Ten things worth knowing about China’s Great Wall Motor Corporation:
1. Great Wall Motor is a publicly-traded Chinese carmaker and one of China’s so-called big four ‘independents’.
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2. In 2009 Great Wall made 226,560 vehicles.
3. Great Wall’s main manufacturing location is in Baoding, Hebei Province.
4. Important models include the Voolex sedan, Florid, Hover SUV, Haval SUV, Wingle (pickup) and the wonderfully named Coolbear.
5. The firm has attracted the attention of foreign OEMs on copying concerns with models such as the Peri (a Fiat Panda lookalike, which Great Wall tactfully kept out of Europe).
6. Knocked down kits of Great Wall models are assembled or planned for assembly in Russia, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Ukraine and Vietnam.
7. Production capacity in 2010 is planned to reach 0.5m units rising to 2m units by 2015.
8. As part of its high priority move into overseas markets, Great Wall is growing sales in Australia (its vehicles distributed by Ateco); sales so far this year – to August – amount to 4,000 units (mainly Haval SUVs and Wingle pickups).
9. The turnover of Great Wall Motors in the first half of this year totalled CNY9.125bn, up 77% on last year. Net profits increased to CNY0.907bn from 0.279bn in the same period of last year. The firm said the sale of SUVs, saloon cars and pickups have grown by 174.7%, 36.9% and 25.5% respectively in the first half.
10. Haval H5 SUV shipments to Italy – around 2,000 this year – mark the company’s entry to the EU market.
