Aside from a few Communist Youth League banners and a summary of the reforms unveiled at the Chinese Communist party’s third plenum last November, there is little to distinguish Dongfeng’s wholly owned Aeolus car plant from its nearby joint venture with Peugeot Citroen and Honda.
Situated in a development zone in Wuhan, an industrial city in central China, the Aeolus factory has borrowed equipment and manufacturing systems from both Peugeot and Nissan, state-owned Dongfeng’s third joint venture partner.
The parking lots outside each plant, however, tell a different story. While thousands of cars are lined up outside Dongfeng’s Peugeot and Honda factories in Wuhan, awaiting shipment to distributors across the world’s largest car market, its Aeolus factory produces only about 300 vehicles a day, or about 100,000 units annually.