Search History
Popular Searches
English
Dealer Login / Sign Up
Winnerway Motors (Dongguan China Auto Winnerway Motors Co., Ltd.) is a new energy commercial vehicle manufacturing enterprise located in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province. It is the predecessor to a complete vehicle manufacturing plant established as a joint venture in 1996 between the China Automotive Industry Corporation and Guangdong Hongyuan Group. It is the only automotive manufacturing enterprise in Dongguan City to possess production qualifications for both traditional and new energy vehicles to date. The registered capital is 120 million yuan, the factory area covers approximately 366.66 mu, and the headquarters is located at No. 12 Xingang South Road, Mayong Town, Dongguan City. Winnerway Motors focuses on the R&D, production, and sales of 6-12 meter pure electric city buses, pure electric business coaches, pure electric logistics vehicles, pure electric luxury group coaches, school buses, and new energy sanitation vehicles, among other commercial vehicle models. Currently, it is a holding subsidiary of the A-share listed company Longzhu Shares (002682.SZ). The brand holds the "Hongyuan" trademark, has won honors such as "Top 10 Coach Models in Guangdong Province," and has established the "Guangdong Province Pure Electric Bus Engineering Research Center."
Early Establishment (1996–2012): Winnerway Motors was founded in 1996 as a joint venture between the China Automotive Industry Corporation and Guangdong Hongyuan Group. Guangdong Hongyuan Group, one of the joint venture parties, is the actual controller of the CBA "Eight-Champion" Hongyuan Basketball Club. In the early stages of entrepreneurship, the company mainly produced traditional models such as pickups, SUVs, and minibuses, with products mainly covering the South China market. During the more than ten years after its establishment, the company maintained the positioning of a regional complete vehicle manufacturing enterprise and established initial influence in the South China automotive market.
Strategic Restructuring and New Energy Transformation (2013–2014): To align with the policy orientation of the new energy vehicle industry, Winnerway Motors underwent corporate strategic restructuring in 2013. In 2014, the Kangmeite Winnerway Motors project, with a total investment of 2.5 billion yuan, was laid in Mayong Town, Dongguan. A modern complete vehicle manufacturing base including welding workshops, painting workshops, and electrophoretic coating workshops was newly built. After reaching planned production capacity, it was planned to produce 8,000 buses of various types annually, with annual sales reaching 5.2 billion yuan. In the same year, Fujian Longzhu Transportation Co., Ltd. (later renamed Longzhu Group Co., Ltd.) made its first capital increase investment in Winnerway Motors.
Development Period and Qualification Acquisition (2015–2017): In 2015, the first Winnerway brand pure electric city bus rolled off the line in Dongguan, becoming the first major technical equipment product in Dongguan City. In 2016, the company successfully obtained relevant production qualifications for new energy vehicles, achieving a strategic transformation from traditional complete vehicle manufacturing to new energy commercial vehicle manufacturing. Thereafter, Winnerway Motors planned to expand annual production capacity to 8,000 vehicles, with a production value target exceeding 5 billion yuan, striving to become a leading enterprise in the new energy bus industry.
Longzhu Holding and Market Adjustment (2018–2023): In 2018, Longzhu Group Co., Ltd. conducted a capital increase to hold a controlling stake in China Auto Winnerway Motors, and Winnerway Motors became a holding subsidiary under Longzhu Shares. In the following years, affected by factors such as slowing renewal in the new energy bus market, the company's operating performance continued to face pressure. From 2021 to 2023, the company's annual operating revenue dropped from 168 million yuan to 6.6925 million yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company suffered losses for three consecutive years, with losses of 53.74 million yuan, 63.76 million yuan, and 98.18 million yuan respectively.
Stoppage of Production Phase (2024–Present): From January 1, 2024, due to "no project wins," Winnerway Motors implemented a temporary stoppage of production and operation. In the first half of 2024, the company's operating revenue was only 371,100 yuan, accounting for only 0.03% of Longzhu Shares' consolidated financial statements. As of 2025, the company has been suspended from production for more than two years. Longzhu Shares stated that the company is prepared to resume work and production at any time based on market environment changes and order situations.
