Great Wall eyes 8% of world SUV market

Shanghai October 20 (Gasgoo.com) Great Wall Motor will ramp up investment in research and development in the future, aiming to grab around 8% of the global SUV market, jumping into segment top 3 by 2020, its Chairman Wei Jianjun said in a interview with YNET.com. recently.

The Baoding-based automaker sold 258,414 vehicles in the first nine months, up 79.9% from a year earlier, exceeding industry average, according to latest data.

Great Wall will invest 5 billion yuan ($751 million) in product and technology R&D in the next five years, of which 1 billion yuan will be used to expand its technology center, and another 1 billion yuan will be spent on building test center, trial center and multi-function test track. Moreover, the company will launch 15 B- and C-Class models in the next three years, with total investment of 3 billion yuan in product technology, Wei said.

The company also plans to put some self-developed core auto parts on the market every year, which contains five high-performance gasoline engines with displacement of 1.3L, 1.5L and 2.0L, as well as three diesel engines with displacement of 2.0L using the VGT, ordinary and twin charger technology.

Besides the engines, the company will develop the 5MT/AMT, 6MT, 4AT and 6AT transmission and is intended to launch the 1.2L and 1.4L supercharger engine, 2.0L GDI direct-injection gasoline engine, twin-turbo diesel engine and V6 engine in the future.

In terms of automatic transmissions, Great Wall will launch in 2012 a B-Class and a C-Class model, which carry engines with torque of 350Nm and 250Nm respectively and are equipped with the 6-speed automatic versus manual transmissions. At the end of 2010, the company will release an A0-Class and an A-Class model that will come with the 150 Nm engine pared with the 4-speed automatic transmission. 

By now, the Chinese automaker has developed seven new energy products, including four all-electric vehicles, two hybrid vehicles and one plug-in hybrid vehicle. The company will continue its R&D on pure electric vehicles, Wei said, adding that Great Wall will launch a small-sized all-electric SUV model in the domestic market at the end of this year.

Aside from that, Wei said Great Wall expects to increase its production capacity in the Tianjin and Baoding bases to 1.5 million vehicles in five years, with domestic sales accounting for 70% of the total. By 2015, the company hopes to raise the combined capacity of the above bases to 2 million units, with sales reaching 1.8 million units, turnover of over 1 trillion yuan and profits of over 1 billion yuan. 

Great Wall has so far established more than 500 dealerships and over 800 after-sales centers around the world, effectively meeting consumers’ needs.