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Electric & new energy vehicles
BusinessChina Business

Nissan, Honda partner Dongfeng launches ‘national’ mini EV Nammi to compete with GM bestseller Hongguang in China

  • Nammi brand will hone Dongfeng’s image as a carmaker of the masses, executive says
  • Dongfeng unveiled the Nammi 001, the brand’s first model, on Wednesday, but has not yet revealed its price

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The Nammi compact EV was launched in Chengdu on Wednesday. Photo: Handout
Daniel Renin Shanghai
State-owned carmaker Dongfeng Motor, the Chinese partner of Japanese marques Nissan Motor and Honda Motor, has launched a “national” mini electric-vehicle (EV) brand aimed at accelerating the use of battery-powered cars in the world’s largest automobile market.
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Nammi, the new brand, will cater to and be affordable for all mainland Chinese consumers, Wuhan-based Dongfeng, which is also China’s third-largest carmaker, said in a statement on Thursday.

“The unveiling of the Nammi brand will hone Dongfeng’s image as a carmaker of the masses,” Chen Hao, Dongfeng’s vice-president, said in the statement. “The company is determined in its resolve to engineer Dongfeng’s electrification drive.”

Nammi will aim to compete with, and essentially seek to replicate the success of the Hongguang Mini EV, an electric car developed by SAIC-GM-Wuling, American carmaker General Motors’ three-way partnership with SAIC Motor, China’s largest carmaker, and Wuling Motors.

The Hongguang, a compact four-seater EV, is a bestselling model that effectively promoted the use of battery-powered cars around China, including in its underdeveloped rural areas, according to Cao Hua, a ­partner at Shanghai-based ­private equity firm Unity Asset Management, which invests in automotive supply-chain firms.

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Launched in mid-2020, the Hongguang redrew the landscape of China’s EV sector, unseating Tesla’s Model 3 as the bestselling EV nationwide just a few weeks after sales started in July that year. For instance, in August 2020, 15,000 Hongguang EVs were delivered, outgunning the Model 3 of which 11,811 were sold, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

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