Etsong (Qingdao) Vehicle Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (颐中) was a former vehicle manufacturer based in

Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. They built local versions of the

Austin Maestro The Austin Maestro is a five-door hatchback small family car (and two-door van derivative) that was produced from November 1982 to 1986 by British Leyland, and from 1986 until December 1994 by Rover Group, as a replacement for the Austin Maxi a ...

and Montego with Toyota engines. Etsong was taken over by First Automotive Works in 2003 who kept building the Maestro/Montego in small numbers. The firm was then absorbed by

SAIC-GM-Wuling SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd. ( zh, 上汽通用五菱汽车股份有限公司, abbreviated as SGMW) is a joint venture between SAIC Motor, General Motors, and Guangxi Automobile Group, Guangxi Auto (previously Wuling Group). Based in Li ...

in June 2005, in order to produce SGMW mini vehicles.

History

The tooling and intellectual property rights to the

and Montego were sold by MG Rover to RDS International Engineering, who then sold it on to Etsong. Etsong began building a factory for this new venture in March 1998. The first cars were Maestro vans, assembled in late 2000. By 2001, the Maestro hatchback had also entered production. Since Etsong was not a licensed automobile manufacturer, the cars had model codes in the 6000 range, meaning that they were classified as buses rather than automobiles. Etsong, intending for the Maestro to become a "Qingdao People's Car", also developed an "MPV" version, which was simply a Maestro van with side windows and rear seats fitted. The Etsongs are fitted with the 1,342 cc Toyota 8A-FE engine. In 2003, the rights passed to First Automotive Works, which introduced a Maestro variant with a Montego front, the Lubao CA 6410, and a van, the Jiefang CA 6440 UA. The Lubaos were first shown in May 2003. In 2008 the Maestro Van was relaunched as the Yema SQJ6450 ( Yema F-series) by Sichuan Auto Industry Group Company Ltd who had purchased the tooling from FAW. SGMW took over Etsong in the summer of 2005. The factory is now used to produce small cars and vans for SGMW.

References

{{Automotive industry in the People's Republic of China Car manufacturers of China Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of China Manufacturing companies based in Qingdao Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1997 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 2003 Chinese companies established in 1997 Chinese companies disestablished in 2003