Great Wall Motor resumes sedan business under WEY brand

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Great Wall Motor (GWM) has resumed its sedan business and plans to launch the first sedan model in May under WEY brand, Li Ruifeng, vice president of GWM and general manager of WEY brand, said earlier this week.

Photo credit: WEY

According to Mr. Li, the automaker has made an elaborate product planning for WEY brand, which includes sedans and MPVs in addition to SUVs. There will be more than 10 WEY-branded new models to be rolled out by 2023, with prices ranging from 150,000 yuan ($22,896) to 300,000 yuan ($45,792).

With over 30-year development history, Great Wall Motor has grown to a significant indigenous power in China's auto industry, focusing on SUV and pickup segments.

For the first quarter of 2021, GWM sold 338,798 new vehicles with a year-on-year growth of 125.37%. Specifically, the sales of Haval and WEY-branded SUVs amounted to 222,728 units (+109.72% YoY) and 25,999 units (+162.59% YoY). The company also sold 59,388 pickups, accounting for nearly 50% of the country's total pickup sales.

Despite the robust rise in SUV and pickup sales, GWM's sedan development has been wanting for a long time. Wang Fengying, president of GWM, said in 2015 the company was seeing adjustment of product strategy and would temporarily quit sedan business with no car model to be launched in the following two years.

The automaker previously released some signals of its resumption of sedan development. GWM's vice president Fu Xiaokang said last year the L.E.M.O.N. platform would be compatible with the model development from A0 to D segments, and cover SUV, sedans and MPVs.