Dongfeng Motor, one of the major auto groups in China, has been pushing ahead with its transition plan toward electrification and automotive intelligence. Meanwhile, the automaker has made attempts to establish a presence in the overseas auto market in the past year.

Haoji; photo credit: Dongfeng Motor

Throughout 2022, Dongfeng Motor saw its premium new energy vehicle brand, VOYAH, broaden its product lineup and set sail to Europe. In the meantime, its other wholly-owned passenger vehicle brand, AEOLUS, boasted a continuous growth in sales during last year.

In accordance to the trend of intelligent connected vehicles, Dongfeng Motor celebrated several achievements in the autonomous driving and V2X segments. Additionally, the auto giant underwent a few operational structural changes as well.

ZXZC prepared a list of Dongfeng Motor’s milestone happenings in 2022.

Dongfeng Motor’s annual auto export volume hit new high in 2022

Dongfeng Motor Corporation ("DFM" or "Dongfeng Motor") on January 4 disclosed several highlights in its 2022 annual performance, especially in wholly-owned brands’ sales, new energy vehicle (NEV) sales, and export.

In the past year, DFM sold 685,000 vehicles under its wholly-owned passenger vehicle brands, which jumped 32% year on year. Its premium NEV brand VOYAH achieved a 185.8% year-over-year soar with 19,409 vehicles sold in 2022. Meanwhile, AEOLUS refreshed its annual sales record by selling 190,587 vehicles, up 58.4% from a year ago. As to Dongfeng Forthing, the brand’s cumulative sales volume in 2022 reached around 122,000 vehicles worldwide. Forthing’s annual export volume surged 180% from the previous year. In addition, with 100,900 vehicles sold in the past year, Dongfeng Nissan Venucia saw a 24.6% year-on-year increase.

Delivery of VOYAH FREE begins in Norway

On December 28, VOYAH, the premium new energy vehicle brand of Dongfeng Motor, announced that it recently kicked off delivery of the FREE SUVs in Norway.

The first 500 FREE SUVs arrived at Oslo, Norway at the end of November 2022. Up to now, the automaker has delivered 136 FREEs to local users in Oslo, Trondheim, Hamar, Sarpsborg.

Dongfeng Motor kicks off fuel-cell vehicle pilot operation in Guangzhou

On December 22, Dongfeng Motor announced that it has kicked off pilot operation of fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) in Guangzhou.

Specifically, Dongfeng Motor will develop fuel-cell passenger vehicles based on the Venucia V-Online fastback compact crossover SUV produced by Dongfeng Nissan under the Venucia brand. The automaker will deploy the vehicle and start a 36-month demonstration operation in Huadu District of Guangzhou, accelerating its layout in hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicle industry.

Dongfeng Motor’s VOYAH bags 4.55 billion yuan in Series A financing

Dongfeng Motor’s premium new energy vehicle brand VOYAH announced on November 17 the completion of the paper signing and settlement of its Series-A financing, which raised the company 4.55 billion yuan.

VOYAH’s market valuation after the round shot up to nearly 30 billion yuan, marking the largest-ever first financing round in China's new energy vehicle industry. According to VOYAH, the fresh round was jointly led by China’s State-owned enterprises mixed-ownership reform fund and Bank of China Financial Asset Investment. Other investors of the round include six state-owned capitals, as well as Ganfeng Lithium, Sunwoda, and Dongfeng Motor.

Dongfeng Motor’s new power battery system enables 1,000km+ CLTC range

Dongfeng Motor Corporation today announced via its WeChat account that its technology center has made new breakthroughs in the R&D of power battery system.

The automaker said its new power battery system is able to offer a complete vehicle a CLTC range of over 1,000km after sailing through the real-vehicle tests carried by the vehicle models under development on Dongfeng Motor’s strategic new energy vehicle (NEV) platform.

Dongfeng AEOLUS to launch only electric models in 2024

Dongfeng Motor’s passenger vehicle brand AEOLUS aims to only launch electric vehicle models in 2024, the chairman of Dongfeng Motor Group, Zhu Yanfeng said at a conference on June 28th.

The chairman said that the ongoing new energy and connectivity trend could be concluded into five transformations and four networks. The five transformations include electrification, intellectualization, connectivity, sharing, and the material lightweight trend. The four networks cover transportation, energy, information, and finance. The trends are pushing the auto industry to branch out and make new cross-industry partners for mutual development.

Dongfeng Motor Group to gain back control right of light truck company DFAC

On May 30th, China's light truck arm Dongfeng Automobile Company (DFAC) announced that its controlling shareholder has been changed from Dongfeng Motor Company Limited (DFL) to Dongfeng Motor Group (DFMG).

DFL, the joint venture between DFMG and Nissan Motor, signed a share transfer agreement with DFMG to transfer all of its 598,000,000 shares to the latter (accounting for 29.90% of DFAC’s total issued shares).

Dongfeng Motor sets up auto chip alliance with 8 other companies in Wuhan

On May 8th, Hubei Province Automotive Chip Industry Technology Innovation Alliance was established in Wuhan. The movement was led by China’s major auto group Dongfeng Motor.

Other members of the alliance include Wuhan FisiLink Microelectronics Technology, Wuhan LinControl Automotive Electronics, Wuhan University of Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Nuclei System Technology, TKD Science and Technology, China Automotive Technology and Research Center, and Rigger Micro Technologies.

Dongfeng Motor granted China's first autonomous road test license for inbound logistics

Dongfeng Motor’s Chenglong H5 was granted China’s first autonomous heavy-duty truck testing license for open-road in-park logistics scenarios in Liuzhou, the automaker announced on April 7th.

The license was issued by the traffic administration unit of Liuzhou's municipal public security department and endorsed by the management group of the city's intelligent connected vehicle road test and demonstration application. The vehicle will start comprehensive testing in Liuzhou city soon.

Dongfeng, PSA said to operate Dongfeng Peugeot, Dongfeng Citroën separately

Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile Co., Ltd. (DPCA) is reportedly undergoing framework adjustments, with the French automaker, PSA, in charge of Dongfeng Peugeot while Dongfeng Motor shifts its focus to Dongfeng Citroën.

According to a local media outlet, DPCA will be sustained as a manufacturing base, with the current stock structure. Meanwhile, the two brands, Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroën, will be led by their parents, PSA and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, respectively. Relevant executives from the joint venture told the media that the two shareholders are currently under negotiation. The company’s equity framework will be left untouched, while certain changes will happen among internal business divisions.