Early Establishment (1996–2012): Winnerway Motors was founded in 1996 as a joint venture between the China Automotive Industry Corporation and Guangdong Hongyuan Group. Guangdong Hongyuan Group, one of the joint venture parties, is the actual controller of the CBA "Eight-Champion" Hongyuan Basketball Club. In the early stages of entrepreneurship, the company mainly produced traditional models such as pickups, SUVs, and minibuses, with products mainly covering the South China market. During the more than ten years after its establishment, the company maintained the positioning of a regional complete vehicle manufacturing enterprise and established initial influence in the South China automotive market.
Strategic Restructuring and New Energy Transformation (2013–2014): To align with the policy orientation of the new energy vehicle industry, Winnerway Motors underwent corporate strategic restructuring in 2013. In 2014, the Kangmeite Winnerway Motors project, with a total investment of 2.5 billion yuan, was laid in Mayong Town, Dongguan. A modern complete vehicle manufacturing base including welding workshops, painting workshops, and electrophoretic coating workshops was newly built. After reaching planned production capacity, it was planned to produce 8,000 buses of various types annually, with annual sales reaching 5.2 billion yuan. In the same year, Fujian Longzhu Transportation Co., Ltd. (later renamed Longzhu Group Co., Ltd.) made its first capital increase investment in Winnerway Motors.
Development Period and Qualification Acquisition (2015–2017): In 2015, the first Winnerway brand pure electric city bus rolled off the line in Dongguan, becoming the first major technical equipment product in Dongguan City. In 2016, the company successfully obtained relevant production qualifications for new energy vehicles, achieving a strategic transformation from traditional complete vehicle manufacturing to new energy commercial vehicle manufacturing. Thereafter, Winnerway Motors planned to expand annual production capacity to 8,000 vehicles, with a production value target exceeding 5 billion yuan, striving to become a leading enterprise in the new energy bus industry.
Longzhu Holding and Market Adjustment (2018–2023): In 2018, Longzhu Group Co., Ltd. conducted a capital increase to hold a controlling stake in China Auto Winnerway Motors, and Winnerway Motors became a holding subsidiary under Longzhu Shares. In the following years, affected by factors such as slowing renewal in the new energy bus market, the company's operating performance continued to face pressure. From 2021 to 2023, the company's annual operating revenue dropped from 168 million yuan to 6.6925 million yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company suffered losses for three consecutive years, with losses of 53.74 million yuan, 63.76 million yuan, and 98.18 million yuan respectively.
Stoppage of Production Phase (2024–Present): From January 1, 2024, due to "no project wins," Winnerway Motors implemented a temporary stoppage of production and operation. In the first half of 2024, the company's operating revenue was only 371,100 yuan, accounting for only 0.03% of Longzhu Shares' consolidated financial statements. As of 2025, the company has been suspended from production for more than two years. Longzhu Shares stated that the company is prepared to resume work and production at any time based on market environment changes and order situations.
Winnerway Motors' market performance experienced a complete process from initial expansion to annual decline, finally stagnating.
Historical Capacity Planning and Performance Commitments: In 2014, when the Kangmeite Winnerway Motors project was laid, it was planned to produce 8,000 vehicles annually with annual sales of about 5.2 billion yuan. When Longzhu Shares invested, the counterparty promised that net profit would be not less than 39.5 million yuan, 62 million yuan, and 87 million yuan from 2015 to 2017 respectively. These plans and actual operating results produced a significant gap.
Revenue and Profit Curve (2021–2024): From 2021 to 2023, Winnerway Motors' annual revenues were 168 million yuan, 194 million yuan, and 6.6925 million yuan respectively, accounting for 3.37%, 3.88%, and 0.18% of Longzhu Shares' consolidated financial statements respectively. Regarding net profit, there were losses of 53.74 million yuan, 63.76 million yuan, and 98.18 million yuan for three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023. In the first half of 2024, the company's operating revenue further dropped sharply to 371,100 yuan, with a loss of 19.42 million yuan.
Battery Quality Incident and Legal Disputes: From 2018 to 2019, Winnerway Motors cumulatively sold 1,196 pure electric buses to Dongguan Bus, Dongguan City Bus, and Binhai Bay Public Transport. These vehicles were equipped with lithium manganate fast-charging power batteries. After putting into use, a problem of serious range decay occurred—drivers reported, "Display shows can run nearly 400 kilometers, actually only run 160 kilometers, need to recharge after two trips." The three companies filed a lawsuit in 2025, claiming compensation totaling over 550 million yuan. In February 2026, the first-instance judgment ruled that China Auto Winnerway Motors compensate about 64.44 million yuan, which is less than 12% of the total claimed amount.
