Great Wall Motor will begin trial sales of its pure electric cars in the country next year, its chairman said, adding he expected second half 2010 sales to rise compared with the first.
“I believe the second half will be better than the first half for China’s car market, and our sales will be better,” Wei Juanjun told Reuters. The automaker had said earlier it had a full year export sales target of 50,000 vehicles this year and had already sold 30,000 in the first half.
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The company said it would keep its electric car for domestic sale, with no immediate plans to export these vehicles. “We will display our electric car at the Guangzhou auto show and will start trial sales next year,” Wei said.
Unnamed analysts said Great Wall was the biggest SUV maker in China with around 12% of the market share in the first half compared with 10.8% for Dongfeng Honda and 9% for FAW Toyota. The company sees huge growth potential in the sector as SUVs now make up about 9% of total passenger vehicles sales volume in China versus 30% in developed countries.
Sport utility vehicles accounted for 45% of sales, pickup trucks 27%, sedans 20%, and others 8% in the first half.
Great Wall’s H1 net profit more than tripled to CNY867m and exports accounted for about 14% of total revenue.
