GWM wants to be a top-five auto brand in Australia ‘sustainably'
A record result in the first half of 2025 saw GWM knock off MG Motor Australia as the country's best-selling Chinese brand year-to-date, with 25,189 sales propelling it to seventh place among all brands – its highest position yet.
That puts it on track to sell 50,000 vehicles in 2025, which – based on Australia's new-vehicle market in 2024 – would also place it seventh overall for the full year.
"Our aspiration this year is 50,000-plus sales and sustainable top five by 2030," said GWM Australia senior product specialist, Timothy Leong, at the launch of the new Haval H6 mid-size SUV in Melbourne earlier this week.
Hundreds of new car deals are available through CarExpert right now. Get the experts on your side and score a great deal. Browse now.
Toyota has been the Australian auto market leader for 22 consecutive years. It sold a record 241,296 veicles in 2024, and is on track for a similar result this year with 120,978 sales to the end of June.
Behind it last year was Ford (with 100,170 sales), Mazda (95,987), Kia (81787) and Mitsubishi with 74,547 sales – a figure GWM would need to beat to place fifth, if the market remains the same size this year.
"What we say to you about being a top-five brand is really just to avoid, 'When will you be 100,000? Do you think you'd be top two?'," said GWM Australia chief operating officer John Kett.
"We keep talking about globally… we want to emerge as a top-three brand, right? So, we know top-five [in Australia] is 75 [thousand sales] and top-three you've got to be 90-plus [thousand sales]. So, it's easy to say 75 so we'll just say top five."
Of course, other auto brands also have ambitious sales targets, especially the Chinese ones.
BYD became the first Chinese brand to crack the top five with a record of its own in June 2025, selling 8156 vehicles for the month and in the process overtaking Kia (7810) and snapping at the heels of Hyundai (8407).
GWM's 5465 sales in June saw it seventh for the month – with the GWM Haval Jolion it best-seller (2000 sold), but year-to-date it remains ahead of a charging BYD by only 1834 sales.
Under previous distributor EVDirect – which handed the local business over to BYD on July 1, 2025 – BYD made a bold public goal of beating Toyota to become Australia's best-selling brand by 2030 – meaning more than 200,000 annual sales.
Meantime, like GWM, also wants to be a top-three brand by 2030.
Mr Kett says GWM is also eyeing a top-three position, but isn't there yet.
"We'll talk about top-three when we can prove to you, ourselves, our dealers and our customers, that we're a top-five brand, and that's why we just keep talking about it.
"Therefore, getting from 50 to 55 to 60 [thousand] seems easy to some, if you look at the [sales growth] chart, to become a 100,000-unit brand, but we've got a long way to go to prove that.
"We've got a portfolio that we think can get us three quarters of the way there – 75 thousand. We feel like we've got a portfolio we can probably push a little bit further, but our brand and our processes and the investments required are those that the constraints we feel like we can control around."
Great Wall rebranded as GWM in Australia in 2020, launching the Cannon Alpha dual-cab ute before the company merged its Haval SUV sub-brand for a combined 18,385 sales.
Growth since has seen 25,042 (+36.2 per cent) in 2022, with 36,397 (+45.3 per cent) in 2023 before last year's 17.5 per cent gain to 42,782.
MORE: GWM has more new SUVS coming to Australia in 2025
Content originally sourced from: CarExpert.com.au
GWM Australia wants to be a top-five automotive brand in Australia by 2030, and the Chinese automaker says it's planning gradual sales growth to achieve what it calls a 'sustainable' place among the nation's most popular car brands.
A record result in the first half of 2025 saw GWM knock off MG Motor Australia as the country's best-selling Chinese brand year-to-date, with 25,189 sales propelling it to seventh place among all brands – its highest position yet.
That puts it on track to sell 50,000 vehicles in 2025, which – based on Australia's new-vehicle market in 2024 – would also place it seventh overall for the full year.
"Our aspiration this year is 50,000-plus sales and sustainable top five by 2030," said GWM Australia senior product specialist, Timothy Leong, at the launch of the new Haval H6 mid-size SUV in Melbourne earlier this week.
Hundreds of new car deals are available through CarExpert right now. Get the experts on your side and score a great deal. Browse now.
Toyota has been the Australian auto market leader for 22 consecutive years. It sold a record 241,296 veicles in 2024, and is on track for a similar result this year with 120,978 sales to the end of June.
Behind it last year was Ford (with 100,170 sales), Mazda (95,987), Kia (81787) and Mitsubishi with 74,547 sales – a figure GWM would need to beat to place fifth, if the market remains the same size this year.
"What we say to you about being a top-five brand is really just to avoid, 'When will you be 100,000? Do you think you'd be top two?'," said GWM Australia chief operating officer John Kett.
