GWM CEO places Australia in global plans

FOLLOWING the launch of several new energy vehicles (NEVs) into the Australian market in recent months, Chinese car-maker Great Wall Motors (GWM) says we can expect more models to come, with as many as 50 new vehicles to be offered globally before the end of 2025.

These models will form a strategic power play for the industrious marque, as it seeks to assert a strong presence in both established and developing markets.

Speaking to Australian journalists via video link, and through a translator, GWM president and CEO Mu Feng said the brand would accelerate its global strategy by selecting appropriate NEV and internal combustion engine (ICE) models for differing markets across the 170 countries in which it operates.

“2022 witnessed a tremendous growth of Chinese car-makers, like BYD, GWM, Geely and so on. 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. NEV exports have now doubled to over 700,000 units per year,” he said.

“As the first wave of Chinese car-makers, GWM has now developed over 700 sales outlets during the last 25 years in more than 170 countries and across all continents. GWM has deep roots in regions including Russia, Australia, the Middle East and South America.”

Mr Feng said GMW exports increased by 21 per cent last year, achieving 170,000 units to account for a fifth of the car-maker’s global production.

He added that growing acceptance of Chinese-made vehicles, coupled with improvements in technology, safety and value, had proved beneficial to the GWM’s bottom line, enabling it to begin focusing on a more selective approach to tackling carbon neutrality within its global fleet.

“With all those changes, we now come to one solution – carbon neutrality. Thus far, over 40 countries, including the EU, have set an ICE phase-out plan by as early as 2030. It now becomes important, imminent, and inevitable (that we accelerate our development along this path),” said Mr Feng.

Curiously, Mr Feng noted that Europe was GWM’s primary export destination for NEVs with increases also noticed in North America, Japan, and South Korea.

He said the company would continue to focus its efforts on these and other “policy- and demand-friendly regions” while simultaneously offering plug-in hybrid and internal combustion solutions in regions that are not yet ready to make the switch.

“The world’s fastest growing export destination from China is Europe with a 204 per cent year-on-year increase, following by North America with a 100 per cent increase,” he highlighted.

“At GWM, we have developed three different approaches to take on the competition in different regions, and these approaches are based on the understanding of our years of experience and observation on NEV adoption, acceptance and differences.

“The first approach is one that centres on both policy- and demand-friendly regions, like North America, Europe, Japan and Korea. Battery and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will be the leading models sold in these regions where we will use competitive pricing and product against ICE-oriented legacy brands.

“The second approach centres on market-demand friendly regions, like Brazil, Thailand and Australia. ICE vehicles are still dominant in these market areas, and demand is restrained due to pricing and infrastructure.

“The demand in these regions is, however, still growing, and drives market policy toward a more friendly NEV market. Our HEV models will be taking charge to penetrate the ICE markets as a smart alternative (to ICE), and to make room for the later arrival of PHEV and BEV products.

“Of course, existing ICE products will also play a role in stabilising the business operation (in these regions).”

Mr Feng said he believed ICE vehicles will continue to play a role in strengthening GWM’s position in certain parts of the world for some time to come, while in others, they would form the backbone of its operations, perhaps for many years after many of the aforementioned markets had already made the switch to new energy vehicles.

“The third approach centres on other key markets like Russia, the GCC, Africa and Latin America. In these regions, ICE still dominates and NEV is at an early stage,” he said.

“Smarter ICE technologies will be critical to meeting local customer demand in these regions and providing business economies of scale. Whereas NEV models will serve as an inspring halo range for the brand as we move toward an inevitably greener future.”

Mr Feng also took the opportunity to reiterate GWM’s shift toward centring its various brands beneath the GWM logo.

As we’ve witnessed with Haval in recent times, the parent company’s branding will take priority in defining its role in markets globally, with sub-brands such as Haval, Tank and Ora forming specific roles (in the case of the three brands mentioned, SUV, off-road and BEV respectively).

“One important thing I will say is that we will return to the One GWM policy,” he declared.

“The GWM masterbrand will be the leading umbrella for category sub-brands (and our) One GWM policy will focus on four main principles, which include: main category, main pricing, main styling and main segment.

“These four focuses will support GWM in building a strong, efficient, and lasting strategy we call the ‘global big single product strategy’ (and) we believe this strategy will greatly improve the competitiveness of GWM on both the ICE and NEV battlefields.

“Resources including wholesale (offices) servicing and showroom will be skewed to support this strategy (and) will speed up the process of transforming it into a mobile technology company.

“To win the NEV battle, we again turn to our ‘R&D over investment’ approach and will double-down on all three technology roadmaps, which is BEV, hybrids, and hydrogen. The total investment level in the last year alone has reached $US1.4 billion ($A1.9b) and by 2025 the total investment will be tenfold that figure – $US14.0 billion ($A19.6b).”

Mr Feng said GWM would invest equally across its hybrid, BEV and hydrogen strategies to ensure the brand is well placed to meet future needs across global markets. He said the company is placing each-way bets on upcoming battery technologies – including LFP, ternary, lithium, cobalt-free and solid-state units, while also developing e-hybrid technology for on- and off-road platforms.

GWM is also working on an in-house-developed hydrogen power system Mr Feng says will provide “a full suite of solutions for hydrogen mobility”, focussing primarily on commercial vehicle fleets, and on vehicle automation which will likely work hand-in-hand with all three vehicle technologies to “contribute to the future of GWM product and ecosystem”.

“We understand that future mobility will be defined by software, but that doesn’t mean simply put software and a car together. It is a reshaping process … that will support GWM in competing in this next wave of industry revolution and help to enhance our global influence.

“Electrification and connected car technology are driving Chinese car-makers to pioneering trends within the industry. Since 2015, China has been number-one in producing new energy vehicles … and in 2021 there were six Chinese-made NEV models in the top 10 most popular NEV models launched around the world.”

“The new dawn for the automotive industry is coming,” he concluded.