1 Million Vehicles in Three Years: How Does Changan Qiyuan Navigate the "Central Enterprise New Force" Path?

Written by | Zhao Shi

In September 2026, Changan Qiyuan's cumulative sales officially exceeded 1 million vehicles, exactly three years since the brand's first launch in August 2023.

The past three years were precisely the most magical and sharpest three years in the history of the Chinese auto market: the first half of electrification is gradually winding down, and intelligence has shifted from an extra bonus to a mandatory question; more troubling is that the domestic new energy market has transitioned from a high-growth period to an adjustment and decline period, and the reshuffle wars under zero-sum games have become even more ferocious. According to public data from Liji Consulting, in the past three years, 23 new energy brands have perished—for traditional automakers, this is a typical "Innovator's Dilemma"; for any new brand, it means experiencing a "life-or-death game" every day.

Against this context, what Qiyuan delivered was not just a beautiful scorecard, but a sample worth dissecting.

One Million Vehicles in Three Years, Steadily Catching the Foundation of Consumption Upgrades

On August 27, 2023, Changan Qiyuan entered the public eye for the first time, first unveiling the slogan "Digital Intelligence Qiyuan, Leaping Towards a Better Future". This slogan, containing both technology and humanities, clarified the brand positioning and vision.

In short, at the user level: Building Select Quality Cars for Ordinary Families.

Over the past three years, the consumption logic of new energy vehicles has completely changed. Ordinary families are no longer satisfied with superficial "quantity and fullness"; they prefer to do great things with little money, buying a higher tier of quality and experience at the most affordable price.

Changan Qiyuan's One Million Vehicles in Three Years is catching this wave of consumption upgrades.

For example, the new Qiyuan A06 includes full aluminum front double-wishbone and rear five-link independent suspensions as standard across the line, and compresses high-level intelligent driving assistance with LiDAR, 6C fast charging, and 145° electric zero-pressure rear seats into a price under 130,000 RMB.

For example, the Qiyuan Q06 follows the same logic. The pure electric version includes full aluminum front double-wishbone and rear five-link independent suspensions and 6C fast charging as standard across the line. The extended range version brought distributed electric drive to a rights price of 147,900 RMB. The limited-time upgrade rights price of 9,900 RMB, opening the option to select 256-line LiDAR high-level intelligent driving assistance, was even more unexpected, effectively handing the choice directly to the user.

Consumers always vote with their feet. So we see that in just 24 hours after the Q06 launch, orders exceeded 35,000 units; and in just over 20 days, it welcomed its first "10,000-unit Delivery Season".

Looking closely at One Million Vehicles in Three Years, you will find: Changan Qiyuan makes blockbusters, but does not rely on blockbuster luck. Instead, it has found its own rhythm—continuously iterating around core models, stable output, and continuously accumulating the basic market with a big product matrix.

Long-cycle operation capability is especially reflected in the Q05 big product. From stable volume growth in 2025 to monthly retail sales exceeding 10,000 for 6 consecutive months in 2026, and being the compact SUV sales champion for 6 consecutive months, it took nearly a year. September's single-month global sales even reached 30,000 units.

The question arises: In the current era where 10 new cars are launched on average per month, why does Changan Qiyuan dare to insist on its own rhythm?

The confidence comes from Changan. Changan has a complete new energy technology system: from Taihang distributed electric drive, Smart New Blue Whale 3.0 to "Golden Bell" Battery 2.0, 800V Platform 6C fast charging, from one-piece end-to-end Tianshu Pilot to "Three-Way Six-Domain" Tianshu Chassis, all self-developed.

The Tianshu Pilot high-level intelligent driving assistance system is worth a single point (first equipped on Q06). This system is not only the highest tier mass-produced solution in Changan's self-developed system but also in the central enterprise self-developed system. Relying on a one-piece end-to-end large model, combined with 20 million segments of high-quality real human driving data, cooperating with 256-line LiDAR fusion vision scheme and 560 TOPS computing power, it achieves highway pilot, city pilot, and 400+ intelligent parking across use. Full stack self-development also means the system can accurately locate user feedback problem scenarios, respond and optimize experience quickly; it can continue to learn typical congestion, complex intersections, parking and other scenarios in the cloud, becoming smarter and more human-like the more it drives; meanwhile, through vehicle-end and cloud data integration, it can also ensure relevant data is closed-loop within the own system, guaranteeing user data privacy and security.

This is the key for Changan Qiyuan to win with latecomer advantage in the price band of 100,000 to 150,000 RMB where involution is most crazy.

"Central Enterprise New Force", Shoulding Dual Missions

At that time, outsiders could not fully understand the value of Changan Qiyuan's existence. Until July 2025, when Changan upgraded to a Level 1 Central Enterprise directly managed by SASAC, it revealed its true strategic weight.

