Tony Caratturo

NOW that Great Wall is returning to the local market after the settlement of distribution rights, Great Wall Motors Australia – the sister brand to Haval Motors Australia – is planning a national network of up to 70 dealerships within the next six-to-12 months and is setting a sales target of 10,000 units within the next two years.

The ambitious plan comes off the back of Australian dealer disillusionment in Chinese brands as weary dealers have struggled with a raft of consumer issues that led to Ateco Automotive, the initiator of the Great Wall brand in Australia, handing local distribution control to Great Wall Motors.

During the dispute Great Wall Motors head office set up its own separate factory distributor for its Haval brand and has been appointing Haval dealers, while Great Wall dealers have either handed their franchise back or have been reduced to just servicing Great Wall vehicles.

With the factory buy-back of Great Wall Motors distribution from Ateco Automotive, effective from July 1 this year, Great Wall Motors will now assimilate Great Wall with its sister brand, Haval.

Great Wall Motors Australia general manager Tony Carraturo, the man who will oversee the transformation of both companies, told GoAutoNews Premium that during the recruitment phase Haval dealers are invited to take on Great Wall as well.

He said the company would seek separate dealerships and “showroom sharing will be assessed on a case-by-case basis”.

“We believe we can have between 50 and 70 dealers selling either Haval, Great Wall or a combination of both. We are confident of setting that up over the next six to 12 months,” he said.

Mr Carraturo said the national network of dealers would prove a strong grounding for sales growth.

“We think that by 2018, with full national dealer coverage, we can have a sales volume of somewhere between 5000 and 10,000 units annually,” he said.

Haval, which started in Australia in 2015 as a factory-backed company, now has six dealers and is about to open two more, one being in Adelaide.

Mr Carraturo said there are 72 “active” Great Wall dealers in Australia.

“Each will receive a direct invitation to continue the Great Wall franchise with us,” he said.

Many dealers, however, appear to be ambivalent about the return of Great Wall and the expansion of Haval.

Central Highlands Great Wall in Emerald in Queensland has taken down its signage after the V240 utes stopped arriving and now only does some parts and service business.

Part of the Black Automotive Group (now itself part of AP Eagers), dealer principal Damian Purcell said he had no contact with Ateco for “about two years” and was not interested in selling Great Wall products in the future.

The dealer principal of Centralian Motors Great Wall in Alice Springs, Tim Blazely said he would welcome it back.

“We have had good experiences with Great Wall,” he said. “Overall, it was good for us and the ute stood up well to the environment around Alice.

“We are expecting a dealer contract from the new entity and we’ll certainly have a good look at that before we decide.”

Aside from the lack of vehicles to sell, Great Wall dealers were also concerned about warranty claims and spare parts supply.

But Mr Carraturo said he was confident that vehicles and parts volume would be able to meet demand.

“We are working very closely with the factory to ensure our demand is always met,” he said.

“We are planning to deploy parts direct shipment from China. In addition, the parts, service and warranty division in China will report directly to myself in Australia.”

Outstanding warranty claims, however, will not be met by the new company.

Mr Carraturo said warranty claims would not be retrospective.

“Ateco will be responsible for all warranty claims and service work conducted up to June 30,” he said.

“Great Wall Australia will be responsible for all work undertaken from July 1.”

Great Wall was originally launched in Australia in June 2009 by independent importer and distributor Ateco Automotive.

The company said that more than 40,000 Great Wall utes and SUVs have been sold and that the manufacturer was one of Australia’s fastest growing vehicle brands.

Great Wall is expected to return to its roots with a light-commercial vehicle range, including a new ute to debut later this year.

The new ute range will include a 4WD version with a turbo-diesel engine, six-speed manual transmission, Borg-Warner torque-on-demand drive system and Eaton differential lock.

Haval only produces SUVs, now selling a three-model range from the Honda HR-V-sized H2 through to the Toyota Prado-sized H9.

In China, the two brands are interwoven and together, the Great Wall-Haval company is China’s biggest manufacturer of SUVs with almost 80,000 domestic sales in April.

By Neil Dowling