FAW: History, Landmark Models and Line-up

FAW Group at a glance

FAW is a central state-owned enterprise that builds trucks under the Jiefang name, cars under Hongqi and Bestune, and joint-venture cars with Volkswagen, Audi and Toyota. Key facts as of October 2026:

Origins: a state project built around one truck

FAW had no individual founder: the state created it in Changchun on 15 July 1953, the date usually quoted, as China's first automobile works, with one job, building trucks. From the start the Soviet Union supported the project with training, tooling and technical help from the plant that built the ZIS-150, the factory later known as ZIL.

The result was the Jiefang CA-10 of 1956, the first truck built in the People's Republic of China. Because it was based on the ZIS-150, the design was proven, and the new plant could concentrate on learning series production. In 1957 three trucks went to a buyer in Jordan, FAW's first export.

The licence link continued. The ZIL-157 was later built in China as the Jiefang CA-30, so two generations of FAW trucks trace back to the same Soviet works. The other side of that story is told in the history of ZIL.

FAW history by era

FAW's seven decades fall into five periods, each marked by a change in what it built and with whom.

1953–1965: Jiefang trucks and the first Hongqi

The first decade was about trucks, but cars arrived early. FAW began building passenger cars in 1958, and the first Hongqi, the CA72, was introduced on 1 August 1958. That makes Hongqi the oldest Chinese passenger-car marque. FAW added a bus subsidiary, Taihu, in 1959 and adopted its winged "1" emblem in 1964.

1966–1989: the CA770 and the Audi 100 contract

The large Hongqi CA770 carried FAW's car business for 15 years. It was introduced in 1963, gained a long-wheelbase version in 1965 and was built in series from 1966 until 1981, when Hongqi production stopped. In the 1980s FAW prepared for foreign trade: FAW Import and Export Corporation (FAWIE) was set up in 1984.

The turning point came on 13 August 1988, when Audi AG signed a contract with First Automobile Works to build the Audi 100 for China from parts shipped from Germany. It came less than three years before the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture.

1990–2005: FAW-Volkswagen, Xiali and Toyota

FAW-Volkswagen was founded in Changchun on 6 February 1991 and built its first car, a second-generation Jetta, in December 1991. The joint venture began official business on 1 September 1992, the year in which First Automotive Works became FAW Group Corporation. FAW holds the majority; the split is usually given as FAW 60%, Volkswagen 30% and Audi 10%, although sources disagree on the exact figures.

Other partners followed. Hainan Mazda, a joint venture between the Hainan provincial government and Mazda, was founded in January 1992. In September 2002 FAW bought 50% of Tianjin Automotive Xiali, which became FAW Tianjin, and Tianjin also became the base of the Toyota partnership. Sources date Tianjin FAW Toyota either to June 2000 or to 2003; the shares are FAW 50%, Toyota Motor Corporation 45% and Toyota Motor China 5%. The partner's own story is in the history of Toyota. Meanwhile, from 1995 to 2006 the cars sold as Hongqi were foreign designs, among them the Audi 100 and Lincoln Town Car variants.

2006–2017: Bestune and the Mazda6 years

FAW launched its own passenger-car brand, Bestune, on 18 August 2006. The name is spelled Besturn in older material and in the 1cars catalogue. Its first model, the Besturn B70, used the platform of the first-generation Mazda6 and came with 2.0-litre and 2.3-litre engines of 108 kW (147 PS) and 120 kW (163 PS). In the same year FAW took over Mazda's share of Hainan Mazda, the business later known as FAW Haima, and FAW Tianjin started building the Vita small car in July 2006.

The smaller Besturn B50 followed in 2009, again on the older Mazda6 platform but with a 1.6-litre engine, and stayed in production until 2019. A second-generation B70, based on the second-generation Mazda6, arrived in May 2014. The Besturn X80 SUV went on sale in China on 16 May 2013 after its debut at Auto Shanghai. It used Mazda-sourced 2.0-litre and 2.3-litre engines of 109 kW (146 hp) and 115 kW (154 hp), later joined by a 1.8-litre turbo of 139 kW (186 hp).

