Beiqi Foton Motor Co., Ltd. is a Chinese company which designs and manufactures trucks, buses, sport utility vehicles and agricultural machinery. It is headquartered in Changping, Beijing, and is a subsidiary of the BAIC Group.
History
Founded on August 28, 1996, Foton manufactures light and heavy-duty trucks, agricultural tractors, and various other machinery. In addition to the heavier trucks, Foton also builds a copy of the Toyota HiAce H100, called the "Foton View" or "Foton Alpha". In August 2002, the company started producing Foton Auman truck. In March 2006 Foton and Cummins Inc. announced the creation of a 50:50 joint venture company, Beijing Foton Cummins Engine Company, to produce light-duty diesel engines, of 2.8 and 3.8 liter displacement. In October 2009 Foton agreed to form a joint venture to develop and produce vehicle batteries with Pulead Technology Industry Co. In July 2010 Foton announced the establishment of a European headquarters in Moscow, Russia. Foton established a sales company in India in April 2011. In February 2012, Beiqi Foton Motors Co., Ltd. and Daimler AG established a 50-50 joint venture, Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive Cventure, at an investment of RMB6.35 billion. The joint venture would take over Foton's existing Auman medium- and heavy-duty truck business, including production sites, sales and service network. Foton will build an assembly plant in Colombia, in order to participate in the growing Latin American market for light commercial vehicles. The company also plans to build a plant in Western Maharashtra, India. Foton has announced a bus factory in Brazil in the state of Bahia, as part of their globalization plan. Foton has held a press conference in 2015, previewing the Sauvana while announcing news to bring the brand to the United States. In September 2017 Foton and Piaggio agreed to form a joint venture to develop and produce light commercial vehicle. Based on Foton chassis the new vehicle was sold by Piaggio Commercial Vehicle division in Europe and in all market around the world but not in China. The vehicle was intended as a successor of the Piaggio Porter and production was planned to starts in the mid 2019 in Pontedera with all components produced by Foton in China. In August 2018, Foton Motor announced they would set up a plant in Bangladesh by next year to assemble commercial vehicles in a joint venture with ACI Motors
Operations
Foton is headquartered in Changping District, Beijing. Foton's business units are seen in cities and provinces such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Hebei, Hunan, Hubei, Liaoning, and Guangdong. Its R&D branches are distributed in Japan, Germany, Taiwan and The Philippines. It has assets exceeding 50 billion Yuan and 300,000 employees. Foton, whose brand value exceeds 61.932 billion Yuan in 2005, ranked No.1 in auto industry and No. 11 in the “Top 500 Most Valuable Brands”. Foton business marquee also consists of a branch in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Och motors LLC which is one of the biggest conglomerate in Mongolia, is the official distributor of Foton in Mongolian market.
