Shanghai (ZXZC)- Changan Automobile delivered 61,000 NEVs in 2017, soaring 180.9% over the previous year. With NEVs growing increasingly popular in China, Changan Automobile established an independent new energy division in the end of 2017, signifying Changan's great ambition in NEV area. 

Zhu Huarong, president of Changan Automobile stated that it will do substantial researches on NEV business. He also explained that Changan split its new energy part to attract outside capital for its NEV development. In his opinion, on one hand, capital market shows great interests in Changan's new energy businesses, and on the other hand, developing NEVs independently is risky and may easily result in resource insufficiency. 

When it comes to the cooperation with NIO, a leading Chinese EV startup, Zhu Huarong explained that their cooperation is not a mode of outsourcing, and they will have further improvement recently. But he declined to expose the detailed information. Changan will deploy in medium- and-high end electric vehicle area. At the same time, it is likely to attract outside capital in the near future, Zhu Huarong also added.

It is known that the new energy division has five core departments, including the overall planning unit, product strategy unit, product developing unit, power research institute and marketing unit. It is also revealed that a total staff number of new energy division reached nearly 800.