At the cheaper end, the Vita was built as a hatchback until 2012 and as a saloon until 2015, with Toyota-derived 1.5-litre engines of 75 kW (102 PS). Its 2012–2015 facelift was sold as the FAW V5, and the line continued with the FAW V2, sold in China as the Vizi V2.

Group output grew from more than 1.5 million vehicles in 2008 to 2.56 million in 2010 and 2.6 million in 2011, when FAW ranked third among Chinese vehicle makers. Hongqi stayed small: it returned in 2006 with the HQ3, based on the Toyota Crown Majesta, but sold only 2,534 cars in 2013.

2018–2026: the Hongqi relaunch and new partners

The current period began on 8 January 2018, when FAW presented a new Hongqi brand strategy, with a new design and logo, at a conference in Beijing. Sales rose quickly from 33,000 in 2018: Hongqi passed 100,000 in 2019, 200,000 in 2020 and 300,000 in 2021. FAW reported 411,777 Hongqi sales for 2024.

Hongqi also began exporting cars. It entered Norway in September 2021 and Vietnam on 1 February 2022 with the E-HS9 and H9, followed by Israel, Denmark and Sweden. In July 2024 it announced plans to sell the electric EH7 and EHS7 in the UK. In 2021 Audi and FAW set up Audi FAW NEV, majority-owned by Audi, for new-energy Audi models. The FAW-Volkswagen agreement had already been extended in 2014 to run until 2041.

Two newer changes rest mainly on a single source and are best read as announcements. Bestune took on outside investors from September 2023. In 2025 FAW and the electric-car maker Leapmotor announced a cooperation that includes a Hongqi for overseas markets on a Leapmotor platform, with mass production planned for the second half of 2026, and a small FAW shareholding in Leapmotor.

Landmark models from the CA-10 to the E-HS9

These vehicles trace FAW's path from licensed trucks to its own electric cars.

Engineering firsts and records

FAW is not known for motorsport; its records are industrial: the first truck built in the People's Republic of China (1956) and the oldest Chinese passenger-car marque (1958).

Its engineering strategy relied on proven foreign designs adapted for its own plants. The CA-10 and CA-30 came from Soviet trucks, the first FAW-Volkswagen line used equipment from a closed American plant, and two generations of Bestune saloons shared Mazda6 platforms. That let FAW build volume quickly. FAW-Volkswagen reached one million cars in 2004 and three million in 2009, and built 1,018,888 in 2011 alone.

Ownership, joint ventures and factories today

FAW is a central state-owned enterprise controlled by SASAC. Three subsidiaries are listed on the stock market: FAW Jiefang and Qiming Information Technology in Shenzhen, and Changchun FAWAY in Shanghai.

Most of FAW's volume comes from partnerships; shares are as usually quoted.

FAW-Volkswagen builds cars in Changchun (since 1991), Chengdu (2011), Foshan (2013) and Qingdao and Tianjin (2018). The Toyota venture is based in Tianjin and was renamed FAW Toyota Motor Co. in 2022.

FAW model line-up: current brands and recent models

The table lists the main nameplates of FAW's brands and joint ventures, plus earlier FAW cars covered on 1cars; years are given where confirmed.

Every FAW model on the site, with specifications by version, is listed in the FAW catalogue.

FAW timeline

The dated milestones of FAW history:

FAW in numbers

Production and sales figures, as usually quoted:

• Group output: more than 1.5 million vehicles in 2008, 2.6 million in 2011 and 2.3 million in 2012 (64% passenger cars).
• Hongqi sales: 2,534 in 2013, 33,000 in 2018, more than 370,000 in 2023 and 411,777 in 2024.
• Own-brand sales of 732,328 in 2023 and 813,632 in 2024; group production of about 3.3 million vehicles in 2025, including joint ventures.