Yi Lianhong, Party chief of Changsha; Hu Henghua, deputy secretary of the Changsha municipal Party committee and mayor of Changsha; along with some relevant department directors conducted an on-the-spot inspection on Dec 11 of Shanghai Volkswagen’s 300,000-passenger-car project and the new products and engines project of Guangzhou Auto Fiat, both launched in the Changsha National Economic and Technical Development Zone.

Changsha county (including the Changsha National Economic and Technical Development Zone) has 626 projects under construction this year, involving a total investment of 187.35 billion yuan ($30.28 billion), according to Yang Yiwen, secretary of the Changsha county Party committee and Changsha National Economic and Technical Development Zone Party working committee.

Yi Lianhong (middle), Party chief of Changsha, speaks during an on-the-spot inspection of Shanghai Volkswagen’s 300,000-passenger-car project in Changsha National Economic and Technical Development Zone on Dec 11. [Photo by Zeng Shiyi/csxrmt.com]

The Shanghai Volkswagen project has been the largest single-investment project entity since reform and opening-up in Hunan province, with an estimated annual output of 300,000 mid-range passenger vehicles. It will be completed and put into production in May 2015, and reach a designed capacity in 2017 with an annual output value of 60 billion yuan in its main engine plant.

Around 5 billion yuan has been invested in the project so far, and it will be established into a world-class production line that can achieve an annual production capacity of 600,000 vehicles, valued at about 150 billion yuan (including the output value of its suppliers and after sales service).

Yi spoke highly of the project and praised the high working efficiency of the local government and the zone in land acquisition, old house removal and project construction, as well as the high-level technology it employed.

The new products and engines project of Guangzhou Auto Fiat has reached a total investment of about 5.8 billion yuan and is planned to go into operation in Oct 2015. The engine project will be in operation by February 2016. The engines demand before that time will be imported from overseas markets.

The whole project, when all completed, will achieve an annual output of 80,000 Jeep D-SUV and 150,000 Tigershark engines. The annual sales revenue in 2018, when designed capacity is reached, is expected to hit 16.7 billion yuan.