Great Wall Motors Likely To Take Import Route For India Operations; Reconsiders Local Manufacturing

Great Wall Motors (GWM) which was gearing up for its foray in India with a wide range of models is now taking top-down approach and reconsidering its plans. The Chinese automaker is reworking on its entry strategy due to an inordinate delay in FDI approvals from the government. Team carandbike tried reaching GWM for a comment on the same, but haven't received a response yet. Initially, China's largest carmaker had plans to acquire General Motor's (Chevrolet) manufacturing unit in Talegaon near Pune with an investment of around Rs. 3,800 crore in the production unit and create 3,000 new employment opportunities. In-turn, it was also planning to spend around Rs. 3,200 crores in Research & Development (R&D), taking its total investment to around Rs. 7,000 crore in our market.

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While Great Wall Motors has entered India, it is yet to begin operations.

That said, with the approvals pending with the government, the company is now stepping off the throttle and is looking forward to take the import route. According to an Economic Times report, GWM's plans to take on the mainstream market with a range of locally-assembled or manufactured SUVs has been shelved and the company is looking forward to start sales operations with a D-Segment SUV which will launch as a completely built unit (CBU) or an import model in India. Furthermore, GWM is also considering bringing in a B segment electric hatchback which again will be a CBU. The company continues focusing on cleaner technologies like hybrids and EVs for our market.

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The Haval H6 is already with ARAI for homologation.

James Yang who was appointed President of GWM India is back in the country and is working with his team to roll out the new plan. Moreover, the company has already started reaching out to a couple of dozen executives to build the leadership team across sales, marketing, dealer development, hoping to get government clearances soon. "While there has been some positive progress on the border the situation is not yet completely resolved. So instead of spending huge amount of money and getting caught in the crossfire of geo-political tension between two countries, GWM felt a focus on the top-down strategy, with CKD and CBU and cleaner powertrains, is a safer option," one of the company's sources told ET.

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Great Wall Motor was also one of the largest exhibitors with a wide range of product offensive at Auto Expo 2020. The line-up also had the Haval H6 mid-size crossover which is already under homologation with Auto Research Association of India (ARAI). The report also states that India was one of the upcoming export hubs for GWM but with plans having deferred now, the company is considering exporting in large numbers from Thailand and Russia where it has already started its production. GWM was expecting to get final approvals from the government in Q1 FY2022.

Source: ETAuto