"We keep talking about globally… we want to emerge as a top-three brand, right? So, we know top-five [in Australia] is 75 [thousand sales] and top-three you've got to be 90-plus [thousand sales]. So, it's easy to say 75 so we'll just say top five."
Of course, other auto brands also have ambitious sales targets, especially the Chinese ones.
BYD became the first Chinese brand to crack the top five with a record of its own in June 2025, selling 8156 vehicles for the month and in the process overtaking Kia (7810) and snapping at the heels of Hyundai (8407).
GWM's 5465 sales in June saw it seventh for the month – with the GWM Haval Jolion it best-seller (2000 sold), but year-to-date it remains ahead of a charging BYD by only 1834 sales.
Under previous distributor EVDirect – which handed the local business over to BYD on July 1, 2025 – BYD made a bold public goal of beating Toyota to become Australia's best-selling brand by 2030 – meaning more than 200,000 annual sales.
Meantime, like GWM, also wants to be a top-three brand by 2030.
Mr Kett says GWM is also eyeing a top-three position, but isn't there yet.
"We'll talk about top-three when we can prove to you, ourselves, our dealers and our customers, that we're a top-five brand, and that's why we just keep talking about it.
"Therefore, getting from 50 to 55 to 60 [thousand] seems easy to some, if you look at the [sales growth] chart, to become a 100,000-unit brand, but we've got a long way to go to prove that.
"We've got a portfolio that we think can get us three quarters of the way there – 75 thousand. We feel like we've got a portfolio we can probably push a little bit further, but our brand and our processes and the investments required are those that the constraints we feel like we can control around."
Great Wall rebranded as GWM in Australia in 2020, launching the Cannon Alpha dual-cab ute before the company merged its Haval SUV sub-brand for a combined 18,385 sales.
Growth since has seen 25,042 (+36.2 per cent) in 2022, with 36,397 (+45.3 per cent) in 2023 before last year's 17.5 per cent gain to 42,782.
MORE: GWM has more new SUVS coming to Australia in 2025
Content originally sourced from: CarExpert.com.au
GWM Australia wants to be a top-five automotive brand in Australia by 2030, and the Chinese automaker says it's planning gradual sales growth to achieve what it calls a 'sustainable' place among the nation's most popular car brands.
A record result in the first half of 2025 saw GWM knock off MG Motor Australia as the country's best-selling Chinese brand year-to-date, with 25,189 sales propelling it to seventh place among all brands – its highest position yet.
That puts it on track to sell 50,000 vehicles in 2025, which – based on Australia's new-vehicle market in 2024 – would also place it seventh overall for the full year.
"Our aspiration this year is 50,000-plus sales and sustainable top five by 2030," said GWM Australia senior product specialist, Timothy Leong, at the launch of the new Haval H6 mid-size SUV in Melbourne earlier this week.
Hundreds of new car deals are available through CarExpert right now. Get the experts on your side and score a great deal. Browse now.
Toyota has been the Australian auto market leader for 22 consecutive years. It sold a record 241,296 veicles in 2024, and is on track for a similar result this year with 120,978 sales to the end of June.
Behind it last year was Ford (with 100,170 sales), Mazda (95,987), Kia (81787) and Mitsubishi with 74,547 sales – a figure GWM would need to beat to place fifth, if the market remains the same size this year.
"What we say to you about being a top-five brand is really just to avoid, 'When will you be 100,000? Do you think you'd be top two?'," said GWM Australia chief operating officer John Kett.
"We keep talking about globally… we want to emerge as a top-three brand, right? So, we know top-five [in Australia] is 75 [thousand sales] and top-three you've got to be 90-plus [thousand sales]. So, it's easy to say 75 so we'll just say top five."
Of course, other auto brands also have ambitious sales targets, especially the Chinese ones.
BYD became the first Chinese brand to crack the top five with a record of its own in June 2025, selling 8156 vehicles for the month and in the process overtaking Kia (7810) and snapping at the heels of Hyundai (8407).
GWM's 5465 sales in June saw it seventh for the month – with the GWM Haval Jolion it best-seller (2000 sold), but year-to-date it remains ahead of a charging BYD by only 1834 sales.
Under previous distributor EVDirect – which handed the local business over to BYD on July 1, 2025 – BYD made a bold public goal of beating Toyota to become Australia's best-selling brand by 2030 – meaning more than 200,000 annual sales.
Meantime, like GWM, also wants to be a top-three brand by 2030.
Mr Kett says GWM is also eyeing a top-three position, but isn't there yet.
"We'll talk about top-three when we can prove to you, ourselves, our dealers and our customers, that we're a top-five brand, and that's why we just keep talking about it.
"Therefore, getting from 50 to 55 to 60 [thousand] seems easy to some, if you look at the [sales growth] chart, to become a 100,000-unit brand, but we've got a long way to go to prove that.
