Changan takes over former Hyundai factory in China
The Economic Observer was the first to report on the change of ownership of the plant, but Deepal has since confirmed the move. According to the report, the new logos were already affixed to the plant at the end of October, but production has not yet started.
The background to this is said to be the growth plans of Changan and Deepal. In 2024, production capacity was still at 2.25 million vehicles, but Changan’s sales target for 2025 is three million vehicles. According to The Economic Observer, Changan’s production is operating at 84 per cent capacity, which is a fairly good figure, and leaves little room for improvement.
Beijing Hyundai, a Chinese joint venture between Hyundai and BAIC, announced the factory in Chongqing in 2015 as the joint venture’s fifth plant at the time and started production at the end of 2017. Just four years later, in December 2021, Beijing Hyundai had already shut down production at the plant, which cost over a billion dollars at the time – the plant’s capacity is 300,000 vehicles.
Hyundai invested heavily in China several years ago, but the hoped-for success failed to materialise – Hyundai somewhat missed the boat when it came to the trend towards electric mobility in China, as the Hyundai EO, the Group’s first electric car designed exclusively for China, only went on sale this year. Initially, Hyundai and its sister brand Kia tried unsuccessfully to market electric versions of their combustion engine models in China. Since then, various plans have been made and then scrapped.
Changan, which was ‘promoted’ to state-owned car manufacturer in China in the summer, is not the first domestic manufacturer to take over a poorly utilised joint venture factory: in 2021, Li Auto had already taken over a Beijing Hyundai plant in Beijing. And just this November, another Chinese manufacturer, Geely, took over a SAIC-GM plant in Shenyang in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning.
Changan has big plans for its electric brand Deepal: with the S05 and S07, two electric SUVs are also set to enter the German market. You can read our first impressions of the S05 here. In the Netherlands, there is a cooperation with the Emil Frey Group. And in China, the Deepal L06 electric mid-range sedan recently went on sale.
This article was first published by Sebastian Schaal for electrive’s German edition.
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