BEIJING - Domestic carmaker Great Wall Motor Co Ltd plans to increase sales almost five-fold over the next five years and make aggressive inroads into overseas markets.

The company based in north China's Hebei province said in a statement to China Daily that it aims to move 1.8 million vehicles a year by 2015, up from the 390,000 units sold last year.

The Hong Kong-listed carmaker expects 30 percent of its annual sales to come from overseas markets by that time, it said.

Last year it sold 55,000 units overseas.

This year, it aims to sell 500,000 vehicles, including 80,000 units abroad, it said.

Great Wall said it plans to hike its annual global production capacity from the current 800,000 cars, SUVs and pickup trucks to 2 million by 2015.

Domestic factories

Its main domestic manufacturing bases are in Baoding, Hebei province and Tianjin municipality.

Over the next five years, Great Wall also plans to double the number of its overseas assembly plants to 24. When online, they would have a combined capacity of 500,000 vehicles annually.

The carmaker's first assembly plant in Europe - built in Bulgaria with a local partner - will start production in August.

Other foreign factories are in the pipeline in countries including Malaysia, Brazil, Turkey, Venezuela and Kazakhstan, it said.

The carmaker now markets vehicles in more than 100 countries with a total of 581 dealerships, mainly in South America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Australia, Russia and Italy.

European countries

It said it plans to foray into more European countries this year including Sweden.

Great Wall CEO Wang Fengying said during the Shanghai auto show that the company expects to enter the US market by 2015 with the Hover SUV as the first model.

It is also mulling construction of an assembly plant in the US, Wang said, but added that no decision has been made on location or timetable.

Analysts note it is tough to move into the US - the world's most demanding auto market - so China's homegrown carmakers should be prudent.

Since the middle of the last decade, a phalanx of other Chinese brands including Geely, Chery and BYD revealed plans to enter the market.

But no progress has been reported aside from headlines in the media.

Great Wall said it will continue to invest heavily in new product development including new-energy models.

It plans to spend 5 billion yuan on new product development over the next five years, up from 3 billion yuan in the previous five years, it said.

The company also plans to double the number of its research and development staff to more than 10,000.

Advanced powertrain

In March, Great Wall agreed to join with British powertrain company Ricardo to jointly develop an advanced 2.0-liter engine, double-clutch transmission and six-speed automatic gearbox for use in future models.

Great Wall's current lineup includes low- and medium-priced SUVs, sedans and pickups.

The company exhibited 20 models at the Shanghai motor show, including nine to be launched this year and several new-energy vehicles.

The carmaker said it plans to spend 1 billion yuan to speed up development of new-energy vehicles in the next five years.

"We will not just cash in on the government subsidies to blindly offer customers new-energy products with immature technologies," the company said.

Hybrids, electrics

It said its first plug-in petrol-electric hybrid and purely electric vehicles will be commercially launched next year.

New energy is the latest blockbuster in China's auto industry, with numerous foreign and domestic carmakers announcing plans to provide hybrid and electric cars in coming years.

They also showed off all types of new-energy models and technologies at the Shanghai motor show.

Government officials recently confirmed that China will launch a 10-year, 100-billion-yuan development blueprint for energy-saving vehicles to make the nation a vanguard in the sector. Local governments at various levels have also buttressed development of hybrid and electric vehicles by offering subsidies to buyers.

Great Wall's net profits surged by 163.7 percent from 2009 to 2.7 billion yuan last year on sales revenue of 22.2 billion yuan.

China Daily

(China Daily 04/25/2011 page18)