FAW are giving the Hong Qi brand another shot in the arm with yet another redesigned vehicle from one of their partners' stables - this time, the last-generation of the Audi A6 will provide the C131's base.

The C131 sedan will be launched in early 2012 and will come down the production line on December 30th, 2011 according to FAW's internal plan. FAW have apparently spent RMB 1.7 billion (US$ 258 million) on developing the platform used by the C131, the platform is code named L platform within FAW, and a H platform (for high end cars) M for mid range, and S for small cars.

FAW has plans to produce 26 cars by 2013, of which 4 are Hong Qi models. FAW have used various different Audi's and Toyota models over the years to give the Hong Qi brand the boost it really requires, the Hong Qi brand is strong but by pasting it onto any old model it seems to lose its strength each time, FAW would better dumping the Besturn brand and using the Hong Qi brand for all of its future models.