(Yicai Global) Feb. 22 -- Continuing its overseas expansion drive, Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor is set to ratchet up its Indian operations with the setup of a CNY10.5 million (USD1.6 million) local unit.

The company's announcement yesterday of this plan offered no further details, however, except that the Baoding, Hebei province-based firm will name its Indian unit India Haval Auto, India Haval or India Haval Auto Sales, with the final name subject to approval by local authorities, it said.

The company will thus usher its Haval sports utility vehicles into the Indian market.

Haval is Great Wall's major SUV brand and for nine straight years the bestseller in China, where its brand is the number one pick-up and SUV marque. But the company only moved 766,000 units in the country last year, down 28.8 percent from a year earlier.

Great Wall Motor has developed a new SUV named Wey and new energy vehicle brand Ora in an attempt to reverse this domestic sales droop.

The automaker sold 1.1 million vehicles on its home turf last year, down 1.6 percent from the year before.

Rising Overseas

Sales abroad are increasing in contrast to the decline in China. The firm exported 46,900 units last year in an increase of almost 20 percent from 2017.

The company exports its cars -- mostly SUVs -- to around 60 countries. Ecuador, South Africa, Malaysia, Russia and Australia are its main markets, the Cheyun.com auto news portal operated by Qicheng Future Technology (Beijing) reported Dec. 13.

"We are gearing up to export our products to the US, India, Brazil and various European countries," said Wang Shihui, general manager of the firm's overseas business, per the report.

"Actually, it isn't easy to sell China-made cars in markets like the US and Europe, because they already have a deeply-rooted auto industry and consumers are very quality conscious, while strict regulatory oversight and trade and tariff disputes impose enormous challenges," he continued, adding, "but with our achievements in the domestic market, we aim one fine day to become the world's SUV leader." 

Great Wall Motor has set up research and development centers in India, Japan, the US, Germany, Austria and South Korea and its first overseas production base, a USD500 million plant in Russia's Tula region, will start operating in the first half, online news outlet pressreader.com reported on Nov. 26.

The firm values India most for its electric vehicles and artificial intelligence and has started recruitment for its local business which will be inaugurated in 2021 or 2022, the Times of India reported in October.

The firm has retained Kaushik Ganguly to help with business planning in its India unit, an informed source said, adding Ganguly is one of the major executives in the planning department of Maruti Suzuki which is India's largest auto joint venture with 53 percent of domestic passenger car market share, public information shows.

Editor: Ben Armour