Dongfeng-Yulon venture begins production

Dongfeng Yulon Motor Co., a 50-50 joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Corp. and Taiwan's Yulon Motor Co., started full production last week.The venture in the east China city of Hanzhou plans to launch six models over the next three years, Dongfeng said in a statement. The vehicles will be sold under Yulon's Luxgen brand.The first model, the Luxgen 7 SUV, will debut this month.Dongfeng Yulon will have an annual production capacity of 60,000 vehicles in 2012, which will double by 2013.Dongfeng, headquartered in the central China city of Wuhan, has joint ventures with global automakers such as PSA Peugeot Citroen, Nissan Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp.In Taiwan, Yulon builds models under the Tobe and Luxgen brands. It also assembles vehicles for Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.