Nanjing Automobile is a

state-owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...

with a history that dates from 1947,Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation
businessweek.com making it the oldest of the Chinese

automobile manufacturer The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, Maintenance, repairing, and Custom car, modification of motor ve ...

sRover sold to Nanjing Automobile
bbc.com, Saturday, 23 July 2005, 09:36 GMT although the comparatively younger FAW Automotive was the first to make cars. The group's products have included cars, trucks, and buses. Nanjing Auto merged with the much larger SAIC in 2007REFILE-UPDATE 2-SAIC to make MG 6 in UK, upbeat on own-brand car
reuters.com, Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:04am EST becoming a subsidiary of that company.

History

Civil-war era

The history of the corporation dates to 1947 during the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

. In the July 1949, a repair service center attached to the East China Field Army (which later became the Third Field Army) took control of an automobile workshop in

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

Jiangsu province Jiangsu is a coastal province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the third smallest, but the fifth most populous, with a population of 84. ...

, former capital of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, after the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

had conquered the city.

Early light-truck production (Yue Jin brand)

In the 1950s, oversight of the small automobile workshop that would become Nanjing Automobile was transferred to China's First Ministry of Industrial Machinery. It began making China's first domestically produced light-duty trucks in 1958, the 2½ ton NJ-130, based on the

GAZ-51 The GAZ-51 (Russian: ГАЗ-51) is a light truck manufactured by the Soviet vehicle manufacturer GAZ, Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod. The vehicle was designed before the World War II, Second World War and mass-produced together with the all-wheel-driv ...

from the Soviet Union. The Ministry branded the truck ''Guerin'' (跃进牌汽车 - literally meaning "Leap Forward") and approved the establishment of Nanjing Automobile Works that same year. Truck production continued until July 1987 at which point 161,988 units of various models including the NJ-130, NJ-230, NJ-135, and NJ-134 had been built. ''Guerin'' later became Yue Jin while the Mandarin name remains ''跃进''.

Technology transfers

Nanjing Auto has repeatedly used

technology transfer Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...

s to make the company more

competitive Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...

Mid-1980s

In the mid-1980s, Nanjing Auto purchased designs and moulds from

Isuzu , commonly known as Isuzu (, ), is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Its principal activity is the production, marketing and sale of Isuzu commercial vehicles and diesel engines ...

and obtained technology from the Italian

Iveco Iveco S.p.A., an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company with headquarters in Turin, Italy. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy Commercial vehicle, commercial veh ...

, the commercial vehicle unit of

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...

, participating in a spate of technology transfer deals circa 1980 that saw Japanese designs and machinery sold to Chinese buyers.Globalization of the automobile industry: the United States, Japan, and the People's Republic of China Pg. 140
By Xiaohua Yang, Google Book Search, 1995 The

purchases allowed Nanjing Auto to produce a version of the

Iveco Daily The Iveco Daily is a large light commercial vehicle, light commercial van produced by the Italy, Italian automaker Iveco since 1978; it was also sold as the Fiat Daily by Fiat Automobiles, Fiat until 1983. Unlike the more car-like unibody Fiat D ...

2000s

In 2000 the design, and possibly the tooling, for

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

's first generation

Ibiza Ibiza (; ; ; #Names and pronunciation, see below) or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of th ...

was purchased and the car sold in China as the

Nanjing Yuejin Soyat The Soyat is a subcompact hatchback built by the Wuxi Soyat (南汽新雅途) branch of Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation. The car is based on the original 1984 ('System Porsche') version of the SEAT Ibiza Mark I (1984-1993). History ...

