China’s Great Wall Motor is looking at sites in Europe for its first car plant as it strives to boost production to 300,000 vehicles a year in 2029 in a bid to turn around ailing sales in the region, a company executive said.
Great Wall Motor teams were comparing sites for the factory in Spain and Hungary, among other countries, said Parker Shi, president of GWM International, while interacting with Reuters at the company’s headquarters in the northern province of Hebei.
His remarks marked the first update on Great Wall Motor’s plans for European production since 2023, when its president, Mu Feng, said the company had ambitious plans for the region and started selecting sites for a plant.
The venture’s annual European production target of 300,000 is being reported for the first time by Reuters.
Among the considerations that complicate the choice of location, labour and logistics costs are important, Shi said, while noting GWM will have to ship components to the target market for assembly at first.
The automaker is also paying close attention to the industrial policies of the European Union (EU), changes in the investment climate and custom duties.
“All the business cases need to be workable. Otherwise, it will be difficult for us because it’s going to be a huge investment for the long term,” said Shi.
As Chinese automakers seek to escape a brutal, prolonged price war touched off by domestic overcapacity, they are trying to expand overseas, but their efforts to increase sales in Europe and other major auto markets are being hit with higher tariffs on electric vehicles.
In Europe, Great Wall Motor must compete for market share with entrenched incumbents and aggressive Chinese rivals like BYD, with the latter now considering Spain as a third European plant in addition to the ones in Hungary and Turkey. GWM already has overseas plants in Russia, Thailand and Brazil.
New car registrations in Europe under GWM’s EV brand Ora, which form the bulk of its regional sales, slipped 41% to 3,706 vehicles in 2024, despite record overseas sales totalling 453,141 vehicles, said global automotive analytics major JATO Dynamics.
With the company having set itself a target of one million vehicles in overseas sales annually by 2030, Shi said, “That’s why we’re speeding up the European strategy. Everything needs to speed up.”
While GWM’s planned European factory will build vehicles across the spectrum from conventional engines to fully electric, the company aims to appeal to mainstream consumers in the continent with new models such as a multi-powertrain version of the Ora 5 compact SUV that it plans to launch in mid-2026.
Great Wall Motor has also begun taking pre-orders for the all-electric Ora 5 on its home market from 109,800 yuan (USD 15,480), while pricing for the European version will be announced soon.