In 2025, revenue exceeds 220 billion yuan, with Great Wall Motors accelerating its premiumization and globalization strategies simultaneously.

This newspaper (chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Liu Kai, Beijing report

On the evening of March 27, Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd. (601633.SH, 02333.HK, 82333.HK) released its 2025 annual report. The report shows that in 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of 222.824 billion yuan, up 10.2%; sales of new vehicles totaled 1.324 million units, up 7%. Average revenue per vehicle rose to 168,300 yuan, an increase of about 4,500 yuan net from 2024.

In response, Great Wall Motor said that the company’s business resilience has been highlighted: both revenue and sales hit new highs; the overseas market and brand elevation have become the core engines of growth; and the results of high-quality development have been significant.

High-end progression and channel transformation advance in parallel

In fact, in 2025, the competition logic in the auto industry has been changing. From the beginning of the year, leading automakers gradually withdrew from price wars and proactively raised their selling prices, to the middle of the year when the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the “Guidelines for Compliant Automobile Industry Price Behavior,” which drew red lines around acts such as low-price dumping and false advertising, and then to the end of the year when incentives for purchasing new energy vehicles were implemented and “trade-in for upgrades” policies guided consumption upgrades—this sequence of signals indicates that the industry is moving from disorderly price competition toward more sustainable value competition.

The shift in competition logic is also reflected in consumer mix. Data from the China Passenger Car Association shows that in 2025, the market share of the passenger car market segment above 200,000 yuan first broke 35%. Great Wall Motor’s financial report shows that as a luxury SUV brand, WEY’s full-year sales exceeded 100,000 units, up 86.29%. Tank SUV’s full-year sales surpassed 230,000 units; among them, the Tank 500 has ranked No. 1 in luxury off-road sales of over 300,000 yuan for four consecutive years. In the hard-core off-road segment, the Tank brand has already established a relatively solid market position.

Achieving such results is inseparable from Great Wall Motor’s channel development. In 2025, Great Wall Motor continued to invest in direct-operated channels, with WEY direct-operated stores exceeding 500. In this regard, industry analyst Xu Jinping told reporters of Huaxia Times: “The increase in direct-operated stores means that the brand’s touchpoints with consumers also increase significantly, which is indispensable for building a high-end brand. The traditional dealer model may still cover some areas in third- and fourth-tier cities, but in the high-end market of first- and second-tier cities, direct operation has become the standard.”

If investment in direct-operated channels is the infrastructure for Great Wall’s high-end push, then WEY’s brand-new “Gaoshan” performance in the MPV market is a direct test of the results of this build. From July to December 2025, the model ranked first nationwide in MPV sales; afterward, it won the sales crown for new energy MPVs for six consecutive months. In the MPV sub-segment long dominated by joint-venture brands, it is not common for a domestic brand to achieve this.

In addition to breakthroughs in high-end products, Wei Jianjun’s appearance at the F1 China Grand Prix site in early 2026 has been interpreted by the outside world as the prelude to Great Wall’s ultra-luxury brand layout. In the market above 300,000 yuan, there is still room for breakthrough relying on product strength; in the market above 500,000 yuan, it requires brand accumulation and recognition within customer circles—this is a threshold that domestic brands have not yet crossed.

Overseas expansion enters deeper waters

While Great Wall Motor is planning a higher-end layout in the domestic market, its overseas business is also expanding continuously. In 2025, China’s auto export volume exceeded 7 million units, up about 15%, and Great Wall Motor plays an important role in this. However, with the expansion of export scale, challenges have also followed. Some export destination countries have imposed additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles; an EU anti-subsidy investigation and the U.S. “Inflation Reduction Act” have raised the bar for Chinese automakers to go overseas.

Against a growingly complex overseas market environment, the model of relying solely on exporting complete vehicles is facing challenges. To this end, Great Wall Motor also adjusted its overseas strategy in 2025. In August, Great Wall Motor’s Brazil plant was officially completed and began production. Compared with pure exports, local production means deeper market embedding, but requires greater investment and a longer payback period.

In Xu Jinping’s view, this is a key step in “going out” to “going in.” “Relying solely on exporting complete vehicles makes it easy to be hit by external factors such as tariffs and trade policies. Local production requires significant investment and has a longer payback period, but it can achieve deeper market embedding while also avoiding some trade barriers.”

In fact, this strategic adjustment can already be seen in Great Wall Motor’s overseas data. The financial report shows that in 2025, Great Wall Motor’s overseas sales were 506,800 units, up 11.6%, with a growth rate lower than the industry average. However, the product mix has changed: Tank 300 and Tank 500 stand out in high-momentum markets such as the Middle East. Currently, Tank SUVs have been exported to more than 30 countries and regions, and sales networks cover Australia, Mexico, the Middle East, ASEAN, South Africa, and others.

Besides optimizing the brand structure, Great Wall Motor has also obtained compliance system certifications overseas. In November 2025, the British Standards Institution issued Great Wall Motor an ISO 37301 compliance management system certification, covering end-to-end business processes including R&D, manufacturing, procurement, and sales, and covering four major areas: export controls, data privacy, anti-monopoly, and advertising and promotion. In overseas markets, compliance is not an “extra credit” but a ticket to enter. In recent years, some Chinese automakers have encountered compliance risks overseas, highlighting the importance of this capability.

In addition, Great Wall Motor’s product-level layout is also being advanced in parallel. Currently, Great Wall Motor continues to promote a “full-powertrain layout.” In Great Wall’s view, only with full powertrain and full scenarios can it meet the diverse needs of the world. Energy structures, infrastructure, and consumer habits differ significantly across countries and regions; it is difficult for a single powertrain route to cover global markets. However, a full powertrain layout means higher R&D investment and more complex supply chain management.

In terms of technical reserves, Great Wall Motor has successfully developed a 4.0T V8 engine. “Under the big trend of electrification, investing in the R&D of high-displacement engines appears, on the surface, to be going against the trend. But if you put the perspective on global markets, you can understand the logic of this decision. In markets such as the Middle East, North America, and Russia, high-displacement high-end gasoline vehicles still have a stable consumer base. Mastering high-displacement engine technology actually gives you the ‘ticket’ to enter these markets,” said Xu Jinping.

Regarding Great Wall Motor’s future development, Xu Jinping said: “High-end and globalization are the two main lines for domestic brands to break through. Great Wall has already built some foundation in these two directions. But whether it is brand elevation or overseas expansion, fundamentally it is a long-cycle investment that requires continuous product iteration and market validation. Great Wall’s 2025 financial report shows that the company is moving forward according to its own pace. But whether it can truly pass through the cycle depends on the execution strength and market feedback in the coming years.”

Byline: Li Yanan Editor-in-chief: Yu Jianping

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