| King Long United Automotive Industry Co., Ltd ε¦ι¨ιιΎθε汽车ε·₯δΈζιε ¬εΈ | |
| Type: | Joint venture |
| Location City: | Xiamen, Fujian |
| Location Country: | China |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Key People: | Xie Weiguo. (CEO)
|
| Industry: | Automotive manufacturing |
| Products: | Minibuses Buses |
| Owner: | Fujian Motors Group (15%) |
| Subsid: | Higer Bus Golden Dragon |
| Homepage: | www.king-long.com |
King Long United Automotive Industry Co., Ltd or commonly known as King Long (literally, Golden Dragon) is a Chinese bus manufacturer headquartered in Xiamen, Fujian. Founded in December 1988, it is focused mainly on developing, manufacturing and selling large-and-medium-sized coaches and light vans. In 2024, King Long ranked no.113 on World Brand Lab's "China's 500 Most Influential Brands" list.[1]
Established in 1988, King Long United Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. is one of the joint ventures in China with a long history in the coach manufacturing industry. The company is now jointly owned by Xiamen Automotive Industry Corporation, Xiamen State-owned Assets Investment Co., Ltd and San Yang Industry Co., Ltd. from Taiwan, with the share proportion of each holder being 50%, 25% and 25% respectively. The King Long Group owns three subsidiaries, King Long United Automotive Industry Co., Ltd, Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Co., Ltd., and the Higer Bus Co. Ltd.
In July 2023, Australian bus and coach dealer Bus Stop Sales announced it had worked with King Long and local body manufacturer Volgren to create the King Long EVolution Complete low-floor single-deck battery electric bus for the Australian bus market. The EVolution Complete, also available as the EVolution Chassis for a range of other bodies to be potentially built, is equipped with VDO electronics, CATL batteries, Thermo King air conditioning and ZF Friedrichshafen drive axles.[2]
On 29 January 2025, Northern Irish bus manufacturer Wrightbus entered in collaboration with King Long under the 'Rightech' sub-brand, launching the Rightech RB6 and RB9 low-floor single-deck battery electric buses in both left- and right-hand drive configurations for both the United Kingdom and European bus markets.[3]
The King Long facilities cover a total area of 200,000 square meters with over 1800 employees, of whom 400 are technical engineers, and 30 are postgraduates, who play a key role in different sections such as R&D, IT, production management, quality control, finance, sales and after-sales services.
King Long has taken a leading position among domestic coach manufacturers in China, the largest coach market in the world. King Long has long maintained a close cooperation with parts suppliers, including German companies MAN and ZF, American companies Cummins, Dana and Neway, French company Telma, Swedish company Scania, and Japanese companies Nissan, and Hino.
King Long currently offers 5 series of products, which are subdivided into 50-plus categories, covering various buses and coaches (6-13m), for the tourism, passenger transport and city bus market. The company's products are sold in overseas markets including Australia, Costa Rica, Chile, Bulgaria, Singapore, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq, Syria,[4] Cyprus, Lebanon, Malta,[5] the United States, the United Kingdom,[6] Argentina, Barbados, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, North Korea, Mexico, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
At the end of 2004, the relocating and technology upgrading project of King Long was formally launched as one of the key projects of Fujian Province and Xiamen City in 2005. The new plant site is located in Xiamen Automobile Industry City in Guannan Industrial Park, Jimei District, Xiamen. The project was to be constructed in two phases: Phase 1 covers an area of 25 hectares with the gross building area of 8.5 hectares, with a designed yearly production capacity for 6,000 coaches and buses. With a total investment of about RMB260,000,000 yuan, Phase 1 was expected to be completed and put into use by the end of 2005. The reserved area for Phase 2 is 15-20 hectares. Upon completion, the new plant will become one of the largest coach manufacture bases in China with an annual output of 13,000 coaches and buses of large and medium sizes.
By 2008, King Long had an 18% share of the export market in China. Overseas sales contributed 25% of King Long's sales.[7]
