The Chery A11 (), also known as Fulwin, Fengyun or Windcloud, is

Chery Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., trading as Chery and sometimes known by the pinyin transcription of its Chinese name, ''Qirui'' (), is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Wuhu, Anhui, China. Founded in 1997, it is curre ...

's first car. Created without government approval, it has nonetheless been the first step of Chery's success story and helped transform the Chinese automotive market from one dependent on foreign joint ventures.

Development

The A11 is essentially a rebadged first generation

SEAT Toledo The SEAT Toledo is a small family car produced by the Spanish manufacturer SEAT, part of Volkswagen Group. The Toledo name was first introduced to the SEAT line up in May 1991 being named after a Spanish city with the same name, with the fourt ...

, a model which was built by

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair (furniture), ...

– i.e. the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

subsidiary of the

Volkswagen group Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial ...

– from 1991 to 1998 and was based on the Volkswagen Group A2 platform. This is the same platform used by

FAW-VW Automobile FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between FAW Group and Volkswagen Group which manufactures Audi and Volkswagen marque passenger cars for sale in China. It was founded on 6 February 1991. FAW-VW is headquartered in the so ...

for their successful, license-built FAW-VW Jetta. Windcloud production indeed depended on secret side deals with the same parts suppliers as did FAW-VW. A later financial settlement out of court meant that Volkswagen agreed to abstain from a planned lawsuit.Hessler, p. 65 The purchase of the Toledo blueprints was also executed in secret, in spite of SEAT being a Volkswagen subsidiary: all of these deft negotiations were the work of engineer Yin Tongyao, who had originally worked for Volkswagen's Chinese joint venture. Chery SQR7160 Windcloud

Tongyao was originally poached by the government of

Wuhu Wuhu () is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Anhui province, China. Sitting on the southeast bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou and Tongling to the southwest, Hefei city to the northwest, Ma'ansh ...

, in

Anhui province Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

, after they had reached the decision to develop a car for local production. Tongyao had also quietly purchased the production line for a rather outdated

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

engine (Ford 1.6 CVH) in England, which he then transferred to Anhui: the first engines left the production line in May 1999. This was to be the first engine installed in the Windcloud. It was later replaced by the more modern Tritec and

Acteco ACTECO is an automobile engine brand created by Chery Automobile of China. Engines range in size from 800 cc to 4.0 L, with architectures including a straight-4 and V8. The range was developed with Austrian company AVL. Founded in 1997 ...

engines. At the time, China had very strict regulations hindering the entry of new players into the automotive industry, so for nearly two years Chery was officially only producing "automotive components", albeit in a fully assembled form. In 2001, Chery finally received government permission to market their cars nationwide. The Chery A11's production began in December 1999 as the ''CAC6340''. The name was changed to Fengyun, codenamed ''SQR7160'', in 2000, and Chinese production ended in 2006. The

Chery A15 The Chery A15 (), also known as Cowin, Flagcloud or Amulet, is a subcompact car produced by the Chinese manufacturer Chery from 2003 to 2010. A facelifted variant was called the Cowin 2 and was sold from 2010 to 2016. Overview It is based on a r ...

, first presented in 2003, is a facelifted Windcloud.

References

External links

{{Chery Automobile A11 Sedans Subcompact cars First car made by manufacturer