February 14, 2022

Brace Yourselves, A New Chinese Carmaker Is Entering The Philippines This Year


Great Wall Motor (GWM) has announced plans to expand its operations to the Philippines this year. This was revealed by Elliot Zhang, president of Great Wall Motor ASEAN and Thailand, during a 2022 outlook briefing for the Thai market.

“In 2022, we will continue to expand our business in ASEAN, with Thailand as the location for our regional headquarters. In an effort to expand further within the ASEAN region, we plan to launch GWM in four more countries, namely Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, and Singapore,” he said.

The brand is currently present in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Brunei.

The private (not government) owned Chinese car manufacturing entered the Thai market last year when it acquired General Motors’s assembly plant. However, the plant was designed primarily for the assembly of right-hand drive vehicles. Unless, Great Wall Motor has made changes to its plans (they did mention that Thailand will serve as their regional hub), the Philippines may end up sourcing its vehicles directly from China instead.

Initially, Great Wall Motor was rumored to enter the Philippine market last year, but the pandemic made them delay their plans by around a year.


All in all, Great Wall Motor is bullish for the ASEAN market. In Thailand, they’re set to launch five new models and hopes to bring sales up to 20,000 units this year compared to the 3,702 units in 2021. Last year, their Haval H6 (lead photo) became one of Thailand’s best-selling compact SUVs, out-performing the Honda CR-V in terms of sales.

The company added that it will continue its expansion into electrification in Thailand, where it expects to see significant development in the segment this year.

According to GWM Thailand MD Narong Sritalayon, Thailand’s total annual car sales is expected to reach 850,000 units in 2022, up 12 percent from the previous year, and of that total, 11.4 percent (or about 94,000 units) would be electrified models.

This would be more than double the 40,000 electrified vehicles sold in the country last year, he said. To grow the market, Narong said the company will invest in EV infrastructure, particularly in charging stations, which the company hopes to expand to 55 nationwide this year.

17 comments:

  1. Correction. Re-entering if I'm not mistaken.. They have a showroom before in Alabang. Miserably failed though

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GWM was distributed through Handyware Philippines. This time around, its directly GWM.

      Delete
    2. Probably under another local entity or partnership. If I'm not mistaken, they can't do that under the name GWM directly, just like Geely and Maxus. Unless they become a local OEM

      Delete
    3. They can opt to put up a sales office similar to what Nissan Philippines has done.

      The quickest way would be via a distributorship like Geely or Maxus, as you mentioned, but it seems they're going all in for the Philippine market. If so, they'll be the first Chinese brand to have an international presence here.

      Delete
  2. Looking forward to their SUV lineup - WEY Tank 300

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, TANK has good off-road SUV lineup.. Hopefully pinoys will embrace a petrol powered off-roader.. WEY brand too, affordable luxury..

      Delete
  3. 4th time Great Wall Motor SUVs being on sale in the Philippines.
    1st one was Nexus Hover under Nexus Automotive Philippines I think in the mid 2000's,2nd one was under Statemotor where they sell more Hover/Haval SUVs and pickups and 3rd one was under GW Cars / Handyware Motors Corporation where they sell even more Haval SUVs including the Land Cruiser Prado clone Haval H9.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This time they must go all in.. Chinese brands are slowly being accepted by pinoy buyers..If Geely, Chery and Changan can do good here, GWM can definitely do it also.. I view them as equal to Geely in terms of quality..

      Delete
  4. Im excited about this brand, especially Haval.. Ive seen so many positive reviews of their compact SUVs even in South Africa and Australia.. H6, Jolion,H9, Mythical Beast and also the GWM Cannon pickup.. They have lots to offer for pinoy budget.. They also have good reliability history in China..

    ReplyDelete
  5. reading the comments, I'm surprised to see some china brand sympathizers here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great Wall Motor isn't owned by CCP..Its privately owned just like Geely.

      Delete
    2. why are you so knowledgeable in crappy chinese brand cars?

      Delete
    3. not all chinese brands are bad, problem lies on their law, they are mandated to submit any data they have if CCP asks them to (this is why Huawei is banned on some countries), and whatever those data are and what their usage will be, only CCP will know

      Delete
    4. I agree 100%, i own GWM Cannon pick up here in Perth. Its just an amazing truck. Cant fault it, you can find all the safety features which you cant find in the rival brands.

      Delete
  6. it would be nice if they include the GWM - pick up :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Any update? I'm a fan of haval m4...hehe

    ReplyDelete
  8. Would it be helpful if we have more Electric Vehicles in the Philippines considering almost half of the Power Plants here are run by Fossil Fuel? Plus, increasing price of electricity.

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to comment or share your views. Comments that are derogatory and/or spam will not be tolerated. We reserve the right to moderate and/or remove comments.