Chang'an Automobile recently held a technology research event at its automobile research facility in Dianjiang, Chongqing.

A local news report covered the event; the same report mentioned that Chang'an is planning to invest three billion RMB 3 billion (US$ 488 million) in establishing a new research and development centre. At the same time, Chang'an has released a quality testing certification system software known as CA-TVS, as well as beginning operation on the longest vehicle test track on Asia.

According to Chang'an Automobile Vice President Liu Bo, Chang'an's new research site in Yuzui, Chongqing is scheduled to expand to employ a staff of over 10,000 people by 2020. The RMB 3 billion RMB the manufacturer is investing in the site is just a drop in the barrel of its total R&D investments. According to a statement made by Chang'an President Zhang Baolin, the manufacturer stands by its plan to direct 5% of its revenue towards R&D.

Mr. Zhang pointed out that the next three years for are crucial for Chang'an according to its 2020 Strategy. In its previous five-year plan the manufacturer invested approximately RMB 16 billion (US$ 2.6 billion) in R&D. That figure looks to surpass RMB 20 billion (US$ 3.3 billion) in its next five-year plan. 20% of the manufacturer's total R&D expenses are focused on preliminary research. For example, 10% of Chang'an's R&D staff is dedicated to development of remote driverless driving technology.

Chang'an's increasing R&D investments are backed by its success in automobile sales. Last year its automobile sales totalled 2.12 million units, up 21% from the previous year. Growth of its own brand sales exceed the market average by 43.27%. Chang'an has sold a total of 1.11 million vehicles over the first five months of this year, achieving year-on-year growth of 25.7%. 331,000 of those sales have been of own brand models, whose sales volume has grown 42.8% from the previous year.

As R&D expenditures continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly necessarily to ensure the successful verification of new research work. To that end, Chang'an has developed the CA-TVS quality testing system. Mr. Zhang believes that this new system is a sign of Chang'an's increasing globalisation. The CA-TVS system is able to certify 15 aspects on new vehicles, including reliability, drivability, NVH (noise, vibration and harshness), safety and power. 357 automobile tests, 289 auxiliary tests, 994 system-level tests and over 3,000 auto part tests have been conducted.

The testing environments and expectations are deliberately designed to be stricter than the vehicles would encounter in daily use, with over 150 automobiles driven for over four million km used to test the results of any specific model. According to Mr. Liu, the new system will ensure that products can be used for at least ten years of driven for at least 260,000 km. He added that most vehicles in China are driven for 160,000 km during their life cycles.

On the infrastructure side of things, Chang'an has begun using its RMB 1.3 billion (US$ 211.5 million) vehicle test track in Chongqing. The track, which covers an area of over 3,300 mu, is the largest in Asia and consists of 34 platforms. Chang'an's partner Ford has also invested to renovate its test track. A specialised company has been established to manage the track, which other manufacturers in the country will be able to contact to use the track for their own testing needs.