GWM has ambitious plans to become one of South Africa’s best-selling car brands, giving top dog Toyota a run for its money in the process.
The Chinese carmaker recently held a launch event for the new Haval Jolion Pro in Gauteng, where it explained its business strategy for the local market going forward across its various sub-brands.
Five brands under one roof
GWM (Great Wall Motors) is the parent company of five different sub-brands, four of which are currently available in South Africa
The first of these is Haval, which made its debut in 2019 with the launch of Haval Motors South Africa, which specializes in family crossovers and SUVs.
GWM, meanwhile, has operated as a separate entity in the country focusing on the light commercial vehicle sector with a range of affordable bakkies like the Steed.
Its other pickup range, the P-Series, is actually sourced from one of its other sub-brands, which is known as “Poer” in Asia and has a unique P-shaped logo that somewhat resembles an upside-down teardrop.
The name is inspired by the Chinese character Pao which translates to “Power” or “Cannon”, but for somewhat obvious reasons, GWM decided to change the bakkie brand’s name in South Africa to P-Series.
More recently, GWM introduced two more badges in South Africa – Ora and Tank – which arrived in November 2023 and February 2024, respectively.
Ora is the manufacturer’s dedicated electric vehicle (EV) branch while Tank is concentrated around making high-end 4×4 SUVs.
The introduction of these new badges is only the first step, however, and GWM is now planning to consolidate its brand across all the vehicles in its combined catalogue.
At the launch of the Haval Jolion Pro, COO Conrad Groenewald explained that the company’s goal is to unite its various models under the GWM moniker to make it easier for consumers to identify and to increase the brand’s visibility on the roads.
This can be seen in action with the facelifted Jolion City as it now features a Haval badge at the noes and a GWM one on the tailgate instead of a second Haval logo.
Similarly, Ora’s first car, the 03 hatchback, is not sold as a stand-alone Ora model but is instead branded as the “GWM Ora” to reinforce the synergy across the different makes.
The mission statement is to have GWM become the brand that everything else is built around to give the Chinese automaker a clear identity as a large and versatile presence in South Africa similar to Toyota – the best-selling manufacturer in the country.
“When you think of Land Cruiser you think of Toyota, and we want people to do the same with Tank and GWM,” said Groenewald.
In some ways, Great Wall Motors is ahead of Toyota at present, as it has already launched an electric car in South Africa and a (relatively) affordable one at that.
The GWM Ora is currently the second-cheapest EV on the market at a starting price of R686,950, while the Japanese carmaker’s first EVs, the Toyota bZ4X and the Lexus RZ, are only scheduled to arrive in early-to-mid 2025.
Speaking of Lexus, GWM has its own equivalent called Wey producing luxury crossovers and SUVs, but this is the only sub-brand that the Chinese carmaker has elected not to bring to South Africa for the time being.
GWM’s other big plan for our market involves the introduction of several new models that will compete in popular categories.
The aforementioned Jolion City and Jolion Pro are now on sale and aim to increase Haval’s market share in the entry-to-mid-range crossover space against units like the Toyota Urban Cruiser and Corolla Cross.
Haval is also bringing out the larger H7 later this year, and the Tank 300 will soon be joined by its larger sibling, the Tank 500, which is expected to compete with the likes of the new Toyota Prado.
Finally, the P-Series is getting a new flagship bakkie known as the P500 (Shanhai Cannon in other markets) which is expected to cost around R800,000, making it significantly cheaper than the range-topping Hilux Legend RS’s R1-million sticker.
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