Along with all other major brands in the Chinese market, Haval suffered a sales collapse at home during February after a difficult January. The achievements of Great Wall’s SUV specialist make shouldn’t be overlooked though, with 2019 another stand-out year, retail sales rising by eight per cent to 727,599 vehicles.
Last year’s performance, along with the new models that will be rolled out later in 2020, should see Haval bouncing back strongly once the market itself begins to recover.
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By GlobalDataOne of Haval’s weaknesses is a relative lack of any stand-out success in markets outside China. The brand does at least exist in multiple countries, and indeed GWM has been busy setting up or buying up assembly plants far and wide, including the former GM India site in Talegaon along with the same company’s Rayong manufacturing base in Thailand.
The brand’s parent has given it a global annual sales target of two million vehicles a year by the end of 2025, which seems very ambitious. Nonetheless, the fact that Haval is seen by GWM as one day becoming the world’s number one maker of SUVs – even with no current presence in North America and Western Europe – should explain why this brand just keeps gaining ever more new models.
H Series SUVs
The H1, in production for more than seven years, was the smallest Haval until production ended during the second half of 2019. It had started life as the Great Wall M4 before becoming part of the Haval brand.
The second generation H1 had been due to hit the market by mid-2020 but the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 issue will inevitably have caused a major delay. There should be some news about this vehicle by mid-year and potentially, a launch in the third or possibly fourth quarters. Should there be a new date for the currently postponed Beijing motor show, the H1 seems a certainty for launch there, even as a prototype.
Haval’s model range contains many young vehicles but the H2 is not among them. This small SUV has been around since July 2014, was facelifted in August 2018, and therefore should be up for replacement in 2021/2022. Even though volume fell dramatically during the second half of 2019, Chinese dealers still managed to retail more than 40,000 units last year.
The H4 has been in production for two years now. The engine line-up consists of 102kW and 225Nm 1.3-litre plus 124kW and 285Nm 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder units. Chinese market sales commenced in April 2018 after a debut at AutoChina, the bienniel Beijing motor show, during the same month. This model is said to be one of the planned launch models for the arrival of the Haval brand in India next year. As for the life cycle, there should be a facelift in the second half of 2021 and a replacement in 2025.
The Haval range includes an incredibly old model which somehow just keeps going. Chinese market sales of the H5, which dates to 2004, fell to circa 6,000 units in 2019. There have been quite a few facelifts but a new model is set to appear at long last, later in 2020. As with the H4, the new H5 should be made in India as well as in China.
Easily the brand’s best seller, the current shape H6 has been available since 2017. It is due to be facelifted in the second half of this year and replaced in 2024. That should help to give this SUV a boost after it suffered a fall from fourth place in 2018 to sixth in 2019 on China’s list of best selling vehicles, overtaken by the VW Bora and Sagitar sedans. Even so, sales numbered an impressive 283,291 units, making this one model more successful than the entire Chery or Skoda model ranges.
Haval also sells an H6 Coupe, which is more of a niche model. Launched in April 2015 at the Shanghai motor show, the Coupé is around the same size as the Mazda CX-5 and priced above the H6. There was a facelift in February 2019, with a 124kW and 285Nm 1.5-litre turbo engine also new, along with a seven-speed DCT. The successor should be launched in two years’ time.
After the poorly performing H8 was axed in 2019, the H7 became Haval’s second largest H Series model. This 4.7m long SUV was launched at the Beijing motor show in April 2016, followed two years later by the arrival of a facelifted model. A plug-in hybrid is due to join the line-up later this year, with the replacement series expected in 2023.
It’s not a big seller but the H9 at least gives the brand a place at the large SUV table. Unlike almost all other Haval models, this one has a ladder frame construction. It has been available in the Chinese market since the fourth quarter of 2014 and was launched with a 2.0-litre engine. A V6 became available in 2016. There was a facelift for all variants in August 2019. The next generation model, due in 2021/2022, will likely switch to a monocoque construction.
Haval’s biggest vehicle was the first to be built at a factory in Yongchuan (it can also be spelt Yangchuan). The Chongqing province plant has an annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles. Construction was announced in April 2018 and the first H9 rolled off the line in the final quarter of 2019.
M Series
Along with so many H-models, Haval also sells the highly successful (143,000 in 2019) M6. Sharing much with the slightly smaller H6 – including an interior – this 4,649mm long model went on sale in China during July 2017. The only engine is a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol unit. Expect a replacement in 2022.
F Series
Beside all the H-SUVs and M6, there are three F-models. The first of the trio is the F5. GWM created this vehicle by slightly modifying the Wey VV5. This 4,470mm long five-door crossover went on sale in China during September 2018, offering buyers a choice of 1.5- and 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engines. A facelifted F5 should arrive in 2022 and then be replaced by a second generation model in 2025.
The two other F-models are the F7 and F7x. The first of the pair is an altered Wey VV6. In China, this model is positioned above the F5 and also between the H6 and H6 Coupe. It was revealed at the Moscow motor show in August 2018, two days ahead of it then being exhibited at the Chengdu motor show. As for the F7x (also known as F7X), this was introduced to the public at the Shanghai motor show in April 2019.
The F7 was the first model to be built at GWM’s Russian plant. Ground was broken in September 2015 and the first vehicles rolled off the line at the Tula factory in late May 2019. Initial annual volume is 150,000 vehicles/annum but the plant is expected to take some years to reach that level.
Successor for the F7 and F7x are expected in 2025 and 2026. They will use the same architecture as the third generation H6 and there will be EV variants.
Reports for many other manufacturers’ future models are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.
Future product program intelligence
More detail on past, current and forthcoming models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicles database.
Following on from a look at Pao, Wey and Ora, this was the second of two features highlighting the current and future models of Great Wall Motor‘s passenger vehicle brands. The next OEM to be featured will be Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
