Chinese SUV and pick-up truck maker Great Wall Motor (Haval E concept pictured here) has announced plans for investment of up to US$340 million (RM1.05 billion) in Thailand, according to a China Car Times report.
The plans involve a new Thai manufacturing facility that will churn out low- to mid-range SUVs and pick-up trucks, both for the domestic market and for export to neighbouring Middle Eastern nations. The plant will have an initial capacity of 100k units per year, with a further 50k added per phase of expansion.
It was also reported recently that the Baoding, China-based firm will spin Haval off as a stand-alone higher-level brand to compete with marques like Land Rover and Jeep. Haval will also have separate sales outlets from GWM’s other brands, a move that will take between two and three years.
In 2012, GWM sold 621,400 units globally, with SUV sales making up over 40% of that number. A total of 96,500 units were exported in the same year, and over a million Haval SUVs have been sold in over 100 countries worldwide as of March.
New models expected to launch this year are the Haval H2, Haval H8, Great Wall C50 2013 and Wingle 6 – the upcoming Auto Shanghai should see a few of these make their motor show debuts.
Great Wall was launched in Malaysia by franchise holder Green Oranges back in 2011 with the Haval H5 SUV (pictured above) and Wingle 5 pick-up truck. The two vehicles are assembled in Gurun, Kedah. Read our brief driving impressions here.
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Who the heck want a SUV with a suicide door? Design fail concept.
Suicide door???where???only see scissor door…
Oops, sorry. Confused this two. Btw Scissors door on a SUV is still a stupid concept
Never trust people or companies from China. Its just a matter of time before your leather seat emits toxic poisons and kill you. If they can kill babies without remorse ie melamine in baby’s milk, anything is possible
There goes another 1 bil investment to our neighbour
cos as usual MITI still in slumberland and expects
investors to beg them to invest in Msia.
Where is the EEV policy which was said to be in the final stages? Heads must roll and it should begin from the top.
if build in bolehland no quality maa….substandard material maa…cbu much better maa…onli rm10k less maa…nobody want to buy boleh build car maa…onli stupid company invest here maa…
Pls get out from bolehland.
Dear Great Wall Inc, why invest there laaaa? Don’t you know we have the Deep Sleep Automotive Policy…. eh sorry, sorry…. the Power NAP policy? ;-)
refer my comment above
good effort by China OEM… very soon japs & korean OEM (+ not to forget PROTON) will suffer more…
If you’re looking into point A to B then can consider Chinese car or else spend your $$$ on a Korean marque.Although the design are tempting but safety and quality wise Malaysian car is much better..