(Yicai Global) Aug. 12 -- Great Wall Motors will continue to invest in India as before for the Southeast Asian country remains one of the world’s most promising markets, China Securities Journal reported yesterday, citing the vice president of the Chinese carmaker.

Fu Xiaokang was responding to a Reuters report that said Great Wall Motors has decided to re-allocate a portion of its USD1 billion investment in India to Brazil where it is planning to acquire a former Daimler plant, the UK newspaper reported yesterday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. The report also said that the re-allocation of funds could be in the range of USD300 million.

Great Wall Motors has announced its 2025 strategy and projects are proceeding as planned, Fu said. Investments in the global market will be according to the information already disclosed, he added.

The Beijing-based carmaker plans to sell four million units worldwide a year by 2025, 80 percent of which will be new energy vehicles, and this should bring in annual revenue of over CNY600 billion (USD92.6 billion), according to the strategy released last month. The automaker plans to spend around CNY100 billion on research and development over the next five years.

The firm was planning to buy US car giant General Motors’ India business including its Talegaon factory, due to be completed last year. However, negotiations have ground to a halt after India introduced stricter regulations on investment from China last April and due to the battering the country has taken from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Great Wall Motors runs a R&D center in Bangladore which mainly focuses on software for electric cars and autonomous driving.

Editor: Kim Taylor