The Long and Winding Story of Guizhou Yunque Automobile

Let’s first tell you about the attempts to organize the Chinese automobile industry in the 1980s.

As you all know, China started truck production in 1953-1956 with the Jiefang truck from the First Auto Works (FAW) in Changchun.
FAW helped to erect a second truck factory in Siyan, Hubei, in 1969-1975, named Second Auto Works (SAW), which became later the Dongfeng Motors.
When around 1978 plans were made for a third important truck works, in Shanghai, the government changed direction, and gave priority to the development of a car industry.

With the Beijing Jeep Corporation in 1983, the first joint-venture between a Chinese automobile company and a foreign company was initiated.
Shanghai-Volkswagen was joint-venture number two in 1984-85.

Followed by the Guangzhou-Peugeot Automotive Corporation in 1985.
Tianjin Auto Works agreed a license agreement with Daihatsu Motors in 1984, to produce the Huali and Xiali mini vehicles.

In 1987 the state decided to make a structure to include all these initiatives. Car production outside of this frame was forbidden.

This frame was  called “San Da-San Xiao” (Three Big-Three Small).
San Da were: First Auto Works, Second Auto Works (later Dongfeng) and the Shanghai Automobile and Tractor Corporation.
San Xiao were: Beijing Jeep Corporation, Guangzhou-Peugeot and Tianjin-Dafa (Daihatsu).
In the last years of the 1980s, under the pressure of the military, two new were added, the Liang Wei (Two Mini); Chang’an license producing the Suzuki Alto and Guihang (Guizhou Aviation) license producing the Subaru Rex.

And there we are: Guihang Corporation in Anshun city, Guizhou province.
The Ministry of Aerospace Industry started a technology licensing and assembly agreement in 1992 to produce Subaru cars in an aircraft factory in Guizhou province. The company became the Guizhou Aircraft Group Automobile Factory. In March 1996, it changed its name to the Guizhou Yunque Automobile Co. Ltd.

The Yunque (‘Skylark’) GHK 7060 was a license-produced 544 cc ( 2 cylinder) Subaru Rex 2nd gen., which was made in Japan from 1981- 1985 and as Yunque in Anshun from 1993-2000.

Technical details of the GHK7060: engine 276Q (2 cylinders), 544cc, 23 kW. Dimensions: wheelbase 2255mm, LxWxH 3285x1400x1360mm, weight 575kg

In 1994 the much newer 658 cc Subaru Vivio (Japan 1992-1998) was introduced as Yunque GHK 7070.

Production numbers were very low, as there were a lot of start-up problems. Between 1992 and 2006 Yunque made 21.173 mini’s, that is about 1400 cars per year. Top year was 1995 with 7105 cars produced.

Technical details of the GHK7070: engine EN07 (4 cylinders), 658cc, 29 kW. Dimensions: wheelbase 2255mm, LxWxH 3295x1395x1385mm, weight 650kg.

From 1992 until 1999, the Huaxing YM 6390 was made in small quantities. In fact, this car was made by another division of the Guizhou Aviation Industry Corporation, which was already making Yunma buses  and garbage trucks.

The YM6390 was a kind of a cuckoo chick, as it was also sold as the Yunque GHK7080. It was a Toyota Starlet copy, developed in 1986 by the Huaxing company in Beijing, together with the Automotive Department of the Qinghua University. They used a Songhuajiang chassis and a Dong’an 462 0.8L engine.

Also in 1994, a GHK7100 test model appeared. I have never found any info about this car.

Facing the weak sales and heavy losses, the cooperation was reorganised in 1997-1998. In fact it was now a venture, between Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru), the Japanese trading house Manuberi, a Singapore investor and the Guizhou side.

New efforts to raise the production started with the introduction of the
GHK 7060A in 1998, a mini-car somewhat larger than the original GHK 7060.

But even at the end of 2001, car production was on a very low scale in Guizhou.

In 2001, the Yunque GHK7071 WOW (Wings of Wind) version appeared, using the Subaru electronic multi-point injection technology on the EN07 4 cylinder engine.

Production ended in 2006.
Technical details of the GHK7071 WOW: engine EN07 (4 cylinders), 658cc, 29 kW. Dimensions: wheelbase 2255mm, LxWxH 3365x1420x1350mm, weight 675kg, price 39.800 yuan.

And then, in June 2002, Subaru bailed out the venture, due to the poor sales and heavy losses.

