From January to July, Changan Automobile has achieved the total sales of 1.39 million vehicles with the increase of 33 percent. Among the total sales, the sales of cars of independent brands reach 987 thousand, up 34.8 percent year on year. The growth of independent brands is remarkable: relying on the brands in great demand such as Alsvin and Benni as well as Benni MINI and CX30 appearing on the market which are very popular among young people, Changan Automobile has gained the growth rate of 47.70 percent in self-owned sedans.

Recently, the data released by OICA inspires Changan Automobile to invest in development of independent brands with determination. The statistical data shows that in 2009, Changan Automobile produced 1.425 million independent brand vehicles and ranked first among the car manufacturers in China and the thirteenth in the world. With the strategy of producing cars of independent brands being continuously pushed forward, Changan Automobile achieves the increase of 157 percent in vehicles of independent brands in the year 2009, and becomes a vital force in this field.

The industry has agreed that the auto industry of China must uphold the road of independent innovation and must develop independent brands. But the building of independent brands should not rest on the spoken level, but be put into practice, and further need the car manufacturers to steadily carry forward step by step. The impressive achievements gained by Changan Automobile exactly benefit from its recognition to and constant investment on independent brands.

Against introducing and digesting the advanced technologies of foreign countries, Changan Automobile has always stuck to the auto industry development pattern of independent innovation. After the phases of "introducing technologies", "digesting and absorbing", "centering on itself, developing jointly", the capacity of independent innovation of Changan Automobile grows up continuously. Changan Automobile has implemented the strategy of "centering on Changan, developing jointly" since the year 2006. That is, relying on domestic industrial policy support, seeing the company as the innovation subject, and regarding foreign partners as resources, Changan Automobile builds the system of independent innovation centering on itself through progressive upgrading of technical innovation in the linkage of the government, foreign partners and the company to cultivate and foster the core competitiveness of the company.

Changan Automobile spares no effort to invest in R&D. The investment for scientific research accounts for 4.5 percent of the sales revenue every year. In recent three years, the accumulated amount of RMB20 billion yuan has been used to strengthen the construction of R&D means and capacity. Changan Automotive Engineering Research Institute is the corporate technical center accredited by the state. The experiment evaluating ability covers all the fields except for wind tunnel testing. In November 2009, Changan Automotive Engineering Research Institute ranked the seventh among the 575 corporate technical centers around the country and ranked first in the auto industry of China. By July 2010, Changan Automobile has applied for 3517 patents and 394 patents of invention.

As R&D layout spans the globe and continues to well develop, Changan Automobile has laid the foundation for independent R&D. With the Britain R&D Center formally set up on June 28, 2010, Changan Automobile has put up the R&D systems in Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, Harbin, Jiangxi, Turin, Yokohama, and Nottingham. Through PDM system, 24 hours' ongoing coordinated R&D has been achieved among the R&D centers. The transformation from traditional mode to informatization one has been realized. Given the core dimensions such as appearance design, trim design, power technology and chassis technology, Changan Automobile has stretched its antenna of R&D to the world.

After years of independent R&D, Changan Automobile has reached the domestic first-class and international leading level in terms of molding/overall layout design, structure and performance design, CAE analysis, craft and sample car manufacturing, experimental verification and project comprehensive management, and has built product development process that conforms to international practices.

Chinese auto market with a huge potential is the place where independent brands can take the spotlight. Xu Liuping said, "Given the situation of Changan Automobile, though we have gained a raid growth rate, there is still large space for growth of independent brands of Changan Automobile." Changan Automobile still needs to make more efforts to become the winner in the auto market.