Overseas expansion to continue for Great Wall
Chinese automotive group Great Wall Motors has said it aims to pick up the pace of sales in overseas markets.
Speaking at the 2020 Beijing Motor Show, which concluded on October 5, Great Wall’s vice-general manager for international markets, Tony Guang Sun, explained that the group had begun selling its sports utility vehicles and other models outside China in 1998.
Since then, he said, it had built up an international sales network of more than 500 dealerships in more than 60 countries and regions. Over the years, it has achieved accumulated overseas sales of 700,000 vehicles.
However, Mr Sun said that it aims to increase overseas sales in 2020 to 70,000 vehicles. This would give overseas markets a 7% share of the group’s total sales.
He said that customers in external markets now have no doubt in their minds about the quality of Great Wall vehicles but want reassurance that the company will maintain a presence in their domestic markets for years to come.
For this reason, Mr Sun said “localisation” was an important part of the group’s international policy.
He announced new investment of around $500 million in its factory at Tula in Russia and said Great Wall would add production plants, sales subsidiaries and spare parts warehouses in other locations, including the Middle East and South America.
