Great Wall plans 3rd SUV plant for 3.4 billion yuan
Great Wall Motor Co., China's largest SUV maker, will invest 3.4 billion yuan ($548 million) to build a third SUV plant.
Production at the factory, to be built in Baoding in north China's Hebei province, will start in early 2017, Great Wall said. It will have capacity to produce up to 250,000 vehicles a year.
Great Wall builds Haval-brand SUVs in an existing plant in Baoding and a factory in the north China port city of Tianjin. It also produces Great Wall-badged sedans and Wingle-brand pickups at the Baoding plant.
The plants in Baoding and Tianjin combined can build 800,000 vehicles a year.
Great Wall this year twice delayed the sales launch of its most expensive SUV model, the Haval H8, with a starting price of 200,000 yuan, due to various quality problems with the vehicle.
Still, its SUV sales surged 21 percent year-on-year to 225,273 units in the first half of the year. But its pickup sales dropped 4 percent to 65,121 units and its sedan sales tumbled 50 percent to 56,996 units.
Due to weak sedan sales, Great Wall's net profit decreased 4 percent from a year earlier to 4 billion yuan in the first half.
Great Wall builds Haval-brand SUVs in an existing plant in Baoding and a factory in the north China port city of Tianjin. It also produces Great Wall-badged sedans and Wingle-brand pickups at the Baoding plant.
The plants in Baoding and Tianjin combined can build 800,000 vehicles a year.
Great Wall this year twice delayed the sales launch of its most expensive SUV model, the Haval H8, with a starting price of 200,000 yuan, due to various quality problems with the vehicle.
Still, its SUV sales surged 21 percent year-on-year to 225,273 units in the first half of the year. But its pickup sales dropped 4 percent to 65,121 units and its sedan sales tumbled 50 percent to 56,996 units.
Due to weak sedan sales, Great Wall's net profit decreased 4 percent from a year earlier to 4 billion yuan in the first half.
