It’s not a good idea.
Reporting by Duan Xu, Zhang Jian and Changchun
FAW, the starting point of New China’s automobile industry. Seventy years ago, on July 15, 1953, the groundbreaking ceremony of the First Automobile Factory was held in the southwest suburbs of Changchun City, where the first car, the first Dongfeng brand car, and the first Hongqi brand high-end car were developed and manufactured in New China… FAW ushered in a new era of new China’s automobile industry from scratch.
On July 15, 2023, China’s automobile industry celebrated its 70th birthday, and China FAW, the "eldest son of the Republic," also celebrated its 70th birthday. In Changchun, China FAW held a celebration to commemorate this occasion.
With the support of the whole country, FAW was completed and put into production, realizing the leap from scratch in our country’s automobile industry. Since the reform and opening up, in the face of the reality that domestic automobile products were "less heavy and less light" and insufficient production capacity at that time, FAW accelerated the construction of modern production bases, vigorously developed light vehicles and cars, established joint ventures, and rapidly improved manufacturing capabilities. In recent years, FAW has focused on promoting reform and innovation, developing the Hongqi brand with the strength of the whole group, improving the independent research and development system, and promoting the reform of the system and mechanism to break the "iron rice bowl", and the enterprise has been reborn.
With the original intention and mission of "auto power", FAW and many brother enterprises and units together, fully promote the new China automobile industry from scratch, from weak to strong, strive to master key core technologies, make the national automobile brand bigger and stronger, and inject strong impetus into the Chinese path to modernization.

China FAW Group NBD headquarters building (drone photo). Photo by reporter Xu Chang
It’s not a good idea.Starting from scratch, laying the foundation for China’s automotive industry
Walking on Dongfeng Street in Changchun City, the white marble cornerstone of the "First Automobile Manufacturing Factory" stands tall, together with the solemn and atmospheric FAW early buildings.
Recently, the "China 500 Most Valuable Brands in 2023" released by the World Brand Lab shows that the brand value of FAW in 2023 is 429.157 billion yuan, ranking first in the automotive industry. Hongqi’s brand value in 2023 is 115.529 billion yuan, ranking first in the passenger car brand industry. The brand value of Jiefang 2023 is 118.776 billion yuan, ranking first in the commercial vehicle brand industry. These first places become the latest annotations of FAW’s 70-year continuous struggle to achieve brilliant results.
Looking back to the early days of the founding of New China, "when will the Chinese people be able to drive their own cars" is not only a dream of many people, but also a question of the times. Under the guidance of the "Instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Striving to Build Changchun Automobile Factory in Three Years", New China concentrated its efforts to do great things. Thousands of cadres and people gathered in Changchun to cultivate and build FAW.
Drawing on the strength of the whole country, it will be completed and put into operation in three years; starting from scratch, it will open up the beginning of the new Chinese automobile industry.
"In order to welcome the tenth anniversary of the founding of New China, we took on the task of manufacturing a high-end car," recalled Dou Shuxiang, a retired employee. At that time, time was tight, and the drawings were too late to draw. Everyone made a bold decision – to hit it directly with a hammer! Summoned the country’s top sheet metal masters, hung up more than 2,000 spare parts drawings, adopted the method of "catching the temple fair" to recruit talents, and skilled craftsmen rushed to trial-produce the pictures… On August 1, 1958, the first Hongqi high-end car was successfully trial-produced, which took only more than a month.
Hard work, innovation and development are rooted in FAW’s bloodline. In the process of reform and opening up, FAW has kept up with the pace of the times. Since the 1980s, it has joined hands with Volkswagen, Toyota and other world auto giants. Domestic Audi, Jetta, Bora and other models are deeply loved by the masses, absorbed a lot of technology and advanced management experience, and laid the industrial chain, technology and talent foundation for our country’s auto industry to catch up with the world’s advanced pace. It also "blocked" the loss of foreign exchange caused by imported cars.
Qiu Xindong, general manager and deputy party secretary of FAW, said that FAW ended the history that New China could not build cars, and established two national brands, "Liberation" and "Red Flag", which produced technology, talents and experience, and made significant contributions to the country’s economic development and national defense construction.