.SEAT Ibiza celebrates 25th Anniversary
seatcupra.net, Friday, 08 May 2009

MG Rover

Acquisition of MG Rover Group assets

Nanjing Auto acquired some assets of

MG Rover Group MG Rover Group was a British carmaker that existed between 2000 and 2005. It was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufac ...

and Powertrain Ltd in 2005 after the group had entered

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

. According to the purchase agreement, Nanjing Auto bought MG,

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

, and some other dormant British car brands, and the production technology and equipment for the

MG ZT The MG ZT is a car which was produced by MG Rover Group, MG Rover from 2001 to 2005. It was offered in saloon and estate versions, the latter designated as the MG ZT-T. Styling is similar to the Rover 75, upon which it was based, although variou ...

and MG TF models. Some equipment and

blueprint A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842. The process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited number ...

s were repossessed by

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

, as its

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

was used in some of MG Rover vehicles, in particular, the Rover 45 and MG ZS, which were based on the

Honda Domani The Honda Domani () is a car made by Honda and marketed in east Asia, including Japan. The car was mutually developed during Rover's collaboration with Honda. It was introduced on 4 November 1992, replacing the Concerto in Honda's lineup, although ...

MG production plan

Nanjing Auto decided to establish production bases for MGs at

Longbridge Longbridge is an area in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire, historically being within this place. Public transport Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus ...

and

. A plan to open another factory in

Ardmore, Oklahoma Ardmore is the county seat of Carter County, Oklahoma, Carter County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 24,725 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 1.8% increase over the 2010 census figure of 24,283. The Ardmo ...

, USA was not realized. The production of engines, transmissions and medium and low end vehicle products would be transferred to China, where a supply chain would also be set up. A production facility would be retained in the UK, with the original Longbridge site integrated to resume the production of MG TF sport cars. Meanwhile, by making use of the R&D capability and personnel in the UK as well as that of China, the

Euro IV The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards that regulate pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and European Economic Area member states and the United Kingdom, and ships in Europea ...

engines and a new generation of vehicles would be developed and then produced in both China and the UK. In 2007, Nanjing Auto planned to build 13,000 cars based on the Rover 75 / MG ZT sedan, renamed

MG 7 The MG7 is a mid-size sedan that was built by MG Motor between 2007 and 2013, derived from its British predecessors, Rover 75 and MG ZT to suit Chinese manufacturing and sales. The name was resurrected in 2022 with the launch of the second gene ...

. These cars would be mostly sedans (saloons), plus some MG 7T estate cars. It also planned 3,000 MG TF convertible sports cars.

Pukou plant

The MG Factory of Nanjing Auto is located in the High-level New Technology Economic Development Zone in

Pukou Pukou District (), is one of 11 districts of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, China, lying northwest across the Yangtze River from downtown Nanjing. The district was formerly the southern terminus of the Tianjin-Pukou Railway; railcars ...

(a new district of

). The capacity of the Nanjing-MG Factory will reach 200,000 autos, 250,000 engines and 100,000 gear-boxes. The initial MG range consisted of just the MG 7 and the MG TF. Nanjing Auto also started production of the Rover Streetwise-based

MG 3 The MG3 is a small car produced by the Chinese automotive company SAIC under the British MG marque. The first generation, marketed as the MG3 SW, is based on the British made Rover Streetwise, which itself was based on the Rover 25, while t ...

SW in 2008.

Longbridge plant

The plant at

was for many years one of the most important car making factories in Europe as well as the largest British-owned car manufacturing plant, making

cars for most of the 20th century. After the Abingdon plant closed in 1980, Longbridge was also from 1982 the home of MG and then of the Rover marque which gradually replaced Austin in the late 1980s. The site is owned by St. Modwen Properties which acquired in two deals in 2003 and 2004 for £57.5 million and leased it back to MG Rover Group. A 33-year deal was signed in February 2006 between Nanjing Auto and St. Modwen Properties covering the lease of 105 acres (a quarter of the total area of the Longbridge plant) but including the two main car assembly plants, the paint shop and administrative offices at a rent of around £1.8 million a year. £10 million was estimated to be needed to reopen the factory. With the merger of Nanjing Auto and SAIC, ownership of the Longbridge plant became a SAIC controlled facility.

Chang Da

Chang Da (畅达) is an NEV sub-brand of Nanjing Automobile and SAIC. Established in 2009, Chang Da has been developing electric light logistics vans for "the last mile" delivery. The first product, Chang Da H9 is based on the structure of FAW Jiabao V80 (佳宝V80) and took three years to develop before being launched in 2017. The Chang Da H9 could be either bought or leased in fleets.

