Great Wall Motors

Great Wall Motor Co Ltd
长城汽车 or 長城汽車

Type	Public
Traded as	SEHK: 2333
Industry	Automotive
Founded	1976
Headquarters	Baoding, Hebei, China
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Wei Jianjun, Chairman of the Executive Directors
Products	Automotive goods
Website	www.gwm.com.cn

Great Wall Motor Company Limited (simplified Chinese: 长城汽车; traditional Chinese: 長城汽車; pinyin: Chángchéng Qìchē) (SEHK: 2333) is a Chinese automobile manufacturer formed in 1976. The company is named after the Great Wall of China. As of 2010, it is China's largest SUV producer.

History

A 2006 Great Wall SUV

Established in 1976, Great Wall initially manufactured only trucks^{[citation needed]} not producing a saloon car until 2008 due to lack of a state license. The company has been a very successful producer of pickup trucks first reaching top position in the Chinese pickup market in 1998. By 2010, cumulative production of Great Wall pickups had reached 700,000.

Making an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange on 15 December 2003, Great Wall was the first private Chinese auto manufacturer to become a public company. The company is considering listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange as well.

Sales in 2010 were measured at less than 400,000 (near 2% market share) with exports a small portion of that figure at little more than 50,000, no increase from 2009 figures. That same year saw the Great Wall Haval H series was the 2nd most-purchased SUV in China. This may technically comprise two discrete models, the Great Wall Haval H3 and the Great Wall Haval H5.

Manufacturing figures for 2011 were greater than 434,500 units, placing Great Wall as the tenth most-productive vehicle maker in China.

Export

At at time when many Chinese automakers only talked of exporting to developed, overseas markets such as Europe and the US,^{[citation needed]} Great Wall entered the European market in 2006 selling small vans. That same year saw it export products to around 60 countries. It was, as of 2010, the only Chinese car manufacturer to sell in the EU. Great Wall entered the Australian market in 2009.

Dakar Rally

Great Wall made appearances at the 2010, 2011 and 2012 Dakar Rally editions, racing with Haval models. The best final ranking was achieved in 2012, when the team finished 7th. It plans to attend subsequent editions.

Models

Great Wall Pegasus seen in Russia

Main article: List of Great Wall models

A wide model range can be had from Great Wall–from light trucks and SUVs to urban runabouts. Component design may rely heavily on foreign technical assistance, and some hard-to-source parts may be provisioned from overseas;^{[citation needed]} the company states it has cooperative agreements with companies such as Autoliv, Delphi Automotive, BorgWarner, Robert Bosch GmbH, the German company Brose, Ricardo plc, TRW Automotive, and Valeo in regards to specific parts such as engines, transmissions, door locks, and airbags, etc. As of 2009, some models used Mitsubishi engines and Siemens electronic systems–both locally sourced.

Product differentiation

While its entire model line carries the same badge, the company differentiates its SUV, passenger car, and pickup truck lines naming them Halal, Voleex, and Wingle, respectively.

Electric vehicles

Great Wall planned to sell electric vehicles domestically beginning in 2011, and in that year the company stated it had "made quite a huge investment in exploring technologies for new energy autos". It showed an all-electric SUV at the 2010 Guangzhou Auto Show. China subsidizes oil and wants its domestic automakers to begin selling electric vehicles for this reason. Some Chinese automakers also see opportunities in less mature electric vehicles because Western companies have yet to develop much of a lead in the technology.

Sales outside China

Great Wall dealership in Adelaide, Australia

Great Wall products have been available in many places across the globe. These include Africa, Australia, Europe, Melanesia,^{[citation needed]} the Middle East, Russia, South America, South Asia, and the South Pacific.

By 2006 Great Wall had exported vehicles to around 60 countries, and by 2011 that figure has risen to 80. These exports may be in the form of knock-down kits.^{[citation needed]}

While Great Wall is engaged in export, nearly 70 percent of sales in 2009 came from central and western China.

After-sale care training

The company offers an after-sales service training course for employees of overseas distributors.

