Yulon

History

Incorporated in September 1953 as a machinery company by Ching-Ling Yen, today Yulon Motor Co., Ltd. is part of the Yulon Group, a Taiwanese conglomerate.

The company is associated with the creation of a Taiwanese auto industry aided by its government. This pattern is being again realized by Malaysia's Proton. During 1953-1960 an era of "passive protection" reigned and Yulon grew with the assistance of protectionary tariffs of 40-60%. Parts and components received substantially lower tariffs to help fledgling carmakers.

Early on, Yulon looked for foreign partners, but it wasn't until 1956 that an American company, Willys, agreed to share technology. The next year Yulon began its long-lasting partnership with Nissan.

While the first Yulon model was a 1956 jeep, with engine production beginning in September of that year, passenger car assembly only started in 1960 with the Bluebird after an agreement with Nissan was signed in 1957. While primarily building Nissan models and other cars under license, Yulon has designed and produced at least one original family car, the 1986 Feeling 101. (Yulon began producing wholly original products again starting in 2009 with the debut of its Luxgen brand.) Until the introduction of the Nissan branded Cefiro A32 (in February 1996), the various license-built Nissans had all been branded Yue Loong (Yulon after 1992).

Nissan

Yulon has maintained a strong cooperative relationship with Nissan since 1957. After the 1985 passing of a Taiwanese act, the Automobile Industry Development Act (AIDA), Yulon accepted Nissan taking a 25% stake. Nissan maintained their ownership in Yulon until at least 2003 when a restructuring created Yulon-Nissan Motor Co Ltd, a separate company that focuses on complementing Nissan's mainland China activities with research, design, and manufacturing assistance.

Assembler

With production bases located in China, Philippines and Taiwan, Yulon makes license-built versions of many automakers' models. The companies it manufactures in cooperation with include Chrysler, Geely, GM, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi and Nissan. It assembles most of the vehicles from complete knock down kits.

The company has used its design and engineering expertise to localize its manufactures to suit Taiwanese tastes.

Importer

While Yulon continues to manufacture vehicles for sale on the Taiwanese market, as of 2010 it also imports Nissan, Infiniti, and Renault models for sale in the domestic Taiwanese market.

Own brands

Intent on maintaining the ability to capitalize on emerging market growth, Yulon debuted two own-brands in quick succession, beginning in 2008.

Luxgen

The first Taiwanese auto brand, Luxgen (Chinese: 納智捷), was created by Yulon in 2008. Unlike Yulon's other operations, Luxgen cars are self-developed under Yulon's R&D center, HAITEC, although some components, such as engines, required foreign design assistance. As of 2010, Luxgen products are sold in Taiwan and Oman, but it plans to soon sell in a number of other emerging markets, too. In 2011, the company announced that it will invest an additional NT$500 million in 18 more dealerships to sell cars under its Luxgen brand.

Recent developments

On August 18, 2009, Yulon revealed the first car for its new Luxgen brand. In 2011, it plans to invest NT$13 billion to improve its manufacturing capacity in addition to releasing four new models.

Tobe

Yulon's second brand, Tobe (Chinese: 酷比), was established in 2009. As of 2010, it sells its sole product, a re-badged, re-designed Geely Panda called the Tobe M’Car, in Taiwan and Vietnam. Plans to enter other emerging markets exist.However, poor sales and the brand image of being a rebadged Geely leads to the end of the brand in 2013.

Production bases

Yulon has a number of production bases in several countries, including China, Pakistan, Philippines until 2013, Taiwan and probably Thailand.

China

Initial production base investment in China for Yulon was buying 5% ownership in a Southern China production base in the 1990s. 2000 saw another, larger Chinese production base investment this time of 25%. The latter acquisition was probably in Fengsheng Motors, a Dongfeng Motors subsidiary.

As of 2003, Yulon had 25% ownership in the subsidiary yielding access to production bases in Huadu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong province and Xiangfan, Hubei province.

Philippines

In 1999 Yulon bought a 75% ownership of Nissan's newly built production base in Santa Rosa, Laguna province. This occurred after the Nissan Motor Company pulled out of the Philippines after the Asian market crises caused poor sales in the country. In 2013, it was announced that Nissan Motor Company of Japan will be again taking over Nissan in the Philippines. This comes after dismal sales and poor model updates from Yulon Taiwan, which ranked Nissan Philippines well below local rivals from Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai—not reflective of its ranking as no. 6 global carmaker.

Chinese joint ventures

All of Yulon's joint ventures in China are with Dongfeng Motor.

Dongfeng Yulon

A joint venture with Chinese automaker Dongfeng, called Dongfeng Yulon (or Dongfeng Luxgen), was set up in 2009 and will manufacture Yulon's Luxgen models in China after the completion of a planned production base in Hangzhou in 2011. The cars will be sold in China.

Fengshen Automobile

In 2003, Yulon had part ownership in a subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor, Fengshen Automobile Co Ltd.