A lineup of Hongqi vehicles are displayed at FAW Group's workshop in Changchun, Jilin province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Northeast China's Jilin province, as one of the country's six major automobile industrial clusters, has been making strides in the industry's development, and is set to build a mid-to-high-end industrial chain as well as a modern new automobile and parts industry cluster.

Over the past few years, the added value of the automobile industry has accounted for more than a quarter of the province's industrial added value, and the province's automobile sales account for more than 10 percent of the domestic market.

In 2020, Jilin-based auto manufacturer China FAW produced 2.65 million vehicles, which played an important role in driving the automobile industry chain.

The added value of industries above a designated scale in the province increased by 6.9 percent year-on-year last year, which was 4.1 percentage points higher than the national average.

In the first half of this year, China FAW continued to drive the recovery of the automobile industry, producing 1.8 million complete vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 10.8 percent, and sold 1.97 million complete vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 20.4 percent.

In the past three years, the annual sales of FAW Hongqi cars have increased by a factor of 42, and Hongqi is expected to sell 400,000 vehicles this year. The sales of FAW Jiefang cars increased by 61.8 percent during the period, representing the fastest growth among the world's commercial vehicles.

Plans have been made for Jilin's automobile industry to develop into an industrial cluster with an annual output of over 1 trillion yuan ($155 million).

Before 2025, FAW Hongqi will launch 17 new models, including 15 new energy vehicles. FAW Jiefang will strive to boost sales of its new energy vehicles to 120,000 by 2025, 320,000 by 2030, and 500,000 by 2035, accounting for 20 percent, 50 percent and 70 percent of total sales, respectively.

FAW Jiefang's J7 smart factory is expected to be completed and put into production by the end of this year.