The development of FAW has witnessed the development of China’s automobile industry along the way, cultivating a large number of industrial talents who understand technology and management, and promoting the growth and expansion of the industrial chain.
Over the past 70 years, China’s automobile industry has developed from a manufacturing plant to a large number of automobile enterprise groups, and from a national automobile brand to a large number of well-known national automobile brands, forming a complete modern industrial system. Today, our country has long since grown from a country with a lack of industry to the world’s largest automobile producer and consumer. It has become the world’s largest automobile production and sales country for 14 consecutive years, and the scale of new energy automobile production and sales has ranked first in the world for 8 consecutive years. In the first quarter of this year, our country’s automobile exports took the first place in the world.
Workers assemble vehicles in the FAW Jiefang assembly workshop. Photo by reporter Xu Chang
It’s not a good idea.Continuous research to make core technologies autonomous and controllable
"Control key core technologies" "Establish a national car brand" "Build a world-class enterprise"… No. 1 Xinhongqi Street in Changchun City is the headquarters of FAW Group, and these slogans can be seen everywhere. In FAW’s office building, people flow during the day and lights are brilliant at night. As an "old state-owned enterprise", FAW is like a start-up company with new vitality.
Enterprises are dynamic and innovative.
Maximum power of 560 kilowatts, performance indicators to achieve international leadership – early this year, by FAW self-developed self-produced V-type 12-cylinder direct injection engine trial production.
The engine is the "heart" of the car. The V12 engine, which has a complex structure and is difficult to develop, represents the highest level of passenger car engines. Foreign established car manufacturers have accumulated deep experience, and as a latecomer, China has been in the blank field for a long time.
The achievement of the V-type 12-cylinder direct injection supercharged engine has condensed the dream of several generations of FAW people. After continuous scientific and technological research, this engine broke the technical barriers of international suppliers for decades and took the initiative in power manufacturing.
In the field of new energy vehicles, FAW is also constantly innovating and forging ahead. On the eve of this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, following the launch of the electric and intelligent platform, the third largest platform of Hongqi’s "flag" high-end electric intelligent super architecture FMEs – the hybrid platform was officially unveiled. The platform created two hybrid engines, 20TD and 15TD, with thermal efficiency of 44.3% and 45.2% respectively, solving the industry problem of balancing "cleaner" and "stronger".
In the era of "architected car building" and "software-defined car", FAW has released "one major architecture and three major platforms" in half a year, fully promoting "All in" new energy, which is rare in the industry.
The first Jiefang brand car, V12 engine, hydrogen engine, DCT400 transmission, high safety and low temperature battery system… From the engine, gearbox, to the motor, electronic control and other key core technologies, FAW continues to learn humbly, insist on innovation, and scale the peak of technology.
Many FAW technical experts interviewed said that the automotive industry is a highly competitive industry, and if you don’t advance, you will retreat. In recent years, FAW has learned to benchmark against world-class standards and continuously promoted technological research and development innovation. In the past three years, FAW has broken through 494 key core technologies such as high-efficiency high-speed electric drive, intelligent wire-controlled chassis, and L3-level intelligent driving, and the "family background" of key core technologies has become increasingly solid.
The automobile industry is one of the most globalized industries, with strong driving ability upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. As a central enterprise and industrial leader, FAW has driven the development of a large number of excellent parts enterprises such as Fuyao Glass and Wanxiang Group.
Faced with the new situation, FAW has also taken on the responsibility of "chain length" of the national new energy vehicle industry chain, integrating innovative forces from all parties to break through the "stuck neck" problems such as chips and operating systems. By taking the lead in establishing industry standards, interfaces, etc., "chain" innovation has driven upstream and downstream enterprises, and joined with domestic backbone enterprises to tackle core technologies. It has done a lot of verification for applications such as domestic chips, cryptographic algorithm systems, and vehicle operating systems, and has made substantial progress.

The welding robot welds the body on the production line of FAW Hongqi Prosperity Factory. Photo by reporter Yan Linyun
It’s not a good idea.Dedicated to reform, allowing R & D personnel to achieve "three has"
Hongqi prosperous factory, the workshop is spacious and bright, unmanned cars shuttle between them, flexible obstacle avoidance, automatic robotic arms "dancing and dancing", nervous and busy, workers operate attentively and methodically. In cyberspace, a digital twin factory is completely mapped with the real workshop, just tap the screen and you can see the running status. One by one, Hongqi new energy models with more advanced technology, updated design and full of international style are assembled and formed, and they come out one after another, rushing from Changchun to all directions.
The smart factory is the silhouette of FAW’s innovation and development. Behind the improvement of market recognition is a series of measures taken by the company to continuously promote the reform of the system and institutions to "strengthen the body".
In September 2017, FAW launched a "four-energy" reform – "cadres can go up and down, employees can come in and out, salaries can be high and low, and institutions can increase and reduce capacity". The whole group competed for recruitment, and senior managers competed for positions.
At that time, FAW and Dongfeng had a cadre training class at Tsinghua University. As soon as FAW’s cadres reported for duty, they received a notice to "all stand up". The next day, only Dongfeng’s people were left in the training class, and all FAW’s people immediately bought tickets to go back to Changchun to participate in the reform.
The reform has touched everyone a lot. Many senior managers have lost their positions due to the reform, and their salaries have also widened the gap, which has thoroughly stimulated everyone’s enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.
FAW broke the tradition of eating "big pot rice", and its R & D investment has increased by an average of 8.6% annually in the past three years. It has implemented methods such as "revealing the list and being in command" and "task contracting", so that R & D personnel have status, platforms, and treatment. A large number of young R & D backbones and craftsmen from big countries have emerged.
At the just-concluded Changchun Auto Expo, the FAW Hongqi brand exhibited 12 products including Hongqi H6, the new Hongqi H5, Xinhongqi HS3, Xinhongqi HS5, Hongqi E-HS9, and Hongqi LS7. At present, the market share of Hongqi brand models has exceeded 1 million, and the annual sales volume exceeds 300,000 vehicles. It is moving towards the scale of 500,000 vehicles sold annually.
Looking back, the road to marketization of Hongqi was not smooth sailing. In order to make this national brand bigger and stronger, in 2017, FAW decided that the headquarters would be directly responsible for the Hongqi brand, and the FAW Group headquarters would directly operate the Hongqi brand. The chairperson, general manager and other executives became the "spokespersons" of the Hongqi brand. The compensation packages of various departments of the headquarters were deeply "bound" to the operation of Hongqi, and changed from strategic control to direct service to users and the market. FAW poured the core talents and resources of the whole group into the Hongqi brand, and strived to create a new road to develop its own brand.
In response to the pain points of few sales and service outlets, FAW built a nationwide Hongqi Experience Center in a short period of time, and launched services such as lifetime free warranty. In addition, Hongqi Marketing also carried out market-oriented reform exploration, inviting a group of young representatives in the fields of culture, art, sports and other fields to serve as Hongqi brand perception ambassadors.
The market is the final examiner. FAW has established an integrated operation mechanism for R & D, supply and marketing, and deployed R & D forces in new businesses such as new energy, intelligent networking, and styling design. It has established a profit connection mechanism with manufacturing and marketing. If the products sell well, the whole chain will benefit. FAW Group leaders only need to open the mobile app to view the R & D progress, consumer feedback problem handling, exhibition drainage, etc. in real time, eliminating the complicated reporting process and forcing everyone to respond to market concerns as quickly as possible.
FAW is also trying to accelerate its overseas market layout. Recently, FAW and Israeli partners held the launch ceremony of Hongqi’s flagship model E-HS9 in Tel Aviv, marking the official launch of Hongqi Automobile in the Israeli market. At present, FAW’s overseas business has covered more than 50 countries and regions along the "Belt and Road Initiative". It has also set up research and development centers in Munich and other places.
At present, the global automobile industry is accelerating a new round of reform, and the wave of electrification and intelligent transformation is surging. China’s automobile industry is accelerating its approach to the center of the world stage and striving to seize the commanding heights of the new round of global automobile industry development. FAW will make good use of both domestic and international markets and resources, accelerate the expansion of overseas high-end automobile markets, continue to improve the layout of the global automobile industry chain, and strive to polish the Chinese business card of the world automobile stage.