Construction work on Jianghuai Automobile's new CNY 5 billion (US$ 794.53 million) passenger automobile factory in Anhui's capital of Hefei has officially been completed, media reported. The factory, which is JAC's third, also began manufacturing the new Refine S5 SUV.

Facing an increasingly tough commercial vehicle market, JAC's net profits have been on the decrease since 2011. In order to deal with this reality, JAC has begun turning its attention to the passenger automobile market.

The Refine SUV will play a crucial role in the manufacturer's new sales strategy, and will be a major factor in determining how its fiscal performance for this year will be. "The company attaches a great deal of importance to the S5, and has invested a lot of funds into it," a representative from JAC was quoted as saying.

Construction work on the new factory begun in early 2010. The site will focus on production of next generation JAC passenger automobiles. Work on the site will be done in a double-shift format, with its annual production capability pegged at 240,000 units. Following construction of the site, JAC's overall passenger automobile production capacity will total 540,000 units.

JAC met its sales goal of 200,000 passenger automobiles last year. The manufacturer aims to sell around 500,000 passenger automobiles in 2013.