On July 29, 2025, China's third central-owned automobile company was established, and China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd. was officially launched in Chongqing.
Before this, although the outside world has always called FAW, Dongfeng and Changan the "three major central enterprises", Changan Automobile has actually always been a secondary department under central enterprises, and there is a fundamental gap between the first two.
After this upgrade, Changan Automobile has been upgraded from a subsidiary of the Bingcheng Group to an independent central enterprise directly under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and there is no longer any difference in the level category. The registered capital of the new company is 20 billion yuan, lower than FAW Group (35.4 billion yuan), but higher than Dongfeng Group (15.6 billion yuan).
In addition, in terms of personnel appointment, the leadership team of the new Changan has not changed much. The head of the sect is still Zhu Huarong, the
On July 29, 2025, China's third central-owned automobile company was established, and China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd. was officially launched in Chongqing.
Before this, although the outside world has always called FAW, Dongfeng and Changan the "three major central enterprises", Changan Automobile has actually always been a secondary department under central enterprises, and there is a fundamental gap between the first two.
After this upgrade, Changan Automobile has been upgraded from a subsidiary of the Bingcheng Group to an independent central enterprise directly under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and there is no longer any difference in the level category. The registered capital of the new company is 20 billion yuan, lower than FAW Group (35.4 billion yuan), but higher than Dongfeng Group (15.6 billion yuan).
In addition, in terms of personnel appointment, the leadership team of the new Changan has not changed much. The head of the sect is still Zhu Huarong, the former chairman of Changan Automobile, and Zhao Fei is appointed as the deputy secretary and director of the Party Committee of China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd., and is nominated as the general manager of China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd.; Tan Benhong is appointed as the deputy secretary and director of the Party Committee of China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd.
What did Changan do the right thing to do when upgrading instead of merger?
From the list of central enterprises on the official website of the SASAC, we can see that the newly established long-term arrangement is named 73rd, and is not directly ranked behind FAW and Dongfeng, which are ranked 29th and 30th, and is lower than FAW Group and Dongfeng Group.
However, this ranking does not directly reflect the strength of the company, and considers more industry and historical factors. In the 2024 performance assessment of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Dongfeng ranked 37th among A-level enterprises, FAW ranked 38th among them, and 30th among the Military Equipment Group (including the former Changan). Therefore, the performance of Xinchangan in 2025 is more worthy of attention.
Judging from the entire upgrade process of Changan Automobile itself, the significance of its efforts has been embodied in a concrete way. In February this year, Dongfeng Motor and Changan Motor successively issued announcements announcing that the two were planning restructuring matters. At that time, Changan Automobile, a second-level department under a central enterprise, would inevitably become the leading role due to level differences.
However, from the perspective of market performance, Changan obviously will not be willing to play such a role. Sales data show that Changan Automobile sales in 2024 were 2.68 million vehicles. Dongfeng Company's sales were 2.48 million vehicles, of which Dongfeng Motor Group's sales were 1.8959 million vehicles. There is also a gap between the two, and Changan Automobile is the leading party.
Therefore, the restructuring plan seemed to be in a stalemate in the following months. Until June 5, Changan Automobile issued another announcement stating that it had received a notice from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council that it would separate the weapons and equipment group and split the automobile business into an independent central enterprise, which is the current "New Changan".
This time, things no longer reversed. Changan Automobile's independent work was carried out as quickly as possible and it was settled in less than two months. Judging from the results, Changan Automobile undoubtedly fought a beautiful "turnaround battle". Although we do not know the details of the decision-making transformation, it is certain that Changan Automobile's efforts at the level of independent brand building and new energy transformation must be the key factors affecting the final decision-making.
In 2024, Dongfeng Auto's independent brand sales were 1.372 million vehicles, while FAW's independent brand sales were 819,000 vehicles, and Changan Auto's independent brand sales reached 2.23 million vehicles, which is greater than the sum of the first two central enterprises and accounting for 83% of the group's total sales.
In the field of new energy, Changan has also built a relatively complete new energy brand camp through the three major brand layouts of Deep Blue, Qiyuan and Avita, with the annual sales of independent new energy reached 735,000 vehicles.
Such a report card focusing on independent brands and new energy is obviously in line with the country's model for the development of central automobile enterprises. After all, whether it is restructuring or separation, promoting the development of central automobile enterprises and driving the upward trend of the entire automobile industry is the ultimate goal, and it is also the significance of the ultimate establishment of "New Changan".
New Chang'an still needs to face "old problems"
On the first day of changing identity, while the automobile industry was flooded with the "New Changan" and Changan Automobile's performance in the capital market closed with a slight decline. The A-share stock price closed at 13.27 yuan per share, but was not led away by this "big news".
In addition to the factors that some of the positive factors have been released in advance, another important reason is that although the identity has changed, as Changan Automobile mentioned in the announcement: "Split and reorganization will not have a significant impact on the company's normal production and operation activities." Changan, after becoming an independent central enterprise, may gain more resources in the future, but from the control of the development direction to the boost in sales of a model, it is not something that a new identity can solve.
In the first half of this year, Changan Automobile's overall sales were 1.3553 million vehicles. Although it hit a new high, the year-on-year growth rate dropped to 1.59%. The sales of independent brands' new energy have increased, but the performance of joint venture brands is like other mainstream car companies and has not yet found a good solution to transformation.
At the same time, under the influence of the US tariff war, the challenges faced by Changan Ford are more severe than those of foreign investors in other countries such as Volkswagen and Toyota. In the first quarter of this year, Changan Ford's sales continued to decline by 14.09%, and its channels have shrunk from 900 at its peak to 560.
The price war and the challenge of exchanging price for volume are more critical issues facing Changan Automobile at present. According to the first quarter financial report, Changan Automobile's gross profit margin was 13.86%. Although it achieved a year-on-year increase, it further declined compared with the overall situation in 2024. At the same time, revenue in the first quarter of 2025 also fell by 7.73% year-on-year. Although non-net profit achieved a huge increase of 601%, exchange income is the main reason, not a major breakthrough at the operating level.
In addition, for the new energy brands under Changan Automobile, the most important task is to stop losses and turn profits. Among the two major brands, Shenlan and Avita, the sales volume of Shenlan brands is relatively high, reaching 29,893 vehicles in June. According to the previous institutional estimates of "average monthly profit of 30,000 yuan", it has reached the threshold of profit.
However, sales growth alone is not enough to support a brand to achieve profitability. According to the 2024 annual report data, Shenlan Auto's single-quarter marketing expenditure reached 800 million yuan, which is 1.7 times that of Ideal Auto during the same period, but its brand awareness cannot be comparable to new forces such as Ideal, and its brand management and many other details also need to be further improved.
Avita's sales are relatively unstable. In February this year, the monthly sales were 5,182 units, and it achieved continuous exceeding 10,000 in March and June. Although the effect of new cars on sales increases is obvious, it obviously did not meet Avita's own expectations. The annual sales target of 220,000 units was only less than 30% in the first half of the year. The boom in new cars in Huawei, especially Shangjie's entry in the second half of the year, will also bring new pressure to Avita, and it is urgent to find a more solid brand growth point.
Therefore, for Changan Automobile, it is certainly gratifying to have a new identity, but staying awake and realizing that greater challenges under its new identity is a truly wise move. Standing at the time node of 2025, whether it is central enterprises or foreign capital, they are no longer the "money tree" of the automobile market. The only sense of value that can truly impress consumers is the stacked sense of value from technology, products, and services, which is also the "new" transformation we hope to truly see in "New Changan".
