Lifan Group

Lifan Industry (Group) Co., Ltd.

Type	Public company
Traded as	:
Industry	Automotive
Founded	1992 (Chongqing)
Founder	Yǐn Míngshàn
Headquarters	Chongqing, China
Key people	Yǐn Míngshàn (Chairman) Móu Gāng (牟刚) (President)
Products	Commercial vehicles Passenger cars Microvans Dirt bike engines Motorcycles Sports shoes Wine
Number of employees	13,653
Website	lifan.com

Lifan Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. (Lifan Group or Lifan,Chinese: 力帆, lit. "Great Sail") is a privately owned Chinese motorcycle and automobile manufacturer headquartered in Chongqing, China. It was founded in 1992 and began the manufacture of automobiles in 2005, with license-built microvans and a small sedan developed by Lifan themselves.

Lifan's vehicle products include passenger cars, microvans, dirt bike engines, entry-level motorcycles, mini-vehicles, and commercial trucks. The company's non-vehicle-related activities include the manufacture of sports shoes and winemaking. Outside of China, Lifan is currently best known for the sale of small passenger cars in emerging markets.

Lifan was founded by former political dissident Yin Mingshan in 1992 as a motorcycle repair shop with a staff of nine. Mingshan has a long history of conflict with government authority but currently enjoys a good relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. The company was originally called "Chongqing Hongda Auto Fittings Research Centre". The company was renamed Lifan Industry Group in 1997. It expanded into building buses in 2003. As of 2004, Lifan was being referred to as "the largest private motorcycle manufacturer in China." In 2009, it as the fifth-largest Chinese motorcycle maker.

In 2003, Lifan acquired Chongqing Special Purpose Use Vehicle Manufacturing Co Ltd, and 2005 saw the start of automobile production beginning with the LF6361/1010 minivan and pickup based on the 1999 Daihatsu Atrai. In December 2005, Lifan's first independently developed car entered production, the 520 sedan with a Brazilian Tritec engine. As of 2011, Lifan makes a number of consumer offerings including the subcompact 320, the compact sedan and hatchback 520, the mid-sized 620 sedan, and the X60 compact SUV.