"Shanghai" brand car was born 33 years ago as "Phoenix"

In the 1970s, there was the saying "North Red Flag South Shanghai." In other words, there is a self-owned brand “Red Flag” sedan in the north and a “Shanghai” brand sedan in the south. At that time, it was also worth showing off that it was riding a "red flag" or "Shanghai" brand car.

The predecessor of the "Shanghai" brand is "Phoenix." On September 28, 1958, the Shanghai Automotive Assembly Plant successfully produced the first “Phoenix” brand high-class sedan, with a top speed of 105 kilometers per hour. In 1963, the "Phoenix" brand car was renamed the "Shanghai SH760" sedan and used the 680Q engine produced by the Shanghai Automotive Engine Plant with a power of 90 hp. When the batch volume was small, only 50 vehicles were produced each year.

The "Shanghai" brand car was developed and began in 1965. In that year, the Shanghai brand car passed the technical appraisal of the State Ministry of Machines and approved the finalization. After 10 years of development, by 1975, the “Shanghai” brand sedan had an annual production capacity of 5,000 cars. In the 1970s and 1980s, the annual production capacity of “Shanghai” brand cars did not change much. In 1980, the Shanghai Automobile Factory had an annual output of "Shanghai" brand cars exceeding 5,000. Due to the small output, the "Shanghai" brand car is hard to find. At that time, the “Shanghai” brand sedan was only used by foreign visitors. Until the 1980s, the “Shanghai” brand sedan was still the main model of the Chinese general public car and the guest reception.

Like most of its own brands in that era, the “Shanghai” brand fell into a joint venture. When Shanghai Automotive teamed up with Volkswagen to launch "Santatana", the "Shanghai" brand began to decline. Shanghai Automotive once was extremely reluctant to give up, and even set up a separate factory to continue to produce "Shanghai" brand cars, and made some technical improvements accordingly, but eventually it failed. On November 25th, 1991, the "Shanghai" brand car completely withdrew from the historical stage. At the same time, it also held the final off-line ceremony for the Shanghai brand car at the assembly plant of the Shanghai Automobile Factory.

In the 33 years since the "Shanghai" brand car was introduced, a total of 79,525 vehicles have been produced.