Safety

It is important to note that cars sold in the European Union, the Hover and Deer, were marketed as commercial vehicles exempting them from EU safety standards. As of 2010, some Great Wall products including passenger vehicles and the new Hover (Haval H5) and Deer (Wingle 5) have obtained an EU whole vehicle type approval, an EU regime that tests road vehicles and approves them for production and sale in Europe. In 2012, the Haval H6 is planned to receive EU certification.

Copying claims

The Great Wall Peri (left) and Fiat Panda (right)

Italian automaker Fiat has claimed that a Great Wall A-segment car, the Peri (Jing Ling in China), is a copy of its popular second generation Fiat Panda. A 2008 Turin court ruling substantiated the claim stating that the Great Wall Peri, “doesn’t look like a different car but is a [Fiat] Panda with a different front end.” A copyright infringement case in China did not draw the same conclusion.

Other Great Wall models may have been copied from those of foreign automakers, too. The Great Wall Florid, looks like a Toyota ist, the Great Wall Sailor/SA220 looks like an Isuzu Rodeo; and some older Great Wall Hover models may look like Isuzu Axioms, etc.^{[citation needed]}

Production bases

Wingle at the 2006 Paris Auto Show

Voleex C30 seen in Curico, Chile

Voleex C10 at the 2010 Santiago Autoshow, Chile

With a main^{[citation needed]} manufacturing location in Baoding, Hebei province, Great Wall has great plans for future production bases and facilities.

Planned production bases include a site in Tianjin, a direct-controlled municipality, that will see completion in 2013 or 2015. The first phase of this facility may become operational in August 2011 adding 250,000 units/year capacity, and when the project reaches completion total capacity will be twice that. Another 500,000 units/year base is also planned and will be built in Baoding. This second Baoding base may become operational by 2013 and is located in Xushui county. Production capacity figures may consider engines and vehicles as discrete.

Bulgaria

Together with the Bulgarian company Litex Motors, Great Wall has built a production base near the town of Lovech, Bulgaria, that became operational in February 2012. The plant will initially have a production capacity of 2,000 cars per year, but is planned to rise to a full capacity of 50,000 per year by 2015, when it would have a number of 2,000 employees. At a first stage it will only be an assembly line for knock-down kits, but in future stages of the project plans are to supply components for the new cars too. Total value of the initial investment is around 97 million euro, of which 10% were supplied by the Chinese company and 90% by Litex. The models produced at the new factory are Voleex C10, Steed 5 and Hover H5, and during 2012 the Voleex C30 and Voleex C20R will also be added to the range.

Marketing of Great Wall cars in Bulgaria officially began on September 26, 2011, at the International Fair Plovdiv, and the first dealership in the country was opened on October 18, rising to other thirteen by the end of the year. On November 14, the first vehicle was manufactured at the new plant, a Voleex C10, as part of the preliminary proceedings.

In early-2012, a first batch of electric cars are also planned to begin production near Lovech.

Knock-down factories

There have been at least eight overseas knock-down factories that produce Great Wall models from knock-down kits. Such knock-down exports are an easy way for Great Wall to gain access to developing markets without added after-sales service costs. Factories exist in Bulgaria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Russia, Senegal, Ukraine, Vietnam. It is possible that there are now more than ten such factories.

These factories are not necessarily affiliated with or owned by Great Wall. Both the Iranian motor company Diar and the Indonesian WICM,^{[citation needed]} an Indomobil Group subsidiary, assemble Great Wall vehicles from knock-down kits.

A new such factory will become operational in 2013 in Brazil, and by 2015 Great Wall plans for the existence of 24 such facilities. These may appear in places such as Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa and Venezuela, etc.

Technical center

While R&D activities commenced in 1998, in 2010 the company began construction of a technical center in Baoding, Hebei province. Part of an R&D investment effort, the center will see completion in 2012. It may become fully operational in 2013, as Great Wall states it will obtain "world-leading R&D... and technical ability" by that year.

External links

• Official website
• Official Australian website
• Official Bulgarian website
• Official South African website