The Big Car Database

Great Wall Motors Company Limited is a Chinese automobile manufacturer formed in 1984. The company is named after the Great Wall of China. As of 2010, it is China's largest sport utility vehicle (SUV) producer.

In the 2012 market beset by lower demand and curbs on road-going city cars, Great Wall performed well. It rose by three places to rank as the seventh largest Chinese automaker and produced just over 675,000 units. The export of cars for 2012 stood at 96,500 units.

Some models use the Haval name eschewing Great Wall badging.

Type	Public
Traded as	SEHK: 2333
Industry	Automotive
Founded	1984
Headquarters	Baoding, Hebei, China
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Wei Jianjun (Chairman of theExecutive Directors)
Products	Automobiles
Slogan	Focus Dedication Specialization
Website	GWM-global.com

History

Established in 1984, Great Wall initially manufactured only trucks not producing a sedan car until 2010. The company has been a very successful producer of pick-ups first reaching top position in the Chinese pick-up market in 1998.

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 as the 2nd most-purchased SUV in China although this figure may technically include two discrete models, the Great Wall Haval H3 and the Great Wall Haval H5.

Manufacturing for 2011 resulted in 486,800 units, and output this year was the tenth largest of any vehicle maker in China. In 2012, it was reported that the company only allows workers one day off per week and new hires undergo months-long, military-style training.

Great Wall started selling in Europe in 2006, offering small vans. A lot of 500 SUVs were shipped to Italy in 2006 as well. Great Wall products were first available in the Australian market in 2009, and the company was, as of 2010, the only Chinese car manufacturer to sell in the EU. European sales continue, with the 2011 opening of a factory in Bulgaria that assembles three different models from knock-down kits.

Operations

Production facilities in China

With a main manufacturing location in Baoding, Hebei province, Great Wall has expansive plans for future production bases and facilities.

Other production bases include a site in Tianjin, a direct-controlled municipality, that began operating in 2011 with further expansion phases planned until 2015. The first phase of this facility may become operational in August 2011 adding 250,000 units per year capacity, and when the project reaches completion total capacity will be twice that.

Another 500,000 units per year base was built in Baoding. This second base become operational in October 2013 and is located in the Xushui county.

Overseas production facilities

There have been several other overseas factories that produced Great Wall models from knock-down kits, located in Bulgaria, Ecuador,Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Russia, Senegal, Ukraine, and Vietnam. It is possible that there are now more than ten such factories.

These facilities are not necessarily affiliated with or owned by Great Wall. By 2015 Great Wall plans for the existence of 24 such workshops.

Bulgaria

Iran

The Iranian motor company Diar has assembled Great Wall vehicles from knock-down kits.

Russia

In September 2015, Great Wall Motors broke ground on a new plant located in the Tula Region, Russia. The plant is slated to have a total production capacity of 150,000 units per year if the project is successful enough to warrant a second phase of expansion. Initially scheduled to open in 2017, the facility is touted as an "all-process vehicle plant", which may indicate it is on a larger scale than other overseas assembly shops.

Cancelled projects

Brazil

A new factory was set to become operational by 2013 in Brazil (but was later postponed until 2014).

Thailand

As of 2013, Great Wall Motors had plans to invest $340 million for a new factory in Thailand, but this expansion effort was terminated in early 2014.

Research and development

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

Currently, component design may rely heavily on foreign technical assistance, and some hard-to-source parts may be provisioned from overseas; 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 sourced in China.

Products

Brand names

While its entire model line initially carried the same badge, the company planned c. 2010 to differentiate its SUV, passenger car, and pick-up truck offerings naming them Haval, Voleex, and Wingle, respectively. This goal may not have seen full fruition as compact cars carry the Great Wall badge as late as 2016. However, SUVs have been branded Haval since 2013. Great Wall recognizes this on its website stating that in March 2013, " Haval brand became independent officially, bringing GWM into an era of dual brand of Haval and Great Wall."

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". An all-electric SUV was showcased at the 2010 Guangzhou Auto Show, and the company is considering a tie-up with electric car maker Coda Automotive.

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 products have been available in many places across the globe including Australia. The majority of exports may be in the form ofknock-down kits as is the case with the assembly plant in Bulgaria.

In Europe, Great Wall Motors is present in Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Italy, Serbia, and the United Kingdom. In the future, it plans to also expand, among others, in Greece, Hungary, Poland, and Austria.

In America, Great Wall Motors is present in Costa Rica

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, may be 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.

Between 2010-2015, the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) tested various Great Wall cars with all receiving two or three stars except the four-starred X240 (known elsewhere as the H5E). As of 2016, no Great Wall vehicle had received the maximum ranking, five stars.

Recalls

An Australian importer recalled Chinese-made cars of several brands including Great Wall due to discoveries of asbestos in gaskets. There is an ongoing verification process in Europe to evaluate the presence of asbestos.

Motorsport

The company regularly makes appearances at the Dakar Rally. In 2010 it raced with Haval H3 model. Its best rankings were achieved in the 2012 and 2013 editions, when the team finished 6th. At the 2014 edition, the team has been competing with the new Haval H8 model.

Controversies

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 Panda with a different front end.” A copyright infringement case in China did not arrive at the same conclusion.