China’s thriving SUV automaker looks to global growth

BAODING, China — Wei Jianjun is the chief matchmaker in China's love affair with the SUV.

A decade ago, the chairman of Great Wall Motors Ltd. saw opportunity as the bulky vehicles began shedding their image in China as a farm tool. Wei cut back on making sedans and poured resources into its fledgling line of Havals.

That gamble paid off as SUVs caught on with drivers who saw them as the safest ride on bumpy, chaotic streets. By 2013, with demand surging, Great Wall had become China's most profitable automaker and Wei was a billionaire.

Now, Wei wants to make the Haval a global brand. It's an ambitious goal that requires advances in safety and features for a company known until now mainly for low prices. Great Wall sells Havals inAustralia, Italy and Russia, but exports were less than five percent of last year's output of just under 1.1 million units.

"By 2020, we hope Haval can become the world's biggest specialty SUV brand," Wei said at a reception at Great Wall headquarters in this city southwest of Beijing to celebrate sales passing the 1 million mark.

That "globalization strategy" includes working toward meeting American safety standards, Wei said. But he gave no indication when Haval might export to the United States or major European markets such as Germany.

Great Wall is part of a cadre of small but ambitious independent Chinese automakers that grew in the shadow of state-owned giants such as Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp., which assembles vehicles for General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG.

Without foreign joint-venture partners, the independents created their own brands and started exporting toAfrica and LatinAmerica.

Geely Holding Ltd., which owns Sweden's Volvo Cars, plans to start US and European sales of its new Lynk & Co. brand in 2019. BYD Auto, the world's biggest-selling electric car maker, supplies battery-powered buses and taxis in the United States and Europe. Great Wall opened a European assembly plant in Bulgaria in 2012. It has similar facilities with local partners in Russia, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt and Ecuador.

SUVs have an outsized role in China, where their popularity has helped offset sagging demand for sedans and other vehicles.

Sales of domestic brand SUVs soared 58 percent last year to 5.3 million units out of total sales of 24.4 million in the world's biggest auto market. They are growing fastest in the lowest price ranges, dominated by Haval and Chinese rivals. That has helped Chinese brands to claw back market share they were losing to global competitors.

The top seller was Haval's flagship H6, starting at 89,000 yuan ($12,900), which has become China's most popular vehicle to date. H6 sales surged 55 percent last year to 580,000 units while the overall market grew 15 percent.