In 2003, a privately owned business, Guizhou New Century (Xinshijie) Auto Investment Company, signed an agreement with the Guihang Group.

In 2004, Youngman Automobile Group Co., Ltd. of Jinhua, Zhejiang (a privately owned bus builder), acquired 69% of Yunque. The new company was named Guizhou Youngman Automobile Co., Ltd. (GYAC).
In July 2006 it started cooperation with Iran Khodro Industrial Group (IKCO), for the production of the Iran Khodro Samand as the Yunque
GHK 7180. The car was already shown at the Shanghai Show in 2005 and the Beijing Show in 2006.

In Tai’an, Shandong province, Youngman Auto planned to construct a new plant for the GHK 7180 production. The plant should be operated by a 70%-30% venture between Youngman and IKCO (Iran Khodro). Besides the Tai’an plant, Youngman also intended to launch an auto project in Jinan, Shandong province.

Technical details GHK7180: engine XU7JP/L3 (4 cylinders), 1761cc, 75 kW.
Dimensions: wheelbase 2670mm, LxWxH 4530x1720x1460mm, weight 1220kg.

When Youngman switched to a cooperation with Proton in 2008,  the cooperation with Iran Khodro ended. The GHK7180 was never produced.

Production of the smaller Yunque WOW GHK7071 already stopped in 2006.

From November 2008, the Youngman-Lotus Engineering (Malaysia) tie-up produced the Lotus/Lianhua L3 (aka Persona or Jingyue) four-door sedan, equipped with a Proton 1.6 L engine, in the Anshun, Guizhou plant. Its predecessor, the RCR Gen2, was CKD produced under the ” Europestar” name.

The Lotus Lianhua 莲花 L5 four-door sedan was built in Zhejiang province, not in Anshun.

Altogether, there were 281.656 Lianhua (Lotus) built by Youngman in several facilities.
All the Lianhua cars had a GHK designation, which was acquired by the purchase of Yunque by Youngman.
L3; GHK7150/GHK7160/GHK7161,
L5; GHK7167/GHK7187,
T5; GHK7158/GHK7188.

In 2017, the Guizhou Anyuan New Energy Automobile, bought the company. The new name was  Guizhou Guiteng Automobile.

This company acquired the Changan Automobile’s CX20 (MPV) production line and resumed production, launching the Yunque Q1 model (later renamed Quanjie Q1). The car was shown in January 2018. The designation was GHK7140.

In the beginning, the Yunque Q1 was a skd (semi-knocked down) assembled CX20.

Technical details GHK7140: engine JL473Q1 (4 cylinders), 1370cc, 74 kW. Dimensions: wheelbase 2450mm, LxWxH 3970x1730x1615mm, weight 1060kg, price 49800-66800 yuan.

In 2018, a new grille and logo, looking like an inversion of the Chang’an logo, was introduced. Now the car was named Quanjie Q1.

In 2019 the Q1 was equipped with a CE12 engine from BMW and designated GHK7130.

Production must have stopped around 2021. Production was about 2500-5000 per year.

Reader JFK pointed us to the Quanjie Q5, the last prototype. (Thanks, JFK!)

Introduced at the Guiyang Industrial Products Expo, fitted with a BMW CE16 engine, the car appeared in 2019. The BMW engine was made under license  by Mianyang Xincheng Power.
The Q5 was never launched at the market.
The car is a clear copy of the FAW Benteng Senya R9.

The Quanjie Q5 had no designation. It should have been GHK7162.

In 2020 Yunque came with a new ‘Carlarky’ logo. No idea what it meant and why they showed it. The cars were not called Carlarky.

This was the end of the long and winding story of Guizhou Yunque. I suppose they were, like so many, victims of the corona epidemic.

It was a pity that the cooperation with Subaru was stuck at the only production of mini cars (or micro) cars. Subaru’s production program was much more interesting with their bigger, permanent all wheel drive SUVs and their boxer engines.
And that Subaru couldn’t get grip at the quality problems of Yunque.
Though there also have been talks in 2011 between Chery and Subaru to cooperate, Subaru never returned back in China.

more to read:
https://carnewschina.com/2012/11/12/china-car-history-the-yunque-ghk7070/
https://carnewschina.com/2012/02/11/spotted-in-china-yunqu-subaru-ghk7071a-sports-4/
https://carnewschina.com/2023/06/18/automaker-story-a-tale-of-two-chinas/
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s id=1785874006800247378&wfr=spider&for=pc
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1649871022070744944&wfr=spider&for=pc