Great Wall Motor gains 3.58% YoY growth in 2018 net profit attributable to shareholders

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Great Wall Motor (GWM) gained total operation revenue of RMB99.23 billion in 2018 with a slight year-on-year drop of 1.92%, according to the annual report released by the automaker on March 22. Its net profit attributable to shareholders climbed 3.58% over a year ago to around RMB5.21 billion.Basic earnings per share were RMB0.57, higher than RMB0.55 for 2017. Besides, gross profit margin was decreased by 1.40 percentage points compared with the previous year to 17.5%.

According to the annual report, the group's principal products are pick-up trucks, SUVs and sedans. Moreover, it also engages in the production and sale of major automotive parts and components used in the above mentioned products. During 2018, GWM’ sales volume of automobile were 1,043,707 units, remaining basically the same as that of the former year. However, the sales proportion of new products with relatively higher selling prices continued to rise.

Last year, the automaker introduced more new models. With respect to the Haval brand, GWM, in the first half of the year, launched the Haval H4, which enriched the product matrix of Haval H series. In the second half of the year, the group released the Haval F5 and the Haval F7 under its brand new F series. Regarding the WEY brand, the group rolled out the first plug-in hybrid vehicle P8 and the VV6, further increasing the sales volume of the WEY brand.

Additionally, the automaker announced the debut of the new energy vehicle (NEV) brand ORA. Two all-electric car models, the "iQ" and the "R1" were launched under this NEV brand. By the end of 2018, the group completed the overall planning of its four major brands, namely, "Haval",  "WEY", "Great Wall Pickup" and "ORA".

GWM also obtained some achievements by working with domestic and overseas information technology giants. In March 18, the 5G-supported self-driving technology jointly developed by GWM, China Mobile and Huawei passed the test conducted in the automaker's Xushui proving ground. The response made by the vehicle was within milliseconds. In addition, the auto company carried out strategic cooperation with Baidu on four major aspects, namely, vehicle intelligent network, self-driving, ride-sharing and big data. In November, the group's “National Intelligent Connected Vehicles and Smart Mobility (Beijing-Hebei) Demonstration Zone” was initiated. The automaker said the zone's closed proving ground is China's first high-speed circuit that can test LTE-V2X connectivity and communication. It is also the first closed proving ground with simulated urban road layouts that deploy 5G network.