Changan Automobile: From 19th-Century Arsenal to Newly Independent Central SOE

Changan Automobile, formally China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd., is a central state-owned vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Jiangbei, Chongqing. Its lineage stretches back to 1862, when Li Hongzhang founded the Shanghai Foreign Gun Bureau; the arsenal was relocated to Chongqing during the Second Sino-Japanese War and pivoted to vehicle production in 1959 with the Changjiang Type 46 jeep, described as China's first domestically manufactured production vehicle. The company's name, inherited from its Chongqing Changan Arsenal predecessor, means "long-lasting peace."

The shift to civilian motoring came in 1984 through a technical cooperation agreement with Suzuki, which produced the SC112 van and SC110 truck as Changan's first branded vehicles. The group has since grown into one of China's largest automakers — it ranked fourth domestically in 2010 with 2.38 million units — and today sells under its own marques Changan, Deepal, Avatr, and Kaicene, while also running 50-50 joint ventures with Ford and Mazda. A listed subsidiary trades on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and group output reached roughly 2.91 million vehicles in 2025.

Recent years have brought sweeping structural change. In 2017 Changan committed to ending sales of pure internal-combustion models by 2025, and in 2023 it joined forces with Huawei to create Avatr Technology for intelligent vehicle systems, with Changan and affiliates holding up to 40%. In February 2025 Changan and Dongfeng both announced they were exploring mergers, only to abandon the plans on 4 June 2025. Days later, the State Council decided to spin the automaker out of China South Industries Group as an independent central SOE reporting directly to SASAC — formally established in July 2025 as the 100th central state-owned enterprise and the third automotive one under the watchdog.