Changan launches new NEV subsidiary ‘Qiyuan’

Chinese carmaker Changan has unveiled a new brand of electric and hybrid cars called Qiyuan. Qiyuan is expected to achieve annual sales of 1.5 million vehicles by 2030 and launch ten products by 2025.

Changan officially unveiled the new brand this weekend. The Qiyuan range is to include the ‘A’, ‘Q’ and ‘E0’ series. In addition to battery-electric vehicles, range extender vehicles (EREV) will also be offered under the new brand. Changan says it will invest a total of 200 billion yuan (about 25.4 billion euros) in building its brands by 2030 and hire more than 10,000 people for its research and development teams.

Qiyuan is already the third brand that Changan is launching in the new energy vehicle sector. It joins the still-young brands Avatr and Deepal. While Qiyuan is to have ten models on offer by the end of the decade, Avatr will have four and Deepal six. Together, the three divisions are expected to sell four million vehicles annually in 2030. In total, Changan is targeting 5 million vehicles in 2030. How the three brands will differentiate themselves from each other is not obvious at first glance; all three aim to focus on electric sedans, for starters. In all cases, they are smart cars with advanced connectivity features.

But back to Qiyuan: according to Changan, the new brand will launch four models named A05, A06, A07 and Q05 this year. First up is the A07, a 4.90-long sedan that will be offered both purely electric and with an additional range extender and has already gone into production. The Qiyuan A07 will be launched as a pure electric car in two power levels (163 kW and 192 kW) and two battery options (58 kWh and 80 kWh), which should allow ranges of 515 and 710 kilometres respectively according to Chinese standards. The range extender variant also has a small petrol engine for charging the battery.

Changan subsidiary Deepal also has a mid-size sedan on offer, the Deepal SL3. Launched in July 2022, it is the brand’s only model to date and is offered as a BEV, EREV and FCEV.

Changan and CATL’s electric car brand Avatr is currently preparing to launch its second model. Called the Avatr 12, the approximately five-metre-long electric -sedan follows the Avatr 11 coupe-like electric SUV launched in August 2022, with Huawei supplying the electric drive systems. According to a report by CarNewsChina from July, the Avatr 12 is based on the same 750-volt platform as the debut model Avatr 11 – and also shares its drive components. In this respect, the sedan is also likely to come to market with two battery options – 90.4 kWh and 116.8 kWh.

Incidentally, the Avatr brand was originally founded in 2018 by Changan and Nio, at the time still under the name ‘Changan Nio’. However, according to an earlier report by the portal CN EV Post, development went bumpy and Nio later “basically exited the joint venture with new financing”. Currently, Changan holds 40.99% of the shares and CATL 17.1%. The rest is owned by various investment funds. Huawei does not hold any shares, but supplies software, electric motors and other parts.

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