Chinese brand plans to deploy up to 50 new NEVs by 2025 –and to increase Aussie sales by 50 per cent in 2023
GWM (Great Wall Motors) is on the march.
The rejuvenated Chinese car-maker got the ball rolling with the latest GWM Ute in 2020 and now its arsenal includes SUV brands GWM Haval and GWM Tank – and from April its EV-only brand GWM Ora.
But that’s only the beginning for GWM Australia, which is predicting huge sales growth in 2023 – and beyond – via the introduction of dozens of new NEVs, or ‘new energy vehicles’, over the next few years.
A NEV is basically any electrified vehicle, meaning conventional plugless hybrids (HEVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), battery-electric vehicles (EVs) and even hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).
“We’ve made a commitment as a company that 80 per cent of all GWM vehicles on sale will be NEV by the end of 2025,” said GWM Australia’s communications chief, Steve Maciver.
“And to do that we’re going to launch 50 brand-new NEV models between now and then. Of those 50, some of them are already on sale,” he explained, pointing to petrol-electric hybrid versions of Haval H6, Haval Jolion and Tank 300 models, not to mention the upcoming GWM Ora.
“We obviously want as many of those [new NEV] cars as we can get,” said Maciver, but he cautioned that GWM Australia would pick and choose which vehicles it brings here.
A number of upcoming NEVs such as the Toyota Prado-size GWM Tank 500 hybrid and GWM Shanhai Cannon ute are expected to deliver big sales gains, but these aren’t expected to arrive until late 2023 or early 2024.
Even so, the Chinese importer says it’s predicting whopping sales growth of around 50 per cent this year as vehicles like the just-launched GWM Tank 300 Hybrid and its petrol-only Tank 300 cousin coming in mid-2023 gain traction.
“We had 25,000 sales from last year, and a 50 per cent increase will takes us to around 37,000 in 2023 – that’s the sales forecast,” Maciver told carsales, which would make the overarching GWM brand a top-10 brand in Australia.
GWM brands, including Haval, GWM Ute and Tank, found 25,042 Aussie homes last year – up 36 per cent on 2021.
Given the importer hasn’t been as severely affected by stock shortages as some brands and is planning significant portfolio and dealership expansions, the budget car brand is well positioned to find more buyers in 2023.
“Consider we’ll add more dealers this year and then you add Ora and Tank products, that’s where the additional volume will come from,” said Maciver.
Big sales growth to come via electrified SUVs
Despite launching Australia’s cheapest EV last week in the GWM Ora hatch and with the GWM Ora Sport sedan to follow, GWM’s NEV product assault will focus on its volume-selling Haval SUV arm.
“Ultimately Haval will be the sub-brand pillar for all our NEVs to move from 20 per cent to 80 per cent by the end of 2025,” said Maciver, who cautioned that the 80 per cent figure was a global objective, not an Australian one.
Nevertheless, the GWM comms boss said that around 30 per cent of sales for GWM Haval’s two best-selling SUVs, the Jolion and H6, are for the hybrid models and that figure is expected to rise to 50 per cent this year.
Expect to see a range of new hybrid SUVs and utes and a big EV push as well. Asked if the GWM Ora brand will unleash a small or mid-size electric SUV to rival the MG ZS EV and BYD Atto 3, Maciver was coy, but implied its EV expansion would be significant.
“I can’t comment on the expansion of that Ora range but you’ve mentioned two segments that we’re in and there’s plenty of other obvious segments there too [for EVs].”
“GWM Ora is the first model we’ve brought to market here, Ora Sport is an option for a second model here. There are other models on sale overseas that we haven’t considered to be right for us but there’s no doubt that Ora is here to stay. And how that expands and what that looks like for us, we’ll have to see.”
Does that mean GWM will be putting a timeline on the axing of combustion-powered from its range, as Volvo Car Australia will do by 2026?
“We’re not getting rid of ICE here just yet. I don’t think this market is quite ready for it. But it’s moving very, very quickly,” said Maciver.
But the Chinese car giant is plotting a massive electrification push and is investing a huge amount of capital to stay competitive.
Mu Feng, GWM president and CEO, recently stated that his company would “…double down on all three tech roadmaps, which is BEV, hybrids, and hydrogen in parallel,” as it seeks to “…win the NEV battle”.
The GWM supremo revealed that the R&D spend on NEVs “…last year alone has reached $1.4 billion and by 2025, the total investment would be tenfold of that figure, $14 billion.”
As Chinese car-makers come of age and mainstream global markets become increasingly important to their growth, their products are improving at the same time.
“This October for the first time, China jumped to the second largest car export country in the world, with over three million units, surpassing Germany for the first time,” stated Mu.
“Overseas sales contribution have reached to 20 per cent of GWM global sales,” he added.
In Australia, sales of Chinese-made vehicles including the Tesla Model 3, Model Y and Polestar 2 saw the share of new vehicles built in China reach 11 per cent in 2022 – up from around one per cent in 2017.
Other major players from China, including MG and LDV, are helping to push percentages northwards but GWM says Australia is one of its key international markets and is hoping to solidify its place here via its acquisition of an auto manufacturing plant in the ASEAN region (Thailand), a former GM factory where the Holden Colorado was built.
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Keyword: GWM plotting huge NEV and sales assault