Yulon plans production in mainland China

Leading Taiwanese automaker Yulon Motor Co. plans to produce three models under its own brand in mainland China's eastern province of Zhejiang in 2010, including an SUV, a van and a sedan.

Suppliers say Yulon will build the first model--a 2.0-liter SUV in a planned joint venture with domestic partner Zhejiang Zhongyu Automobile. The SUV will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2009. 

The cars are expected to become the first batch of Taiwanese brand vehicles to be sold in mainland China.

Zhongyu announced earlier this year that it had entered a joint car production project with Yulon in February. But the company did not provide details of the project.

Two suppliers involved in the project say Yulon and Zhongyu are now seeking approval from the Chinese central government to establish a joint venture in Zhejiang's Xiaoshan city.

The venture, with planned investment of about 3 billion yuan ($429 million), has a scheduled output capacity of 120,000 cars and 200,000 engines per year.

"Yulon will ship some engines from Zhejiang to its production plant in Taiwan," says a supplier.

The suppliers say the cars are all new models that are currently being developed by Yulon in Taiwan. Their brand name is Luxgen.

The first model to be built in Zhejiang will be an SUV carrying a 2.0-liter turbocharged gasoline engine, according to documents Yulon sent to the suppliers.

"Sales of the SUV will start in the fourth quarter of 2009, with a scheduled output of about 2,700 units every month," a supplier says.

The supplier adds that Yulon will start producing the second model in Zhejiang in the first quarter of 2010. It is a van with two engine options--a 2.0-liter version and a 2.2-liter version. Both are turbocharged gasoline engines.

The third model will be a 1.5-liter sedan. Its sales will start in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the suppliers.

Sales targets of the latter two models are unknown.

Zhongyu, based in Zhejiang Xiaoshan, is a tiny private automaker refitting Mercedes-Benz vans such as the Sprinter and Vito.

Yulon has long been assembling cars for Nissan Motor Co. and General Motors in Taiwan.

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