"We've got a portfolio that we think can get us three quarters of the way there – 75 thousand. We feel like we've got a portfolio we can probably push a little bit further, but our brand and our processes and the investments required are those that the constraints we feel like we can control around."
Great Wall rebranded as GWM in Australia in 2020, launching the Cannon Alpha dual-cab ute before the company merged its Haval SUV sub-brand for a combined 18,385 sales.
Growth since has seen 25,042 (+36.2 per cent) in 2022, with 36,397 (+45.3 per cent) in 2023 before last year's 17.5 per cent gain to 42,782.
MORE: GWM has more new SUVS coming to Australia in 2025
Content originally sourced from: CarExpert.com.au
GWM Australia wants to be a top-five automotive brand in Australia by 2030, and the Chinese automaker says it's planning gradual sales growth to achieve what it calls a 'sustainable' place among the nation's most popular car brands.
A record result in the first half of 2025 saw GWM knock off MG Motor Australia as the country's best-selling Chinese brand year-to-date, with 25,189 sales propelling it to seventh place among all brands – its highest position yet.
That puts it on track to sell 50,000 vehicles in 2025, which – based on Australia's new-vehicle market in 2024 – would also place it seventh overall for the full year.
"Our aspiration this year is 50,000-plus sales and sustainable top five by 2030," said GWM Australia senior product specialist, Timothy Leong, at the launch of the new Haval H6 mid-size SUV in Melbourne earlier this week.
Hundreds of new car deals are available through CarExpert right now. Get the experts on your side and score a great deal. Browse now.
Toyota has been the Australian auto market leader for 22 consecutive years. It sold a record 241,296 veicles in 2024, and is on track for a similar result this year with 120,978 sales to the end of June.
Behind it last year was Ford (with 100,170 sales), Mazda (95,987), Kia (81787) and Mitsubishi with 74,547 sales – a figure GWM would need to beat to place fifth, if the market remains the same size this year.
"What we say to you about being a top-five brand is really just to avoid, 'When will you be 100,000? Do you think you'd be top two?'," said GWM Australia chief operating officer John Kett.
"We keep talking about globally… we want to emerge as a top-three brand, right? So, we know top-five [in Australia] is 75 [thousand sales] and top-three you've got to be 90-plus [thousand sales]. So, it's easy to say 75 so we'll just say top five."
Of course, other auto brands also have ambitious sales targets, especially the Chinese ones.
BYD became the first Chinese brand to crack the top five with a record of its own in June 2025, selling 8156 vehicles for the month and in the process overtaking Kia (7810) and snapping at the heels of Hyundai (8407).
GWM's 5465 sales in June saw it seventh for the month – with the GWM Haval Jolion it best-seller (2000 sold), but year-to-date it remains ahead of a charging BYD by only 1834 sales.
Under previous distributor EVDirect – which handed the local business over to BYD on July 1, 2025 – BYD made a bold public goal of beating Toyota to become Australia's best-selling brand by 2030 – meaning more than 200,000 annual sales.
Meantime, like GWM, also wants to be a top-three brand by 2030.
Mr Kett says GWM is also eyeing a top-three position, but isn't there yet.
"We'll talk about top-three when we can prove to you, ourselves, our dealers and our customers, that we're a top-five brand, and that's why we just keep talking about it.
"Therefore, getting from 50 to 55 to 60 [thousand] seems easy to some, if you look at the [sales growth] chart, to become a 100,000-unit brand, but we've got a long way to go to prove that.
"We've got a portfolio that we think can get us three quarters of the way there – 75 thousand. We feel like we've got a portfolio we can probably push a little bit further, but our brand and our processes and the investments required are those that the constraints we feel like we can control around."
Great Wall rebranded as GWM in Australia in 2020, launching the Cannon Alpha dual-cab ute before the company merged its Haval SUV sub-brand for a combined 18,385 sales.
Growth since has seen 25,042 (+36.2 per cent) in 2022, with 36,397 (+45.3 per cent) in 2023 before last year's 17.5 per cent gain to 42,782.
