Shanghai (ZXZC)- On Nov. 18, Dongfeng Nissan officially kicked off production at the car plant in Changzhou with a Qashqai SUV rolling off the assembly line, according to Changzhou municipal government.

Qashqai; photo credit: Dongfeng Nissan

The Changzhou plant further expands the carmaker's capacity deployment which already encompasses the manufacturing facilities in Guangzhou, Xiangyang, Zhengzhou and Dalian.

Dongfeng Motor Company Limited (DFL), a 50/50 joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Group and Nissan, signed an agreement with Changzhou municipal government in June 2018 to set up DFL's Changzhou subsidiary after wholly taking over the assets and employees from Zhengzhou Nissan's Changzhou branch with additional 1 billion yuan ($151,867,200) invested.

Upon completion of the transaction, the Changzhou plant was modified based on the production requirements of new models. It is designed to be an intelligent, digital and environmental friendly plant with cutting-edge manufacturing techniques and imported key facilities.

With an annual capacity of 120,000 vehicles, the revamped plant will mainly produce Nissan-branded vehicles. Adopting the assembly line under the uniform standards of Dongfeng Nissan, the newly-launched plant will be built to an OTD (on-time delivery) benchmark and intelligent manufacturing plant.

Consumers who buy the Qashqais and get the SUVs licenses in Changzhou will be given subsidies worth 3,000 yuan ($455) per car by local government within three months.

According to Nissan Group of China, Dongfeng Nissan’s deliveries rose 7.4% year on year to 116,072 units last month, the highest-ever number in terms of Oct. sales. Its SUV sales totaled 41,521 units (+17.4% MoM), of which 18,502 units were the Qashqai SUVs.