Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot: Hainan Automobile Works and Hainan Mazda

Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF™): Hainan Automobile Works.

Hainan Automobile Works (henceforth referred to as HAW) was founded in 1989 as a result of cooperation between the Hainan government and already established Hainan Auto Stamping Factory (henceforth referred to as HASF). HASF had experience with producing automobile components but the new company (HAW) would need a full assembly line on which to produce vehicles. Help came from an unlikely source – former President of The Philippines Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos sold HASF a factory that was once operated by Ford between 1968 and 1984. It was in 1988, 4 years after Ford ceased manufacturing operations in The Philippines that Marcos sold HASF the factory, allowing them to obtain a production line for their own future vehicle manufacturing. In 1989, Hainan Auto Stamping Factory was renamed Hainan Automobile Works.

The worsening economic conditions in Japan by the early 1990’s were causing Mazdas profits to fall and so they were looking for ways to increase them outside their home country of Japan. Mazda decided to partner with HAW beginning in 1990 to produce vehicle in Hainan Province. This was a godsend for HAW as they had had no support from Ford in setting up their recently aquired assembly line, support that Mazda was all to happy to provide if it meant HAW was producing Mazdas products. However, at this time the Central Government decided that it would like HAW and Sanxing (based across the Qiongzhou Strait in Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province) to create a Chinese-owned commercial vehicle Joint Venture.

Chrysler was first in line to be the foreign partner before it was pushed out in favor of Mercedes Benz. Mercedes was reluctant to join unless HAW severed ties with Mazda. HAW eventually decided not to turn its back on its Japanese partner and so the partnership with Sanxing never come to fruition. Sanxing would go on to make Chrysler products and later on assemble an unlikely Mercedes vehicle in very low numbers, but more on that in a later Sanxing article.

All of this messing around with Sanxing meant it wasn’t until February of 1992 that the Joint Venture with Mazda would be formally created and HAW renamed Hainan Mazda Motor Company (HMC). Prior to 1992, HAW was barely surviving and it was actually thanks to Shanghai Volkswagen that it was able to make a profit of 12 million RMB between 1991 and 1992 producing 2.06 stampings for them.

Before we move on into more detail on the Mazda based vehicles I shall first very briefly discuss a rather interesting venture HAW had with a Bejing based company called Huaxing.

In this as yet undated photo we see a car called HX7080 on display at an auto show, produced by Hainan Auto Works.

As it turns out, HAW was not the only company to produce this car, in fact there were at least 3 companies who made it, all connected to the Bejing based company called Huaxing Automobile Group. The cars were based on the Toyota Starlet and borrowed the front fascia from the Volkswagen Santana. Hainan Auto Works, Guizhou Aviation Industry Corp and Bejing based People’s Liberation Army Xima Auto Works were involved in producing the cars. We cannot confirm which company made the Hangzhou taxi in the above photo, though we doubt it would have come from as far as Hainan, more likely it came from Beijing or Guizhou, or even another manufacturer based in Zhejiang or a nearby province! We will try to dig up more on Huaxing and hope to cover them in a future article.

It was in 1990 that HAW produced its first vehicle, albeit in very low numbers – the LA4 series Mazda 929 (Luce) wagon, produced by Mazda in Japan until 1988 and subsequently in Hainan until 2002. It would take until 1992 for what would become the HMC6470 to be formally released on the Chinese new car market, at least in Hainan. Early cars were equipped with a 2.0 liter 4 cylinder ‘MA’ carbureted petrol engine producing just 66kW of power and 154Nm of torque. Later on a 2.2 liter Toyota 4 cylinder engine with electronic ignition was offered. 3 gearboxes were offered at different times – a 4 speed manual, a 5 speed manual and a 3 speed automatic, though I have never seen a 4 speed manual or an automatic in person or on any website.

On the grille of every HMC6470 was this ‘HIPOCA’ badge. At first I had no idea what it meant, I could only find people saying that this was the Chinese name of the car. It turns out that it is short for Hippocampus – the Sea Horse, not the Hippocampus in the brain. You see, the short name for Hainan Mazda – HaiMa (海马) means Sea Horse, with 海 meaning Sea and 马 meaning Horse. I have to thank my colleague Tycho for pointing this out to me.

