Dongfeng Motor

Background and founding

During the Korean war, there was a need for trucks to be used on the battlefield. The Ministry of Machinery planned a factory to build an imitation of the GAZ-51 truck. This was originally planned to be at Qingshan District, Wuhan, and later revised to Wuchang District, also in Wuhan. In 1955, these sites were disregarded as being too vulnerable to air raids, and Chengdu was chosen as the proposed site. The reasoning is also mentioned in a dictate of Chairman Mao Zedong; as part of his "Third Front" strategy However, due to the poor state of the economy, the plans were shelved.In 1958, Hunan was picked as the site for the proposed truck factory, as the Yangtze basin area of the province didn't have any heavy industry yet. In 1960 preparations started at the site in Shiyan, but were abruptly halted. As the Chinese economy improved, and as a result of the Sino-Soviet split, production of military trucks came into the spotlight again, and construction of the Second Automobile Works was included in the third five-year plan in 1965.The company was officially founded in 1969 at a village of 100 residents, that would later grow to become Shiyan city. This remote location was chosen as its topography consisted of over 40 shallow valleys, allowing factories to be concealed, while also being on the route of the Xiangyang–Chongqing railway. Due to its remote countryside location with limited equipment, the company only managed to produce 200 automobiles by 1972.

Mass production

In 1975, the first EQ240 2.5-ton Dongfeng truck was produced, followed by the EQ140 5-ton model in 1978, which was also the first civilian truck by the company. At its peak the EQ140 held a domestic market share of 66%. In 1986, Dongfeng surpassed 100,000 vehicles produced annually. In 1987, a new 3-ton model was launched.Traditionally manufacturing commercial vehicles, by 2001 these made up about 73% of Dongfeng's production. By 2012, that figure had reversed, and 73% of manufactures were passenger cars. However, the percentage of consumer offerings was likely lower as passenger car counts may include microvans, tiny commercial vehicles that are popular in China.

Between 1978 and 1985 alongside the market-based Chinese economic reforms instituted by Deng Xiaoping, Dongfeng was transformed from a manufacturer of two heavy-duty trucks with fragmented operations and ownership into a single, centrally managed enterprise. This process included placing all Dongfeng operations—from part manufacture to vehicle assembly—under the control of a single business entity and the merger of six truck production bases as well as a number of other companies previously controlled by provincial governments. Post-1985, further reforms took place that allowed Dongfeng greater autonomy; the company was removed from the direct administrative control of the central government.By the mid-1980s, its assets had tripled from those initially given to it by the state in 1981, and management was desirous of even greater production capacity. But in 1995, the company was experiencing financial difficulties as was the case with many Chinese automobile manufacturers at this time. The situation was still dire in 1998 precipitating a 1999 restructuring of the company.In 1992, the company changed its name to Dongfeng, or "East Wind" in Chinese.

This state owned enterprise has come into conflict with authority at both the national and provincial levels. Alongside First Automobile Works it saw the successful dismantling of the Automobile Corporation, a central government entity presumably tasked with preventing non-competitive business practices through dictating output volumes and curtailing purchasing as well as exasperation at the right of the State to make managerial appointments.The Chinese partner in many Sino-foreign joint venture companies, Dongfeng initiated most of these cooperative efforts with foreign firms in the early 2000s. But its first was established in 1992 with French PSA Group. Known as Dongfeng Citroën Automobile Company , it was the forerunner to the current Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile Limited .

2000 to 2010

By 2003, Dongfeng had established joint ventures with Kia Motors , Honda , and Nissan . As of 2011, it had more Sino-foreign joint ventures than any other Chinese automaker, and the 2013 creation of a partnership with French Renault means it retains this title today.

In 2004, intermediate holding company of the group, Dongfeng Motor Group, became a listed company in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; Dongfeng Yueda Kia remained in the unlisted portion of the group.

Dongfeng announced in November 2006 that they intend to sell their vehicles in Japan.In 2009, it sold 1.9 million vehicles ranking second among domestic automakers and third overall.

2010 to present

In 2010, the company sold 2.72 million units, making it the second most-productive Chinese vehicle-maker. It reported 1.72 million sales of passenger vehicles that same year.2011 production figures put the company in second place, in terms of production volume, in its home market; Dongfeng produced 3.06 million vehicles that year.It was the second-largest Chinese automaker in 2012 by production volume, and Dongfeng manufactured over 2.76 million whole vehicles that year with passenger cars comprising 73% of manufacture. The number of cars counted as passenger vehicles may conflate consumer offerings and tiny commercial trucks and vans known as microvans, however.

Dongfeng established its first research and development facility outside of China in October 2012 when it acquired a 70 percent stake in the Swedish engineering company T Engineering AB.In December 2013, Dongfeng and the French automaker Renault agreed to form a 50:50 joint venture, Dongfeng Renault Automotive Co Ltd., to manufacture Renault brand passenger cars for the Chinese market. The two partners agreed to invest an initial 7.76 billion yuan in the venture, which became Dongfeng's sixth joint venture with a foreign automaker—the most of any Chinese automaker.In February 2014, loss making PSA Peugeot Citroën, a joint venture partner of Dongfeng since 1992, was recapitalized, with Dongfeng Motor Group taking a 14% stake.In 2017, it was announced that Dongfeng Motor Corporation would be re-incorporated as a limited company, renaming to ??????????, which only differ from its subsidiary Dongfeng Motor Group for the word ??) .In 2020, Dongfeng dissolved its ventures Dongfeng Renault, Dongfeng Yulon and withdrawn from Dongfeng Yueda Kia in 2021.

On June 12 2020, the mass-produced version of the Dongfeng Sharing-VAN 1.0 rolled off the production line at its technical center, demonstrating Dongfeng's 5G-enabled autonomous vehicle with level 4 applications.