A SURGE of new products and sales predictions of 18,000 units for this year has focused GWM-Haval on selecting a string of new dealerships with the projection of 90 outlets by the end of the 2021.

GWM (previously known as Great Wall Motors) and its sibling Haval also plan to be in the top 10 of Australia’s new-car brands within four years and introduce more brands under the GWM parent company.

The Haval brand covers SUVs while the GWM brand covers pick-ups and utes.

The company, China’s biggest ute and SUV manufacturer with sales in 2020 of 1.1 million units, said its new product lines and rapid upgrade program will boost sales and hence put pressure on having adequate dealership numbers.

Sales for the first five months of this year have already exceeded the total sold in 2020, with 5490 GWM and Haval vehicles finding new owners in 2021. By comparison, it sold 5244 units over the 12 months of 2020, itself a 68.7 per cent improvement on 2019.

GWM head of marketing and communications Steve Maciver said it now has 80 national dealers, up from 41 in January last year. About 40 per cent are metro and the balance in regional areas.

“So we’ve grown significantly this year, doubling the dealers in the past 18 months,” he said.

“That shows a lot of confidence in the brand. Yes, we are multi-franchise in nearly every single case and we’re not like the larger established brands that say you have to be exclusive – we’re not there yet. We get that.”

He said GWM had open points across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and until this year, these had remained open.

“We haven’t closed them because we didn’t feel we had the product quite right,” he said.

“But now we’re very lucky that we are picking up some really, really well respected sites in Sydney, for example, in Roseberry and Chullora.

“There’s been conversations with a few dealer groups going on for a while as they’re starting to see new products coming through from us.

“That’s a change because now they are coming to us. That’s a big change compared with a year ago.

“We are also fortunate to have ready supply. One of our dealers was chasing stock and was offered only 15 cars for June by one of his franchisors. He asked us and we could supply 85 vehicles for the month.”

The brand has also accelerated its marketing and advertising budgets, now showing its “Smart Move” TV commercials that were created by GWM’s agency in Melbourne.

“We’re a challenger brand and we want to take on some of the mainstream brands,” Mr Maciver said.

“Smart Move, we think, was very clever as it’s not just talking about the smart tech in the cars themselves, but the smart decision that buyers make in considering a Haval SUV.

“Along with this campaign, we are also seeing record levels of website traffic and obviously that’s going into sales.

“Now customers are coming in and giving dealers the cues that they’re interested in the vehicles and they’re converting at a really, really high rate.

“We measure brand awareness, we measure consideration – all those things are on the rise. That’s the KPIs argument.”

Mr Maciver also said that GWM would have “multiple considerations” in new products available through to next year and beyond.

This year it will introduce a hybrid SUV based on the Haval H6, expand the GWM ute range with another automatic and a 2WD, cement its new H6 and Jolion SUV models, and plan for the possible introduction of the Tank brand of more serious 4×4 wagons.

By Neil Dowling