The billionaire chairman of one of China's largest automakers has set some ambitious targets for domestic SUV sales.
Great Wall's G5 SUV Image: Autoreview.ru |
Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor Co, is aiming to surpass sales of Chrysler Group’s Jeep with his own marque, the Haval. If successful, the plan would become the world’s best selling SUV brand in three to four years.
The company is currently building a 250,000msq research centre in the city of Baoding, as well as increasing the number of engineers by 40% to more then 10,000.
Although “Great Wall’s growth trajectory has been pretty impressive,” says Ashvin Chotai of Intelligence Automotive Asia, expecting to become the world’s largest SUV brand so quickly is “a little optimistic.”
One of the biggest challenges facing Great Wall is breaking into the US, the world’s largest SUV market.
Sales of recreational vehicles have rocketed in China as city-dwellers seek adventure outdoors. This has helped boost Great Wall's net income by 66%, more than doubling its share price. Great Wall sold 279,956 SUVs last year, compared to 316,000 SUVs sold by Land Rover and 701,626 by Jeep.
The SUV boom has been further reinforced by a new joint venture between Chongqing Jinguan Automobiles, a leading Chinese special vehicles manufacturer, and Germany’s Hymer Group to launch the nation’s first recreational vehicle (RV) joint venture.
The two companies will jointly invest 500m yuan ($81.2m) to build a factor with an annual capacity of over 5,000 vehicles in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality.