Chang’an are having a very successful few months mostly thanks to the governments ‘vehicles to the village‘ policy which has spurred villagers to take hold of government subsidies to take up small car and small goods vehicle ownership.

Arguably the most popular vehicle in Chang’ans line up is the minivan, of which they have made quite a few and must have sold quite a few over the past few months thanks to the vehicles to the villages programme which has seen drastic tax cuts for villagers buying sub 1.3l vehicles and a generous 10% rebate for car ownership. Chang’an also has JV’s with Suzuki and Ford, and also Mazda. Suzuki Swift sales were up by 59%, where as the Ling Yang (mk2 Suzuki Swift saloon) were up 34%. SX4 sedan sales were up 22%, whilst yearly sales at Mazda were up 43%. Yearly sales (Jan to Oct) are at 227839 vehicles, whilst third quarter sales stood at 87454 sales, which show an increase of 104% over the same period in 2008. September sales for Chang’an Ford exploded, giving the blue oval a sales increase of 104%, whilst their passenger car sales were up 107%.

Chang’ans own self developed cars also faired well in the third quarter, with Chang’an relying less on income from its multiple JV’s and receving a bigger share from its own self developed range. Sales from Jan to Sept 2009 of self developed vehicles stood at 584,500 vehicles sold, an increase of 81.86% over the same period last year.

As expected for such sales results, profit at Chang’an exploded to over 300 million RMB in the third quarter, whilst in the same period in 2008 Chang’an actually made a loss of over 100 million RMB.

In 2010 Chang’an is expected to expand its car making operations to keep up with demand, factory expansions as well as expanding the model line up with each of its JV partners is expected, Chang’an is also working hard on launching new self developed vehicles, including a premium vehicle line up.