China’s Great Wall opens Brazil car plant, seeks site for second

[SAO PAULO] Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor (GWM) may have just opened its first factory in Brazil, but is already scoping out sites for a second plant as it ramps up its ambitions in South America’s largest economy.

The Iracemapolis, Sao Paulo facility was opened Aug 15, four years after Great Wall bought it from Daimler. Three models will be produced there – the Haval H6 and H9 sport utility vehicles, and the Power P30 pickup truck.

While it has the capacity to produce 50,000 vehicles a year, GWM International chief executive officer Parker Shi said that the company eventually aims to sell between 250,000 and 300,000 cars in the country, including locally made and imported vehicles.

Great Wall has been in talks and already received proposals from several states, including Santa Catarina, Parana, Sao Paulo and Espirito Santo, Ricardo Bastos, director of institutional affairs at GWM Brasil, said in an interview at the factory opening.

“We may eventually consider the option of a larger factory through consolidation, but there is also the opportunity to build a factory from scratch,” Bastos said. A final decision on a second factory would be made from mid-2026 onwards, he added.

A new plant could be used as a production hub for a new family of vehicles to plug a hole in GWM’s range. While most cars in Brazil are priced around the 150,000 reais (S$35,609) mark, GWM’s lineup is priced above 200,000 reais.

“We need to have competitive products in this segment, below 200,000 reais,” said Bastos. The new vehicles could include an SUV smaller than the H6, and a compact pickup truck.

“We are definitely talking about a project that is part of GWM’s future,” he said, adding that the lineup will not be limited to just one or two models and could be replicated in other countries where GWM has manufacturing facilities.

“Brazil has served as a laboratory for good experiences, both with the brand and in relationships with dealers,” he said.

The Iracemapolis plant is part of 10 billion reais Great Wall has pledged to invest in Brazil, including four billion reais by 2026 and the remaining six billion reais by 2032.

The second phase of investments could be directed to several fronts, such as the supply chain, other businesses such as heavy vehicles, and the assembly of battery packs, a move Bastos highlighted as critical for increasing the level of component localisation. That in turn would allow GWM to meet the threshold to export Brazilian-made cars to other Mercosur countries, including Argentina and Uruguay.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by GWM’s CEO, Mu Feng, who was visiting Brazil for the first time, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. During the event, the company announced the creation of its first Research and Development Center in South America, which will have more than 60 technicians and engineers working on local products, focusing on flex-fuel technology and the adaptation of global vehicles to Brazilian driving conditions.

“There’s a lot of room for what we are proposing to do in Brazil: taking good care of the consumer, having a single-price policy, and a policy where we can serve customers with our network in a healthy way,” said Bastos.

GWM expects to sell 36,000 vehicles in Brazil in 2025, a 23 per cent increase compared to 2024 and higher than the 31,000-unit forecast announced earlier this year. BLOOMBERG