Joint ventures

Nanjing Auto has had at least two joint ventures with the Italian automaker

. First, there was a 50/50 joint venture set up in 1999 that collapsed sometime in 2007. This was followed by Naveco, a joint venture with Fiat's commercial vehicles unit,

, established in 1996.

Naveco

In 1996, Nanjing Auto established Naveco (Nanjing Iveco Automobile Co LtdNANJING IVECO ROLLS OUT NEW YUEJIN LIGHT TRUCK FOR EXPORT
findarticles.com; AsiaInfo Services, 06-28-20077) with

,The New Naveco is celebrated in Nanjing
Iveco Official Site, 29.10.07 Fiat's commercial vehicles unit. The joint venture initially manufactured a version of the

for sale in the Chinese market, and, as of 1995, it continued to make light trucks but had added diesel engines as well.Globalization of the automobile industry: the United States, Japan, and the People's Republic of China Pg. 159
By Xiaohua Yang, Google Book Search, 1995 The company acquired the truck manufacturing assets of Yuejin Motor Co sometime in 2007.Fiat's Fidis Sale Would Push Net Above EU1 Billion, Chief Says
bloomberg.com, September 14, 2006 10:25 EDT In July 2017, Naveco started production of the new Iveco China Daily in the new factory of Qiaolin,

. Naveco products include are listed below: * Iveco Daily Ousheng ()- Facelift based on the second generation Iveco Daily. * Iveco Power Daily ()- Facelift based on the third generation Iveco Daily. * Iveco Xindeyi ()- Extended production of the first generation Iveco Daily *Iveco Ouba *Iveco Venice

Nanjing Fiat

Another joint venture was Nanjing Fiat, established with Fiat in 1999. This Italian automaker quit the company in 2007 citing a lack of investment on the part of its Chinese partner. As of 2006, it was producing four models: the Perla and

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

sedans,

Palio Palio is the name given in Italy to an annual athletic contest, very often of a historical character, pitting the neighbourhoods of a town or the hamlets of a ''comune'' against each other. Typically, they are fought in costume and commemorate so ...

, compact and Palio Weekend station wagon. Most of Nanjing Fiat's design and tooling was taken over by

Zotye Zotye Auto (; officially Zotye International Automobile Trading Co., Ltd.) is a privately owned Chinese automobile manufacturer based in Yongkang, Zhejiang, China. It is owned by Zotye Holding Group and was established in 2005. History Zotye was ...

in 2008. The company was located in the

Jiangning District Jiangning District () is one of 11 districts of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, China. The District has a population of 1,926,000 and an area of 1,600 square kilometers. It includes southern and south-eastern suburbs of Nanjing. Jiangnin ...

's Economic & Technological Development Zone in

Internal divisions

As the company further developed its management, four complete production ecosystems were created.

Yuejin Light Truck Co

A major manufacturing base of Nanjing Auto,Nanjing Auto gears up to expand
chinadaily.com, 2003-09-03 it makes light-duty trucks under the ''Yuejin'' brand. The production of Isuzu-based SUVs and pickups was transferred to the Wuxi Soyat branch in 2005. Sometime in 2007, Yuejin's truck-making business was merged with the

-Nanjing Auto joint venture Naveco, which continued to sell under the ''Yuejin'' brand. Located in an economic development zone in

Huishan District Huishan District () is one of five urban districts of Wuxi, Jiangsu province, China. The total area of the district is 327.12 km2. In 2006 the population was 388,957. Administrative divisions In the present, Huishan District has 5 subdistric ...

Wuxi Wuxi ( zh, s=无锡, p=Wúxī, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu, China. As of the 2024 census, it had a population of 7,495,000. The city lies in the southern Yangtze delta and borders Lake Tai. Notable landmarks include Lihu Park, the Mt. Lings ...