Zero Sales and Suspension Status: Currently, sales data for Winnerway passenger vehicle models cannot be found on various public car sales query platforms. The company has comprehensively stopped production and operation since January 1, 2024. The enterprise operating status is in the "Zero Production" stage in industry public data.
Winnerway Motors' technical capabilities mainly revolve around new energy bus complete vehicle manufacturing and three-electric system integration, but there are also obvious technical shortcomings.
New Energy Complete Vehicle Manufacturing Qualifications and Production Capacity: Winnerway Motors is the only enterprise in Dongguan City possessing both traditional and new energy vehicle production qualifications. It has complete assembly, welding, painting, and electrophoretic coating production lines, with an annual capacity reaching 5,000 new energy buses of various types. The company has established the Guangdong Province Pure Electric Bus Engineering Research Center and possesses multiple patent technologies for electric bus production and R&D.
Power Battery and Three-Electric System Integration: At the core technology level, Winnerway Motors mainly relies on external suppliers. Taking the KMT6108HBEV pure electric tourist coach as an example, the energy storage device uses Hefei Guoxuan High-Tech lithium iron phosphate batteries, with a drive motor rated power of 100kW and peak power of 200kW; engines mostly adopt products from third-party suppliers such as Suzhou Lucontrol Drive Technology. The company has not established independent manufacturing capabilities in core components such as power battery cells, motor electronic control, etc.
Hydrogen Energy Technology Reserves: In the field of hydrogen energy, Winnerway Motors has invested in technology R&D, but has not yet achieved mass production of fuel cell coaches.
Technical Shortcomings and Weak Links: Winnerway Motors is relatively weak in the independent R&D capability of core technologies. The company has publicly confirmed on the investor interaction platform that it lacks integrated die-casting technology, has no plans to R&D and produce autonomous transportation vehicles, and currently has no intelligent planning. Facing the huge procurement amounts of hundreds of millions of yuan for large coaches, Winnerway Motors failed to establish a strict quality verification system and long-term reliability guarantee capability for the equipped batteries, ultimately resulting in the consequence of frequent battery failures after large-scale batch delivery.
Winnerway Motors' overseas business scale is limited, but breakthroughs have been achieved. The pure electric buses developed and produced by the company have achieved export sales, covering markets in Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, and other countries and regions. The domestic sales network focuses on South China, East China, Central China, and Southwest China. The brand website mentions product exports to Southeast Asia and Europe, among other countries and regions. However, since the company comprehensively stopped production and operation in 2024, the subsequent sustainability of its overseas export business is highly uncertain.
As of 2026, Winnerway Motors is at the lowest point of its brand development. The suspension status, lasting over two years since 2024, has not yet ended. Although the first-instance judgment of the huge lawsuit with the three major bus companies has been made, the compensation amount is only about 12% of the plaintiff's demand, and the case has no final conclusion yet. Longzhu Shares has arranged a batch of retained personnel to be responsible for service guarantee work. The public statement from the company side remains that it is "prepared to resume work and production at any time based on market environment changes and order situations."
If Winnerway Motors wants to restart production, it needs to overcome at least three obstacles: first, complete the self-owned system and quality verification capability of core three-electric technologies to avoid battery quality risks from the root; second, find a differentiated commercial vehicle niche track in the dual waves of electrification and intelligence; third, rebuild market trust. Looking forward to the future, whether the "Hongyuan" brand can restore its past glory as Dongguan's only complete vehicle manufacturing enterprise after a brief silence depends not only on the injection of funds and orders but also on whether the company can draw profound lessons from the battery quality incident and truly reshape the brand foundation with technology and quality.
© 2024 Bitauto.com. All Rights Reserved.
Bitauto (www.yiche.com and www.bitauto.com) is one of the most visited automotive websites in China. We provide detailed info on Chinese car brands available in your area. Please note that the information provided on this website is based on publicly available data and is for reference only. It may not be fully updated or accurate at all times.