MORE: GWM has more new SUVS coming to Australia in 2025
Content originally sourced from: CarExpert.com.au
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
'A luxury not a lifeline': call to defend penalty rates
Penalty rates are a "lifeline" for Australian workers and major unions are backing a push to prevent companies from paying their employees less. The federal government has introduced a bill that would protect penalty rates for almost three million award-wage employees, who work on weekends, public holidays, and at other unusual hours. It follows a proposal to allow businesses to take away penalty rates, meal breaks and overtime pay for select employees in exchange for a 25 per cent pay rise, made by the Australian Retailers Association in February. The Fair Work Commission is yet to officially decide on this idea, but Australian Services Union national secretary Emeline Gaske has urged the government to pass its legislation as quickly as possible. "We know penalty rates and overtime are not a luxury, they are a lifeline," she told a Senate inquiry on Wednesday. "They compensate workers for sacrifice of working nights, weekends, public holidays, when others are resting or enjoying recreation with their family and friends. "For workers who rely on penalty rates, they are absolutely essential to making ends meet." The bill still allows businesses and unions to bargain over penalty rate exemptions, as long as every employee is better off under that agreement than they are under the award. "The only thing employers won't be able to do is pay workers less," Australian Council of Trade Union industrial and policy director Ben Moxham said. A coalition of business groups including the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) have all opposed the legislation as they say it undermines the independence of the Fair Work Commission and restricts flexibility. "The basis of for this bill is fundamentally flawed," the chamber's workplace relations director Shaun Schmitke told the inquiry. "This bill fails to recognise that the broader community debate has moved on and has embraced the reality that the world we work in is rapidly changing." The ARA also defended its proposal and said it would only apply to employees like department or store managers, and included safeguards like capping working hours at 43 per week before additional payments kicked in. A voluntary opt-in clause would also be included.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Australia's top polluter bets on batteries as fossil fuel costs climb
AGL, the largest Australian power generator, will accelerate plans to invest in big batteries as it seeks to blunt the impact of higher costs caused by outages at unreliable coal-fired power stations and increasingly expensive coal and natural gas supply contracts. The electricity and gas giant was hit by a sharp investor sell-off on Wednesday, sending its share price sliding as much as 13 per cent, after posting earnings that missed market expectations and signalling its profit could fall further next year amid the rising cost of sourcing the fossil fuels it needs to keep producing power. While AGL attributed the past year's earnings slump mainly to lower wholesale electricity prices and its decision not to fully pass on cost increases to its 4 million-plus customers, a series of planned and unplanned outages across its fleet of power stations had left the business unable to benefit from periods of higher wholesale prices, analysts said. AGL chief executive Damien Nicks pointed to the stronger performance and financial contribution of the company's rapidly growing fleet of grid-scale batteries, which along with hydropower and gas-powered generators were increasing the 'flexibility' of its portfolio and mitigating the impact of coal plant outages. 'We saw the performance of our flexible asset fleet really coming into its own,' Nicks said. Loading 'Those flexible assets are doing exactly what we intend for them to be doing – the response of the batteries was fantastic.' With response times measured in split seconds, grid-scale batteries are seen as essential to Australia's green energy shift because of their ability to soak up surplus renewable output in daylight hours and use it to plug gaps at later times or provide other services to stabilise the system during unexpected outages. AGL has two batteries operating at Torrens in South Australia and Broken Hill in NSW, with another at the site of its decommissioned Liddell coal plant due to come online next year. Nicks said earnings from AGL's battery fleet would 'more than offset' the added costs it expected from negotiating coal and gas agreements at higher prices in the next three years.
The Age
2 hours ago
- The Age
Australia's top polluter bets on batteries as fossil fuel costs climb
AGL, the largest Australian power generator, will accelerate plans to invest in big batteries as it seeks to blunt the impact of higher costs caused by outages at unreliable coal-fired power stations and increasingly expensive coal and natural gas supply contracts. The electricity and gas giant was hit by a sharp investor sell-off on Wednesday, sending its share price sliding as much as 13 per cent, after posting earnings that missed market expectations and signalling its profit could fall further next year amid the rising cost of sourcing the fossil fuels it needs to keep producing power. While AGL attributed the past year's earnings slump mainly to lower wholesale electricity prices and its decision not to fully pass on cost increases to its 4 million-plus customers, a series of planned and unplanned outages across its fleet of power stations had left the business unable to benefit from periods of higher wholesale prices, analysts said. AGL chief executive Damien Nicks pointed to the stronger performance and financial contribution of the company's rapidly growing fleet of grid-scale batteries, which along with hydropower and gas-powered generators were increasing the 'flexibility' of its portfolio and mitigating the impact of coal plant outages. 'We saw the performance of our flexible asset fleet really coming into its own,' Nicks said. Loading 'Those flexible assets are doing exactly what we intend for them to be doing – the response of the batteries was fantastic.' With response times measured in split seconds, grid-scale batteries are seen as essential to Australia's green energy shift because of their ability to soak up surplus renewable output in daylight hours and use it to plug gaps at later times or provide other services to stabilise the system during unexpected outages. AGL has two batteries operating at Torrens in South Australia and Broken Hill in NSW, with another at the site of its decommissioned Liddell coal plant due to come online next year. Nicks said earnings from AGL's battery fleet would 'more than offset' the added costs it expected from negotiating coal and gas agreements at higher prices in the next three years.