, (about 150 km east of Nanjing) the Wuxi Branch of Yuejin Automobile Co is a Nanjing Auto production base, and it may be the newest having been built sometime after 2003. Production of the Junda SUVs and pickups was taken over from Nanjing's Yuejin brand in 2005. By 2008, after SAIC's takeover of Nanjing, Wuxi Soyat production came to a halt. The factory is now used by SAIC to build the

Maxus SAIC Maxus Automotive Co., Ltd. trading as Maxus (LDV in Australia and New Zealand) and sometimes known by the pinyin transcription of its Chinese name, Datong (大通) is a Chinese vehicle brand. Currently, it is a commercial and passenger ve ...

commercial van. File:Yuejin NJ1080.JPG, Yuejin NJ1080 in Russia File:Yuejin NJ-1063 2008 (17326911033).jpg, 2008 Yuejin NJ-1063 flatbed in Chile File:Yuejin NJ-812 2011 (15750510596).jpg, 2011 Yuejin NJ-812 in Chile File:Yuejin NJ 713 Crew Cab 2014 (14038789260).jpg, 2014 Yuejin NJ-713 Crew Cab File:Yue Jin Shangjun X100 series 001.jpg, Yuejin Shangjun () X100 series in China File:Yuejin Xiaofuxing S50 front 8.16.18.jpg, Yuejin Xiaofuxing () S50 series in China File:SAIC Fuxing ES80 001.jpg, SAIC Fuxing ES80 (Electric version of the Yuejin Fuyun S80)

Brands

Car brands owned by Nanjing Auto include: * ''Soyat'' - the

, a Chinese version of the first generation

SEAT Ibiza The SEAT Ibiza is a supermini car that has been manufactured by Spanish car manufacturer SEAT since 1984. It is SEAT's best-selling car. The Ibiza is named after the Spanish island of Ibiza and was the second SEAT model to be named after a Span ...

, is sold under the brand. Discontinued in 2008. * MG (MG Rover Group and Powertrain Ltd assets acquired by Nanjing Auto include other brands as well: Wolseley,

Morris Morris may refer to: Places Australia * St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Man ...

Vanden Plas Vanden Plas is the name of coachbuilders who produced bodies for specialist and up-market automobile manufacturers. Latterly the name became a top-end luxury model designation for cars from subsidiaries of British Leyland and the Rover Group, ...

(outside the US & Canada), American Austin,

Princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...

and Sterling) * ''Yuejin'' - a commercial vehicle brand

Legal ownership

Sometime before the 1980s, Nanjing Auto was under the joint jurisdiction of both the central and local governments. As of 2003, this vehicle manufacturer was owned by Yuejin Automobile Group of

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

, which held just over fifty-per cent ownership of the company at this time, and two State firms created to dispose of non-performing bank loans,

China Huarong Asset Management China CITIC Financial Asset Management (previously known as China Huarong) is a majority state-owned financial asset management company in China, with a focus on distressed debt management. It was one of the four asset management companies that ...

and

China Cinda Asset Management China Cinda Asset Management Co., Ltd., doing business as Cinda or China Cinda, is a Chinese distressed asset management company headquartered in Beijing. The corporation was founded as a state-owned enterprise and a bad bank for China Constru ...

. Nanjing Auto is now a subsidiary of SAIC, having been merged with the much larger automaker in 2007.

SAIC merger

A result of

Chinese State The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's congresses. Th ...

policy to encourage

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

in the domestic automobile market,

SAIC Motor SAIC Motor Corp., Ltd. (formerly Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) is a Chinese State-owned enterprises of China, state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Anting, Shanghai. Founded in 1955, it is currently the largest of the ...

and the state-owned parent company of Nanjing Auto, Yuejin Automotive Group, finalized a long-planned merger in December 2007.SAIC and Yuejin Auto merger creates Chinese car colossus
xinhuanet.com, 2007-12-26 Fitful merger negotiations between the two companies had begun in 2001, and the tie-up was widely anticipated. Prior to the merger, but bidding alongside SAIC, Nanjing Auto purchased the remaining assets of British group MG Rover for near US$100 million.AUTOSHOW-UPDATE 1-Brilliance plans US sales as early as 2007
reuters.com, Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:22am EDT