FAW Tianjin
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| Traded as | : 000927 |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Headquarters | Tianjin, China |
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Area served
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China |
| Products | Automobiles |
| Owner | FAW Group |
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Number of employees
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approx. 13,000 |
| Subsidiaries | Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (30%) |
| Website |
www |
Tianjin FAW (officially Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Co., Ltd.) is an automobile company based in Tianjin, China and a subsidiary of FAW Group. Its principal activity is the design, development, manufacture and distribution of automobiiles sold under the Xiali and Vita marques. It is listed on the .
Tianjin FAW was founded in 1965 and was originally considered one of the "three smalls" of the Chinese automotive industry, together with Guangzhou Honda and Beijing. Tianjin FAW moved into third place in the Chinese market in 1997. By 2000 they were in second place, in spite of the low quality of their products. Tianjin FAW has since lost market share to several new Chinese automobile manufacturers.
Tianjin FAW operates a joint venture with Toyota, Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd., which produces Toyota passenger cars for the Chinese market including the Corolla, Crown, Reiz and Vios.
Tianjin FAW's first product, debuting in 1965, was a copy of the famous Beijing Jeep called the Tianjin TJ210. Between 1973 and 1979 the Toyota look-alike Tianjin TJ740 was also built, although only 63 were finished. In 1980, Tianjin's directors decided to look abroad for a joint venture to enable them to build modern small cars. In 1983, Daihatsu had been chosen as a partner, and in November 1984 the first vehicle rolled out from the works. At first, local parts content was a mere 8%, but this had jumped to 85% by the end of 1987. The first product was a locally built Daihatsu Hijet in 1984, followed by the Charade which began local assembly in 1986.
Production began at a modest level, with 2873 automobiles (Charade) and 9329 minivans (Hijet) assembled in 1988, for a total of 12,202 vehicles. This increased rapidly, to an annual total of nearly 88,000 cars by 1996.
Before the Toyota joint venture, Tianjin produced the Tianjin Xiali TJ730 (based on the 1983 Daihatsu Charade) and then the TJ7100-TJ7131 hatchback and TJ7100U-TJ7131U sedan. Xiali (夏利) is Chinese for "Charade". The TJ7100-series cars, based on the 1987 Charade, are still very popular in China as taxicabs although they are gradually being replaced by larger Volkswagen and Hyundai cars. Nonetheless, production of the Daihatsu-based Xiali N3 and A+ series continue today. Production at the Tianjin Xiali plant has now shifted to more modern Toyota vehicles, for example the Xiali 2000 is based on the Toyota Platz/Vitz. Toyota also builds and sells vehicles in China under its own brand.
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Wikipedia