Foton

Beiqi Foton Motor Co., Ltd. (Foton Motor or Foton) 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 BAIC Group.

Foton makes commercial trucks in a joint venture with Daimler AG, called Beijing Foton Daimler Automobile Co., Ltd., which sells its products under the "Auman" brand name.

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 March 2006 Foton and Cummins Inc. announced the creation of a 50:50 joint venture company to produce light-duty diesel engines.

In January 2009 Foton and Daimler AG agreed to form a 50-50 joint venture for the production of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in China, with an initial investment of 6.35 billion yuan. Creation of the venture received the approval of the Chinese government in July 2010.

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.

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.

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 290,000 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.

Models

 * Foton Gratour (Jiatu)
 * Foton Midi
 * Foton MP-X
 * Foton RV
 * Foton Saga
 * Foton Sauvana (Toplander)
 * Foton SUP
 * Foton Toano
 * Foton Tunland
 * Foton View

Sales
Foton Motor sold a total of 640,400 vehicles in 2011.