Chongqing Express -We Visit Changan’s Homebase in China

T he fog never left the city during my 5-day stay here but even behind the haze, Chongqing’s skyline still looks pretty impressive from my 55th floor hotel room.

I’m here on invitation by Changan, the oldest automotive brand in China and one of the Chinese big four.

In Between Two Rivers

Built on a mountainous landscape, Chongqing is a marvel of 3-dimensional city planning. They didn’t seem to bother flattening the terrain, they just built a multi-level city around it. You could go on top of a building and find yourself on a road on a different level of the city. It’s like Blade Runner but with a mountainous and slightly agricultural twist.

Since two of China’s major rivers run through the city, much of Chongqing is Connected by bridges, including the longest single arch bridge in the world. 

The roads here in Chongqing are different in a lot of ways from what we’re used to in Manila. Aside from the more orderly flow of traffic, the usual brands that we see locally, are mostly absent. Toyotas and Mitsubishis are a relatively rare sight. Instead, we see German executive cars, Teslas and a lot of Chinese vehicles. Interestingly, while Benzes and Teslas might stand out on Philippine roads, they don’t quite stand out quite as much here in Chongqing. -Which is a testament to how much Chinese design has evolved. Some of them look so exotic that they make the cars on our roads look like relics of a distant past. These are no longer the Cheap copycat cars that you remember

An Intimate Look at Changan

Chongqing is homebase to Changgan, and we’re here to get a more intimate look at the brand and the machinery behind it.

On the 1st day, we got to visit Changan’s assembly plant in Chongqing. It’s a sprawling megacomplex that’s a model of technological efficiency. 80% of the assembly is automated. It can produce one complete vehicle in 18 hours and once the assembly line gets going, it can churn out one vehicle a minute. And the vehicles that come out of the factory are quite impressive.

Like most Chinese brands, Changan also has multiple sub-brands under its umbrella. There’s Kaicene, Oshan, Deepal and Avatr. Avatr is Changa’s luxury division. We got to see and test Changan’s latest vehicles, Avatr 11 and 12. In top spec form, both come with dual electric motors and AWD drivetrain.

This is the Avatr 12

The Avatr 12 is a full-size electric sedan with cameras for side mirrors, power opening doors, radar units all around the car. In top spec form, it has dual electric motors producing 570hp, has a range of 680km and it can do 0-100kph in 3.9 seconds. Whether you see just the spec sheet or see the sheet metal, it’s impressive in every way.

Avatr 11 says hello.

The Avatr 11 is the crossover version of the avatar 12 and this one we got to drive. Like the Avatr 12, it’s part luxury car, part tech-demo and part amusement park ride. I tested its 0-100kph time at 4.9 seconds which is very quick for a vehicle of its size and weight.

Both the Avatr 11 and 12 start at 300k yuan for the base model. That translates to about 2.3 million in Philippine money but that number will certainly go up if it reaches Philippine shores. And that’s currently a big if.

One vehicle that we will likey see soon in the Philippines is the S7. Specs as of now are vague but in China it comes as either an extended range hybrid or a full EV. It has a range of 520-620km and a power output of 214 to 235hp depending on the variant.

I’ll be back

This is now my 2nd trip to China so I already had an idea how advanced Chinese automotive manufacturing is. What I didn’t expect was how much the city would charm me. And as I board the plane out of Chongqing, I ask myself.. when will I be back?