Dongfeng Motor Co's first passenger car, the Nissan Sunny model, rolled off the assembly line at Dongfeng's Guangzhou base Monday.

The 2-litre Sunny was launched only one week after the Dongfeng Motor Co was founded in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province.

The brainchild of the State-run Dongfeng Motor Corp and Japan's Nissan Motor Co, Dongfeng Motor Co is the biggest Sino-foreign automobile joint venture in China so far.

The 50-50 operation has registered capital of 16.7 billion yuan (US$2 billion).

"The launch of the Sunny model is a starting point for the new Dongfeng to crack the lucrative but competitive car market in China," said Miao Wei, board chairman of the JV.

Nissan's expertise, reputation and management have come together with Dongfeng's skilled workforce and understanding of the domestic market to make the Nissan Sunny and future models competitive in the domestic market, he said.

"The joint venture will make another five new passenger models at the Guangzhou base to help realize annual sales of 220,000 cars by 2006," added Katsumi Nakamura, president of the joint venture.

The joint venture's Guangzhou base is set to become Dongfeng's production as well as research and development (R&D) base for Nissan-branded passenger cars.

The base is capable of producing 150,000 passenger vehicles a year at present and, in a decade, will have an annual production capacity of 900,000 passenger vehicles.

Lin Shusen, Guangzhou Party secretary, said Dongfeng's Guangzhou base for passenger vehicles will strengthen the city's position as one of China's key automobile bases.

Besides Nissan, other Japanese auto makers including Honda and Isuzu have also set up joint ventures in Guangzhou.

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