LDV was acquired in 2006 by the Russian automotive giant GAZ, that had plans to start production of the Maxus in one of its Russian factories by 2010, but the LDV factory went into administration in June 2009, due to lack of funds from Russian owner GAZ.
In August 2010, China's SAIC, which bought most of the LDV assets, planned to launch the Chinese version of Maxus in 2011,[REF] and in April 2011 announced the Maxus would be called the Datong (meaning big wisdom and smooth in Chinese) under its new Maxus brand [REF].