The core is one sentence: Changan Qiyuan is Changan Automobile in the New Energy era.

More specifically, Changan concentrated the complete new energy technology system, 40+ years of car-making skills, and the whole set of verification standards on the Changan Qiyuan brand, letting it stand in the new energy main track with the special identity of "Central Enterprise New Force".

Looking deeper, as a central enterprise brand, Changan Qiyuan also shoulders the special mission of promoting the benign operation of the industry.

The biggest problem of the new energy industry is that development is too fast, to the extent that some automakers, in order to rush to launch and grab market share, are willing to adopt unconventional means. The most damaging to the industry and the biggest hidden danger for consumers is undoubtedly the "Speed-made Car".

Eliminating "Speed-made Cars" relies on drawing red lines at the regulatory level. Recently, four departments jointly issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Automotive Product Innovative Design and R&D Testing and Verification (Draft for Comments)", which highlighted: Reliability testing is not less than 30,000 kilometers, environmental adaptability verification includes "Two Winters One Summer", innovation design verification is insufficient and not allowed for announcement. These hard indicators mean that the path of "launch first then make up" is being blocked at the regulatory level.

On the other hand, it relies on enterprises. Regulations manage the bottom line, but above the bottom line, there is still a car company and a brand's specific operation between what consumers truly want safety. For example, new national standards require reliability testing not less than 30,000 kilometers, but in the Changan system, new car mass production verification is 5 million kilometers, can this be the same?

Changan Qiyuan inherits Changan's verification system throughout the process, two keywords:

One is comprehensive, new car R&D verification covers simulated testing of over 400,000 simulation scenarios, intelligent driving assistance simulation testing runs 3.3 million kilometers every day.

Two is real, before any new model launches, it must undergo -52℃ extreme cold +50℃ extreme heat +5210m plateau, plus durability testing of over 70 kinds of special road conditions, cumulative road test over 5 million kilometers.

All data answer the same question: Cars will never leave the factory if quality is not qualified.

When Going Overseas Becomes a Must for Central Enterprises

Holding this quality gate, in the domestic market is a commitment to consumers, in the global market, it is Changan Qiyuan's first trump card to participate in global competition as a Central Enterprise.

October Paris Motor Show, Changan Qiyuan completed its European debut. Changan Automobile Chairman Zhao Fei's statement at the show was very clear: CHANGAN NEVO is committed to providing users with family select quality cars. Please note, Changan Qiyuan uses CHANGAN NEVO uniformly overseas, positioning as "Intelligent Comfortable Home Travel".

This year is Changan Qiyuan's first year of going overseas:

May, the new Q05 officially launched in Thailand. Orders exceeded 3,000 units half a month after launch. Changan Qiyuan's first battle in the right-hand drive market, started and won.

June, Q05 landed in Uzbekistan, opening the channel to the Central Asian market.

July, Q05 debuted in Indonesia, further expanding in the Southeast Asian market.

Europe as the heavy weight of going overseas, the first model launched still locks onto Q05, launching in Spain and Italy first in 2027.

In short, Changan Qiyuan's overseas expansion follows the path of combining "Big Product First" with "Southeast Asia Rapid Volume + Europe Setting Standards".

Behind this, there is the product strength of Q05 as a global big product verified in the domestic market, and more importantly, Changan's "Sea-Collecting Hundred Rivers" strategy system traction — five countries nine places R&D layout, 22 overseas manufacturing bases, channels covering 100+ countries and regions, provided the most ready route for Changan Qiyuan from "Product Going Overseas" to "Local Manufacturing + Market Landing".

Domestic market pressure, almost all automakers are looking for overseas increments to offset domestic risks. But going overseas, is not simply selling a few cars, the most fundamental point is relying on base overseas, building a localized system of supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and service, letting the brand truly take root in the overseas market. Changan Qiyuan walks exactly this path.

Written at the End

The most worth looking at for Changan Qiyuan these three years is not the 1 million vehicle data itself, but what it proved two things.

Firstly, traditional automakers doing new energy do not need to copy the tactics of new forces. Changan's complete self-developed system, deep manufacturing foundation, strict verification standards, any point taken out, new forces need to spend a long time to set up. Changan Qiyuan as the system inheritor, first starting point is higher than others.

Secondly, central enterprise breakthrough in new energy lies in designing market operation mechanism and central enterprise responsibility well. Changan Qiyuan's success is exactly pinching market vitality and central enterprise foundation together. In users' eyes, this brand is young, fresh, but in the bone marrow it holds the central enterprise duty.

All the past becomes prologue. Changan Qiyuan standing at the new starting point of 1 million vehicles, whether it can stabilize on a larger scale, frankly, this question is actually harder — but at least, it has mastered the core logic of solving the problem.