On December 30, Famly Argentina announced that it will be the new automotive group in charge of representing four Chinese brands, Lifan, KYC, FAW and Jetour, in the country.
Starting out with Lifan in 2015, and adding KYC (Chongqing Changan Kuayue Automobile Co.) trucks, Famly will begin selling FAW and Jetour vehicles in 2020.
Initially, the project will evolve over the current Official Network of Concessionaires of Lifan Argentina, incorporating new members strategically.
Lifan Argentina already has 22 dealerships in the country.
The range of products currently marketed by Famly in Argentina includes the Lifan M7, X70, MyWay, and Foison trucks; and the KYC MAMUT X3 truck line.
Added in 2020 will be the new FAW X40 model, and X70 seven-passenger model from Jetour, a young brand belonging to the Chery Holdings Co., Ltd., with 140,000 units sold since its launch in late 2018.
(Famly press release on December 30, 2019)
All about Lifan
On November 12, Chinese automobile manufacturer Brilliance Auto Group Holdings Limited (Brilliance Auto Group) announced an important step in tapping the South American market by establishing cooperation with the Chongqing Lifan Holdings Co., Ltd. (Lifan Group) to co-build an automobile assembly plant in Uruguay.
Located in the No.1 highway of San Jose in southern Uruguay, the plant will cover an area of 21 hectares (approximately 210,000 square meters) with a building area of 38,000 square meters.
It will focus on assembling both engines and automobile from SKDs (semi-knocked down) kits, with a designed capacity of 20,000 units per shift.
According to the agreement, when the plant is completed and put into operation, Brilliance Auto Group and Lifan Group will produce a combined 3,000 vehicles in the first year, 5,000 combined vehicles in the second year and 10,000 combined vehicles in the third year.
Brilliance Auto Group plans to make its Brilliance V3 the first model assembled in this plant and Brilliance V7 the second one, bringing more and more Brilliance branded cars to the South American market.
As the most distant strategic partner of China currently under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as well as an important member of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), a major trade organization in Latin America, Uruguay boasts an important strategic position in the South American market.
(Brillance Auto Group release on November 14, 2019)
On November 12, Lifan Motors and Brilliance signed an agreement to produce vehicles of both Chinese brands at the Lifan plant in Uruguay beginning in 2020.
The Lifan plant, which closed in June 2018, will recall 80 of the 120 workers furloughed at the plant to restart production.
While not announcing which vehicles they will produce, the two companies said that production will resume in 2020 at a rate of 10,000 vehicles per year, with prospects for assembling electric cars.
The two companies hope eventually to reach a maximum capacity of 50,000 units per year.
(multiple sources on November 13, 2019)