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During the Beijing auto show in September, Changan Automobile revealed that it would launch an independent high-end brand and gave a "Please look forward to" response. At the Changan Automobile Brand Day a few days ago, Changan Automobile officially announced the establishment of the new brand.

At the Brand Day event held by Changan Automobile on November 14, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, announced that Changan Automobile is working with Huawei and Ningde era to build a new high-end smart car brand. The first product is about to enter the stage of mass production.

According to officials, the cooperation to create a new brand, including a smart electric vehicle platform, a series of smart car products and smart life, energy ecology. According to the plan, under the new brand and Changan's existing UNI products, Changan Automobile will launch 105 models in the next five years, including 23 new energy products.

However, at this brand event, Changan Automobile only announced the establishment of a new brand with partners, and did not announce the new brand naming, car logo LOGO, investment planning, product performance, technical parameters and so on.

Zhu Huarong once said, "We are indeed very cautious about this brand. After all, many independent car companies have taken many detours on the high-end road of the brand." Changan Automobile officials said that Changan Automobile has fulfilled the development of independent brand flag, which was established in 2018.

As for the model of high-end brands and tripartite cooperation, some industry insiders said that Changan has experience in vehicle manufacturing, Ningde era has Sandian technology, and Huawei has 5G and intelligent technology. Cooperation between the three can promote the development of the brand and better control costs at the same time.

Chinese car companies have made many moves to hit the high end of the market by setting up new brands before, including cases of failed selling and successful survival. For example, Qoros and Bowo are all attempts by independent car companies to explore the middle and high end of the market, but they are eventually forced to resell them because of poor development and persistent losses. In the case of successful survival, LinkedIn and WEY are the representative brands, and Geely Motor and Great Wall Automobile behind them are independent front-line car companies with relatively strong capital and strength.

In addition to Changan Automobile, Dongfeng and SAIC are also planning their high-end brands. In July this year, Dongfeng launched its new high-end electric brand, which is named Lantu in Chinese. SAIC is promoting a new electric smart car brand project codenamed "L".

This time, Changan Automobile has joined hands with Huawei and Ningde era to create a new high-end brand, which is believed to be mainly for intelligent and electric products. In October this year, Huawei officially launched its smart car solutions brand HI, announcing in-depth cooperation with domestic and foreign automakers in a full range of smart solutions such as smart driving, intelligent cockpit, smart electric, intelligent Internet connection and smart car cloud, as well as lidar.

Unlike other car companies, the joint venture sector of Changan Automobile is relatively weak, and it seems imperative to develop independent business. Changan Suzuki foreign shareholders withdrew, Changan Peugeot Citroen dissolved and delisted, Changan Ford's annual sales fell from 820000 in 2017 to 220000 in 2019, and Changan Mazda accounted for a low proportion of sales, which also led to Changan losses. The performance report shows that Changan Automobile lost 2.6 billion yuan in 2019.

To vigorously develop its own business, Changan Automobile has launched the PLUS series, BlueKing powertrain, high-end UNI series products, and achieved certain results. Under the continuous hot sales of CS75 series, Changan Yiyou, UNI-T and other models, the independent sales of Changan Automobile have increased rapidly. Retail sales of Changan autonomous passenger cars reached 108000 in October, up 50 per cent from a year earlier, while cumulative sales in the first 10 months were 744000, up 24.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Federation of passengers.

At present, Changan Automobile has two passenger car brands, Changan passenger car and Auchan passenger car. Zhu Huarong said that "independent car companies have taken many detours on the road of high-end brand". With such an understanding, perhaps Changan Automobile will have different views on high-end brands, which is also worth looking forward to.

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