Last week, Southeast's parent company Fujian Motors Group announced that Southeast has signed agreements with parts suppliers and a local university to jointly develop a new subcompact car with the product code of V4.  

 

The new model will be Southeast's second own-brand passenger vehicle following the V3 Ling Yue subcompact sedan launched in October 2008.  

 

An engineer from Southeast says the V4 sedan and hatchback will carry a 1.5-liter 4A91 gasoline engine built by Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi Motors Engine Manufacturing Co., Mitsubishi Motor Corp.'s joint venture in China.  

 

The engineer says the V4 will share its platform with the V3 sedan. Their sizes will therefore be "very similar", he adds, and their wheelbase will be the same; 2500mm long.   

 

Today, Southeast builds several Mitsubishi and Chrysler models under licensing agreements it signed with the two global automakers. These models include the Lancer compact sedan, the Galant midsize sedan and the Chrysler Dodge Caravan. 

 

Nonetheless, sales of both Mitsubishi and Chrysler vehicles are low in China. In the first five months of this year, sales of Mitsubishi vehicles in China were 13,370 units while those of Chrysler were only 3,978 units, according to Automotive Resources Asia (ARA), a unit of J.D. Power & Associates.