There was also a variant called HMC6470L – possibly a higher trim level.

The early HMC6470s were apparently riddled with quality issues. The problem was that HAW wanted a rapid change from production using Mazda knockdown kits to at least a 70% local parts content. The local parts supply chain was set up too fast for it to be done properly and so quality of the parts used in their cars suffered. Funnily enough, the localization of parts manufacture was not fast enough for the central government wither and so HMC was not able to sell the HMC6470 throughout the whole of China. It appears they may have gone to Beijing for help…

This is the Beijing ‘Knight’ BJ6470. Rumor has it that it was simply a rebadged HMC6470 that could be sold throughout the country. By all accounts the BJ6470 was a flop with production numbers being hideously low, resigning it to the history books of obscurity just like that other weird Beijing branded station wagon – the Holden Commodore based BJ6490.

Ultimately the BJ6470 never did particularly well in the market as its old school image and in particular its wagon body style made it a hard sell to the Chinese public, who’s aspirations of owning a car didn’t really entail buying a station wagon, as cars that don’t have a proper 3 box design are seen as having a lesser image even today, looking more like commercial vehicles than luxury cars. That is changing now with newer station wagons, especially those from German automakers becoming more popular, though still far outnumbered by their three box cousins. We will discuss the BJ6470 in a later article and debate whether it was indeed a rebadged Hainan product.

One of the rarer Hainan Mazda products is the Mazda 626. I couldn’t find exact production dates for this car nor any powertrain details. Literature suggests that these cars had little if any local parts content in them and that Hainan was using the company as a front to smuggle cars in – including the larger 929, of which I couldn’t find a single example with Hainan badging.

I found this particular car in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province, far far away from Haikou city where this particular is registered. Indeed I can’t recall seeing a photo of a 626 that didn’t have Hainan license plates, likely because they weren’t selling them outside Hainan and were only able to sell them by registering them in Hainan first.

This badge says ‘Hainan Automobile Works’.

Model designation for the 626 – HMC6471.

Perhaps the best part of this car, original wheel covers with the Haima logo on the center!

The HMC6450 was based on the first generation (LV) Mazda MPV, specifically the 1992 – 1994 version. Introduced by HMC in 1993, production was carried out using kits from Japan. The only engine available was a 3.0 liter V6 producing 157hp and 230Nm. Transmission options were limited to just one – a 4 speed automatic.

The HMC6472 was also based on the first generation Mazda MPV, but this time on the later 1995 facelift version. Production of the HMC6472 was also carried out using kits from Japan and used the same powertrain as the earlier HMC6450.

As we can see this particular car is registered on black Hainan plates, however our good friend Navigator84 spotted this particular MPV in Beijing.

Thanks to our friend Erik I can show you this photo – it appears to be a 1995 facelift Mazda MPV, so it should be a HMC6472… right? Well it seems someone messed up at the factory and put the older HMC6450 badge on this car! Before you ask, no I have never seen any other photo of a 72 with a 50 badge in any literature, so I believe this was a mistake someone made.

The HMC6440 was based on the Mazda E200. Production commenced in 1993 and was carried out using kits from Japan. Additional badging on this car to differentiate it from regular imported versions was minimal, with there being a single HMC6440 badge on the drivers door and sometimes a sticker on the tailgate.

Power came from a 2.0 liter ‘FE’ 4 cylinder carbureted petrol engine producing 86hp and 152Nm. Production numbers remained low and few seem to have been sold outside Hainan and neighboring Guangdong province.

The HMC6440 badge on the drivers door.

The HMC6430 was based on the sixth generation (BG) Mazda Familia/323. Small scale production began in 1994 and the car was immediately praised for its superior build quality to some of HMCs other products – the HMC6470 in particular. This was because the HMC6430 was built using more advanced manufacturing techniques and lessons learnt from earlier poor production processes.

Power for the HMC6430 came from a 1.3 liter 4 cylinder carbureted petrol engine producing 73hp and 101Nm.

In 1993, Hainan Auto Works created a branch factory in the coastal city of Beihai in Guangxi Province, known as Hainan Auto Works Beihai Branch. As far as we know they only produced one vehicle – the GH7160, based on the HMC7160 – a 1.6 liter version of the HMC7130. Investment capital totaled around 3 million RMB.

Despite having numerous products on the market, HMC was struggling and always on the brink of bankruptcy as it was only able to sell cars in its native Hainan province. That’s not to say that they weren’t able to find some ways to get their cars to other parts of the country though, as HMC was known to be involved in some questionable business practices. Salvation finally came in 1997 when First Auto Works (FAW) and the Hainan Government reached an agreement in which FAW would purchase HMC outright and form a new company – FAW Hainan Auto Works. In 1998 the sale was completed and HMC became part of the massive FAW conglomerate. FAW and Hainan were also due to design and produce an MPV based on the FAW-Hongqi CA7220 platform, though that never came to fruition.

However, FAW did not provide any help or financial support to HMC. Instead, HMC had accepted the buyout as it would mean they would finally have legal access to the national market and so could sell their cars throughout the country. It seems however, that only two cars were allowed to be sold throughout the country – the HMC6470 and the HMC6430 which was renamed as CA7130/7160 in 1999. In 1999 the HMC6470 became available with the 2.2 liter Toyota engine. It was also at this time that local parts content for the HMC6470 reached 85%. On the other hand, the MPV based HMC6472 had a local parts content of less than 10% and so HMC was forced to give up the manufacturing license for that car and instead it focused on the HMC6470 and CA7130 (also apparently sold as HMC7130). In 2000 the CA7130/HMC7130 became available with a 1.3 liter Toyota ‘8A’ 4 cylinder petrol engine.

In 2001 the Mazda Premacy began rolling down the assembly line in Hainan. The sole engine choice for this car was a 1.8 liter 4 cylinder petrol engine producing 122hp and 160Nm, mated to either a 5 speed manual or 4 speed automatic transmission.

In 2002 the 8th generation Mazda Familia also began rolling down the assembly line, badged as the Family. Powertrain options were the same as the Premacy.

In 2004 a new deal was struck between FAW, the Hainan Government and Hainan Automobile Group (aka HAW) in which both FAW and and Hainan Auto Group would each take 49% of the shares, whilst the Hainan Government would get 2%. The aim of this move was to bring together all of Hainans automobile production resources and to consolidate the relationship with Mazda. The new company was named FAW Haima Automobile Company. However in reality, it was the start of the beginning of the end for the partnership between Hainan and Mazda.

In 2005, FAW and Mazda signed a license agreement that enabled FAW to produce Mazda products, begining with the Mazda 6. Haima seems to have taken this move by FAW and Mazda badly as it soon started producing blatant copies of Mazda products.

Haimas first move was to update the Family into the Family 2 in 2006.

That’s not to say the original 8th generation Familia was dead, it was simply renamed the Happin.

In 2007 Haima facelifted the Premacy and renamed it the Freema.

Also in 2007 Haima unveiled their first really obvious Mazda ripoff – the Haima 3. They really weren’t trying to hide who they were copying were they…

In 2009 Haima would unveil its last truly obvious Mazda ripoff in the form of the Haima 2 – a car similar in size to the Mazda 2.

Finally in 2010 Haima unveiled the Haima Knight – an SUV with suspiciously similar proportions to the Mazda Tribute/Ford Escape.

For now our story on Haima will end here. After 2010 Haima continued to update and facelift existing products and also began to dabble with electric and hybrid cars and continue a venture in Zhengzhou producing light vans to become a fairly successful company that even sells reasonably well in Shanghai nowadays, but we don’t care, we find the crazy beginning of this company’s story far more interesting! For more on Haimas more recent products and activities, be sure to check out Car News China

Sources

JRJ

21cn

Navigator84

51che

bitauto

Giujiaro