China's Zotye to make Fiat Lancia next year

China's Zotye Holding Group has made an agreement with Fiat Group under which Zotye will build the Fiat Lancia Lybra in the Chinese market under the code name JN-X1 starting next October.

Zotye has bought the tooling and intellectual property of Lancia Lybra this May and according to Zotye officials, the company may go further to buy eight or more other Fiat models in future, including Fiat Multipla, to realize its output target of 100,000 vehicles per year.

Lybra to be launched next year

Production of Lancia Lybra has been suspended in Italia early in 2005. Zotye said it has bought out the entire intellectual property of the model from Fiat and will not need to pay additional fees for the purchase in future.

Zotye Holding also plans to purchase tooling to manufacture the six-seat Multipla van. In early 2008, it is expected that Fiat will ship knockdown kits of the Multipla, built in Turin, Italy, to Zotye, says the Fiat executive.

At the mean time Zotye Holding has bought the assembly line tooling and intellectual property for the Torque, a 1.6-liter, 105-hp gasoline engine from Fiat, say Fiat sources. Sources at Zotye Holding say the company is constructing an engine factory in Tongling, Anhui province.
　
To produce 300,000 vehicles by 2010

Zotye Holding was formed in 1992 in Yongkang City, Zhejiang province, as an automotive sheet metal supplier and entered the auto industry as of 2006. The company sold a total of 13,000 Zotye2008s during the year, of which 1,000 were exported. In January 2007, Zotye Holding acquired 70 percent of Hunan Jiangnan Automobile Manufacturing Co., based in Hunan province. Zotye Holding will use the Hunan operations as its main manufacturing base.
 
After taking over Jiangnan Auto, Zotye is authorized to produce vehicles covering sedans, SUVs and commercial vehicle. "On the basis of Zotye Holding Group's strategy, by 2010 Zotye Holding will be able to achieve a production of 300,000 vehicles," says Wu Jianzhong, president of Zotye.

Already with 14,000 SUVs sold in the first six months of this year and helped by the introduction of Lancia Lybra lineup of models the coming year, Zotye has the potential to become a major player in China's auto industry if all of the plans go well.