In the dynamic landscape of the global automotive industry, the journey of Chinese car companies venturing overseas has emerged as a captivating narrative. The allure of international markets has spurred both the innovative new Chinese car – making forces and the well – established giants to set their sights on globalization.
Among these trailblazers, GWM stands out with its unwavering “going abroad” strategy and localized business philosophy. 2024 The annual report shows GWM’s impressive achievements, underscoring its determination to establish a global foothold.
However, the current development of the Chinese automotive market is also confronted with some challenges and concerns about its impact on China’s auto industry’s global growth. Uncertainty in tariff policies could exert a detrimental influence on the export of China’s automotive industry. Domestically, the Chinese auto market, especially the new energy vehicle sector, is mired in a fierce price war.
At the recent 21st Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition, Jack Wey, Chairman of GWM was interviewed by the Associated Press and other media outlets. He analyzed GWM’s overseas strategy, as well as the much-anticipated competition among Chinese automotive companies from different perspectives
1. The strategy of “going abroad”
Currently, going overseas is a topic that Chinese car companies can’t get around, whether it’s the new Chinese car-making forces such as NIO, Xpeng and Ideal Motors, or the established companies such as GWM, BYD, Chery and SAIC, all of which are striving to achieve globalization.
In recent years, GWM has always adhered to the strategy of“going abroad”and the overseas layout concept of localized operation. According to its newly disclosed annual report for the year 2024. The share of GWM’s overseas revenue in its total revenue increased to 39.7%, and the gross profit margin of its overseas business increased to 18.76%.
Overseas, GWM has established three full-process vehicle production bases in Eurasia, Thailand and Brazil, and has a number of KD factories in Ecuador and Pakistan.
In addition, GWM plans to invest more than 10 billion dollars over the next 10 years to deepen the layout of the local industrial chain, and the Brazilian plant is expected to be put into operation in mid-2025, which will promote the sustainable development of Brazil’s new energy industry and boost local employment and economic prosperity.
In this regard, Jack Wey pointed out，“GWM is looking for opportunities to use Brazil as a base to produce the vehicles and then to penetrate to the regions.”
However, it seems that GWM’s overseas thinking will not be smooth sailing. Recently, the U.S. policy initiative of imposing tariffs has triggered an uproar globally, which has had an extremely far-reaching impact on the international trade order, the global industrial chain and supply chain, as well as the economic development of various countries. A number of industry insiders suspect this will have a negative impact on the global expansion of China’s auto industry.
In fact, Jack Wey does not think that the above policies will have an obvious impact on the export of Chinese enterprises. “China’s automobile industry had never exported to the United States, so the impact of the U.S. tariff increase on the automobile industry can’t be said to be absent, but it’s not big because and that’s why we have always focused has always been on other markets such as ASEAN，Middle East, Latin America, Africa and also even Eurasia.”He said as follows.
Jack Wey further said that he believes the market share of GWM in Europe is still relatively small at the moment. But he believes with the increase of American tariff，on a brighter side，the Europe and the relation of China when it comes to commercial relations will become even better.
2. Diversification of product Structure, rationality in competition
In recent years, the Chinese auto market has been trapped in a fierce price war vortex and unable to extricate itself. Several Chinese car brands have launched their own limited-time incentives. Currently, the price war in China’s new energy vehicle industry is becoming more and more intense.
Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, said that the scale of new energy vehicles has shown explosive growth, the batch of single car has increased significantly, the cost of single car has decreased significantly, and the head of the competition pattern is still not stabilized. Therefore, in this high-growth market, 2025 “price war” will continue, and will be extremely fierce.
Jack Wey humorously said GWM is a victim, but GWM still maintains its rationality. The ability to have such candor and confidence depends on the diversification of GWM’s product mix.
It is understood that GWM has built a perfect and diversified product system, covering six major sub-brands, namely HAVAL, WEY, TANK, ORA, POER and SOUO, with products covering four major categories, namely SUVs, sedans, pickup trucks and MPVs.
Regarding the competitors GWM faces, Jack Wey believes that whether they are domestic or overseas doesn’t matter; it depends on vehicle models and types. Due to the richness of GWM’s products, any car company can be a competitor from a broad perspective.
But he also mentioned some of the competitors he might face from a segmentation perspective: “For the overseas SUV market, the competitors will be Toyota and other pickup brands; For ORA, its competitors will be other EV brands; For the MPV namely WEY 80 our competitor will be the Toyota.”
In the face of the current competition, Jack Wey still maintains the humility and composure of a mature entrepreneur. He said the history of automobiles in China is still relatively short and the time for exports is not long either. Although GWM has had over 20 years of export experience, its scale is still not relatively significant. Large-scale exports have only been possible in the past two years. GWM still needs to learn from other automakers.
3. Strategic placement of Safety and intelligence
Currently, the use of new energy vehicles is being vigorously promoted worldwide. From the policy perspective, many countries and regions have successively introduced incentive measures such as subsidies, tax incentives, and preferential allocation of purchase quotas.
For instance, the European Union has set a goal of phasing out the sale of fuel vehicles by 2035, the United States has passed the Inflation Reduction Act to provide high tax credits for new energy vehicles, and China has continuously stimulated consumption through policies such as purchase subsidies and exemption from purchase tax.
Data shows that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles worldwide has been increasing rapidly overall. It was 13% in 2022, reached 16% in 2023, and further rose to 19.3% in 2024. However, there are significant differences in the penetration rates among different countries and regions. The penetration rate in China is relatively high, reaching 38.9% in 2024. Moreover, Chinese consumers have high demands for intelligent functions, which has promoted the popularization of new energy vehicles.
Jack Wey believes that in the future, it will always remain in a multi-energy, or as people call it, multi-power-train mode, because he doesn’t quite believe that the EV will conquer the automotive world unless there is an invention whereby one full charge of the batteries can go up to a range of a maximum of a thousand kilometers unless we have that in the current world.
Notably, most Chinese automakers are emphasizing safety at the 21st Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition. Jack Wey pointed out, GWM always prioritizes safety first, life comes first.
Back in 2008, GWM took the lead in establishing the first automotive crash laboratory in China. Today, this lab has been upgraded to a comprehensive testing ground capable of meeting the global demand for intelligent driving in the future.
At the same time, he shared his thoughts on smart driving: “Autonomous driving must be human-machine co-driving, and it is definitely not an autonomous driving, it must be an assisted driving. We have been emphasizing this.”
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