Dongfeng started taking orders for the car, known as the Aelus S30, at the beginning of June. To date, it has received orders for more than 5,000 units of the car, the company say.

 

The company has yet to disclose the price of the car, but it is widely expected to be priced between 80,000 yuan (US$11,713) to 90,000 yuan (US$12,987).

 

Sources with Dongfeng's passenger vehicle subsidiary told Automotive News China earlier this year the car will be powered by a 1.6-liter gasoline engine from Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen.

 

Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen is Dongfeng's joint venture with PSA Peugeot Citroen SA.

 

The car will be fitted with a manual transmission from Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen or an automatic transmission from Japanese supplier Aisin Seiki Co.

 

Aisin Seiki Co. has a transmission joint venture Tangshan Aisin Gear Co. in central China's Hubei province where Dongfeng is based.

 

Meanwhile, according to domestic Chinese media reports, Dongfeng will also source components from many global suppliers for the car, including Visteon Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH and Delphi Corp.

 

For its passenger vehicle project, Dongfeng earlier this year completed construction of an r&d center and an assembly plant with an annual capacity of 120,000 units in Wuhan, Hubei province.

 

Dongfeng plans to start building a second plant in Wuhan in 2010 to double its passenger vehicle output capacity.

 

In addition to PSA Peugeot Citroen SA, Dongfeng runs joint venture passenger vehicle plants with Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp.