The story of China National Heavy Truck Group (Sinotruk): Changzheng Auto

Changzheng Auto Works (Changzheng means Long March) was founded in 1958 and in its early years was producing cars and car parts. As was the case with Hongxing, Changzheng was initially called something entirely different and began operations first in Beijing, before moving to Xingtai in 1970. Changzheng was initially called Beijing Xindu Auto Works. A likely reason for this mass exodus of car makers from Beijing as the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relationships in the late 1960’s, Beijing was likely wary of a possible invasion by the USSR and so, using the lessons learnt from the earlier invasions by Japan, moved whole industries to secondary cities further inland as a way of securing manufacturing capacity.

The key thing to know about Changzheng is that they had a close relationship with Tatra, so almost all their vehicles were and are based on Tatra chassis’ and technology, but an official relationship only appears to have been created in 1985.

The XD160 and subsequent CZ160 were based on the Tatra 138/148. The XD160 used a cab design similar to that of the Tatras.

The CZ160 was an evolution of the XD160 with a new cab unrelated to the Tatra 138/148. Our friend Oliver Barnham saw this XD160 in 1979.

He also saw this drilling rig based on an CZ160 in 1980.

The CZ161 was likely based on the Tatra 148 – note the similar fender mounted indicators and how the windscreen wipers are fixed to the bottom of the windscreen. Having said that, the CZ161 has steps at the bottom of the doors not found on the Tatras.

From this brochure we can see that the CZ161 was powered by a Deutz V8 Diesel Engine.

The CZ250 was based on the Tatra 111.

The XD980 was based on the Tatra 141.

Before I move on to the “official” Changzheng-Tatra relationship I want to clarify the model designations. One would expect that Changzheng would have changed all model names from 1970 to ones starting with CZ and not the old XD for Xindu. However, it seems that they didn’t actually do this so, instead marketing their vehicles as Changzheng XD___. Confusing, but nothing we can do.

Between 1973 and 1985 a total of 1,318 vehicles were produced.

In 1985 Changzheng and Tatra entered into an technology transfer agreement to produce the T815 series of trucks in Xingtai. Before this there appears to have been a vague agreement that the Chinese could produce Tatra vehicles. As part of this new, official agreement, the Czechs would send their experts to China to guide the Chinese on production techniques etc and the Chinese would send some of their people to Czechoslovakia (remember we are talking before the formation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia as different countries) to learn from the Czechs. Production of the trucks started in 1985 with around 187 vehicles (CZ160 and T815 combined) being produced.

Between 1985 and 1987 a total of 1000 T815’s were produced from semi knock-down kits in Xingtai. At the 1987 Qinhuangdao Auto Show Changzheng managed to sell a whopping 622 T815’s, making it the largest order for any single model at the show.

Between 1988 and 1990 the Chinese bought 1100 completed trucks and 996 knock-down kits to be assembled in China. In 1991 a total of 500 trucks were sold and in 1992 that number increased to 800. In total Changzheng produced 3200 T815’s between 1985 and circa 1992.

The earlier products appear to have had Tatra designations starting with T815 to indicate their lineage. The T815P13 was a prime mover variant.

The T815NT22 was a prime mover variant. This was likely a more off-road focused version of the T815P13 shown previously with larger off-road tyres fitted.

The T815S126 was a dump truck. Note the round badge just below the windscreen – we will come back to it later.

The T815PJ36 was a unique variant with the cab mounted totally ahead of the front axle and also lower than other variants. These were used as base vehicles for drilling rigs and expedition vehicles.

Moving on to the CZ designation cars and we find an oddity. This looks like a Steyr 90, however we can clearly see that it is riding on the advanced chassis and suspension design from Tatra. As far as I know Steyr never made such a vehicle. Instead it is likely that Changzheng used Stery cabs produced by a subsidiary of China National Heavy Truck Group on the existing Tatra chassis.

The CZ9480EB was a prime mover variant, likely a renamed version of the T815NT22 shown previously.

The CZ9370 is likely that later version of the T815P13 prime mover.

The CZ3270XFG was a variant converted into a “Fly Ash Thermal Dumper” (best translation I could come up with. Confusingly there is a designation written on the side of this truck – CFX05132C(?), not sure what this is for.

The CZ5270GZY was a “Multi-functional emulsion explosive truck”. Again, sorry for the rough translation.

The CZ5270GY is much more straightforward – it was the tanker version.

My colleague Erik saw this Changzheng assembled T815 in Shanghai in 1991. The strange thing is this truck has test-plates: license plates for experimental/prototype vehicles, yet the T815 had been produced in China for 6 years at by this point.

The coolest part of this particular truck was the logo on the “bonnet” – it is unique to the Chinese made vehicles… for obvious reasons.

Around the mid 1990’s Changzheng apparently stopped using their old factory and moved closer to downtown Xingtai. They continued to use the Tatra chassis design but with new cab designs sourced from other Chinese truck makers. That isn’t to say that Tatra’s relationship with Changzheng soured though… as I shall discuss later on in this article.

The trucks produced in the years following on from the mid 1990’s consist of those based on Tatra chassis design and those based on old fashioned leaf springs and live axles, just like every other truck on the road in China. I will show some of them to you now, but really there are too many to cover especially as most of them are almost identical bar for minor differences that aren’t worth mentioning. First off, the Tatra based ones, note that they all have the previously mentioned circular logo on the “bonnet”, this is indeed the Changzheng logo. The weird thing is how some of the Chinese made trucks had it but not all, making it extra hard to identify the Chinese made ones.

And now the boring (not based on Tatras) ones:

Now for the good part! Tatra is back baby!

The first came out last year – the CZ2257SU55, a 6×6 based on the Tatra chassis.

Perhaps the most interesting recent development is the announcement of potential Chinese production of the 815TERRN°1 8×8! This was announced earlier this year.

Now I will share some photos of the old Changzheng factory from my recent visit in July of this year.

Old dormitories

The first stop on our visit to the factory was the dormitory area down the road, or rather up the hill.

The slogans on this building consisted of four parts:
1 – 独立自强 – Independence
2 -自力更生 – Self Reliance
3 – 奋发图强 – Strive

The slogan on this side is a more recent addition. It reads the following:
国营长征厂工业遗址 – meaning “The Site of Changzheng Factory”.

There is also an english translation. The reason these two slogans have been added is for an annual bike race that passes by the site.

One of the main dormitory buildings.

An overgrown entrance to one of the dormitory buildings.

Hand-painted sign above one of the dormitory entrances. Top left reads “Changzheng living quarters”, the bottom left reads “Building 12” and the right reads “Unit two”.

A sign above a door to one of the apartments inside. The text around the edge is as in the previous sign, but the 102 obviously denotes this is apartment 102.

The inside of the dorms are a mess with many having been converted into areas for raising chickens or something at one point.

This did scare me though, finding a pair of shoes at the bottom of the stairs as though someone had taken them off and walked up. Thing was, we didn’t see anyone in the building. It wasn’t a nice place to be and it could easily be used as the set for a horror movie.

Former factory

After the somewhat scary dormitories, we drove a few minutes down the road to the former factory site. The production facilities are abandoned with zero production taking place now, but it seems that there is limited activity occurring in the office building shown below. Before I move on I will tell a quick story. When we were walking around we bumped into two older gentlemen, one of whom used to frequently “help out” as he put it, at the factory back when it was operating. We got to talking about the main parties involved and he brought up the Czechoslovakians and asked about how they were doing now. We got to tell him that the country had been split into two! He was also very amused to find out that the Soviet Union had fallen! Was certainly an interesting experience for me.

This sign was on one of the columns outside the office building. The top left line reads “Xihuang Village Police Station”, the top right line reads “Changzheng Auto Company” and the bottom line reads “Security Brigade”, so it would seem that this building is possibly used as a police station.

The river separating the office buildings from the production facilities.

This sign reads, in one form or another “Please pay attention to safety so that your family may be happy (that you don’t die or have an accident)”

One of the many side roads leading off the main road through the production facilities.

The inside of many of the buildings stand empty or full of sand for brick making.

The main road through the production facilities.

One of the buildings used for production/assembly of truck bodies.

One of the buildings once used for pressings.

One of the buildings used for vehicle modification, that is, outfitting.

An unlabelled pair of buildings.

A poster with company rules… from September 1984!

A sign in the factory reading “I lean upon Changzheng to survive, Changzheng leans on me to thrive” (rough translation).

A calendar from 2014 in a smaller office type room attached to one of the factory buildings.

A sign warning people to watch out for moving vehicles.

A sign near the entrance/exit reading “Happy at work, safely return home”.

The lone Tatra I saw

Towards the end of my day in Xingtai my friend took me to see the only Tatra he knew of in the city. At first I was very confused as he led me through an empty lot surrounded by demolished buildings, over a fence and onto a pile of rubble and what used to be a house. From our vantage point we could see this T815.

Inside the cab were a couple of warning labels and one ID plate from Konvekta who produces air conditioning and cooling systems for all sorts of vehicles. Funny how the plate says the system was made in West Germany, considering the truck was made in 1992 and West Germany ceased to exist in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and of the Soviet Union. Based on the location of the truck and its age, I think it is safe to say that this was indeed a Chinese assembled truck!

And so I conclude this article on Changzheng, but not this series about Xingtai’s automotive industry, there are still a few more articles to write about that. The title of this article may give you a clue as to what else I am working on – the history of China National Heavy Truck Group (Sinotruk). Changzheng did become a part of Sinotruk in 1984 but few sources talk about it so I didn’t go into any detail in this article, nevertheless this article represents the start of that series as well.

Some useful links and sources:

FbLife, Sogu, G, Wemedia, Zhka, Sina, Eastday, Hansiji