Dongfeng Liuzhou to enter passenger car market with SUVs

Shanghai November 23 (Gasgoo.com) Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, has made inroads into the passenger car segment - the industry's fastest growing market, with plans to launch several SUV and cross models in the domestic market, eeo.com reported Tuesday.

Dongfeng Liuzhou, owner of the Joyear (Jing Yi in Chinese) sedan and Fengxing Lingzhi MPV, held Nov. 22 a celebration for its sales revenue breaking the 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) mark. The automaker, having a history of 40 years, currently has an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles while doing only two series of passenger cars, the Lizhi and Joyear.

Dongfeng Liuzhou, in which Dongfeng Motor and Nissan each holds a 37.5% stake, with the rest (25%) belonging to Liuzhou government. In an effort to develop the city's automobile sector, particularly to support the development of Dongfeng Liuzhou's passenger car business, local authorities once invested 10 billion yuan in the area, of which 450 million yuan was granted to Donfeng Liuzhou, hoping the automaker would dedicate to development of sedans based on the Joyear TT- and T- platform, early sources said. 

Dongfeng Liuzhou has completed its capacity expansion project of 80,000 passenger cars at present, and will break ground on its new production base of over 100,000 passenger cars in 2011. The automaker, aiming to fully tap the passenger car market, plans to launch a number of new products based on the Dongfeng Fengxing cars, ranging from SUV to cross.