Dongfeng Motor Corp.'s first own-brand sedan will source engines and manual transmissions from Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co. and automatic transmissions from Japanese Aisin Seiki Co.

 

Dongfeng unveiled the brand for the car last week. It is called "Fengshen" in Chinese, and "Aeolus" in English.

 

The sedan will debut at the Shanghai auto show in late April.

 

Aeolus was previously the brand of Dongfeng's joint venture with Taiwan's Yulon Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Corp. But its cars went out of production in 2003 after Dongfeng and Nissan established closer ties and launched the Nissan brand in China.

 

According to Dongfeng's passenger vehicle subsidiary, the first Fengshen model will be a compact sedan powered by a 1.6-liter gasoline engine from Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen.

 

Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen is Dongfeng's joint venture with PSA Peugeot Citroen SA.

 

Aisin Seiki Co. -- which will provide transmissions for automatic versions of the sedan -- has a transmission joint venture Tangshan Aisin Gear Co. in central China province Hebei.

 

To build the brand, Dongfeng plans to launch larger sedans. It will also produce cheaper, smaller cars to increase sales. No timetable has been given for these additional models.

 

Xia Hong, Dongfeng's deputy chief designer, was quoted by Chinese media as saying Dongfeng will source components from many global suppliers for Fengshen sedans, including Visteon Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH and Delphi Corp.

 

For its passenger vehicle projects, Dongfeng earlier this year completed construction of an r&d center and an assembly plant with an annual capacity of 120,000 units in Wuhan, Hubei province.

 

Dongfeng plans to start building a second plant in Wuhan in 2010 to double its passenger vehicle output capacity.