Nanjing Yuejin Soyat

The Nanjing Yuejin Soyat is a subcompact hatchback built in China by the Wuxi Soyat branch of Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation. It was not an original design: it was based on the 1984 System Porsche version of the first-generation SEAT Ibiza, whose technology and production line were bought in 1997 by a joint venture between Nanjing Yuejin and the Malaysian Lion Group. Production did not begin until Fiat took over the Lion Group's share of that venture, Jiangsu Nanya Auto. In 1999 the design was modified for the Chinese market and sold as the Nanjing NJ6400, later the GHR Encore, and in 2004 the car was renamed Soyat after the Chinese mobile phone maker Ningbo Bird joined the venture. A four-door tall estate, the Soyat Unique NJ1020, and the facelifted NJ7150 and NJ7150B followed. Output fell from 4,261 cars in 2004 to 705 in the first eleven months of 2007, and by 2008 production had ended when Nanjing's new owner SAIC closed down the Wuxi factory.