GWM’s local operating chief has called EV-heavy competitor brands from China “one-dimensional”, when referring to his own company’s strategy for sales growth and powertrains.
Speaking with media in Melbourne, GWM Australia chief operating officer John Kett said the Chinese brand is aspiring for annual sales volume of around 75,000 units in the coming years, and will look to offer a vast portfolio of nameplates, body styles and powertrains including petrol and diesel, unlike rivals like BYD and Geely.
“This growth from 52,000 [units], which is hard to get to, it’s even harder to get to 75,000. We’re looking at the Hyundais of the world that have built scale and stuck to that 75,000 zone and have got aspirations to grow, and we’re also looking at Kia, another incredibly well-managed business, trying to get from 75,000 to 85,000 [units] – you just can’t do that with one product, it doesn’t work,” said Mr Kett, taking a subtle swipe at the underperforming Tasman ute.
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“We aren’t making any outlandish statements of 100,000 [sales] and our premium brand will be 10,000, we just want to get to 75,000 – so we set ourselves a target of a ‘6’ in front of our volume number this year, we’ve got 20,000 ideas to get there.
“Our benefit is we’re across all fuel types. Our nemesis is we don’t quite have the BYD story or the Geely story, because we’re not that one-dimensional,” Mr Kett added. It’s also worth noting that Mr Kett is the former COO of Hyundai Australia, a role he held for over five years.
GWM registered 52,809 new vehicles in 2025 according to VFACTS sales data, posting growth of 23.4 per cent over the previous year in a flat market. It finished seventh overall in the manufacturer sales race.
Key drivers included strong growth from the GWM Cannon Alpha dual-cab ute as well as the Tank 300 4WD SUV, and solid performance from the Toyota RAV4-rivalling Haval H6 medium SUV.
Sixth place was held by Mitsubishi (61,198 units, down 17.9 per cent), meaning GWM could leapfrog towards the top five should it manage over 60,000 sales this year. As Mr Kett mentioned, though, to break said top five, the Chinese company would need to crack the 75,000-80,000-unit mark which is a 50 per cent increase in current volumes.
A key pillar of GWM’s ongoing growth in Australia will be the local development and tuning of its models at the Lang Lang proving ground in Victoria, formerly owned and operated by GM Holden.
GWM has taken up a permanent residency at the former General Motors proving ground, where it will continue to conduct Australian chassis tuning under the direction of ex-Holden engineering guru, Rob Trubiani.
The company says Lang Lang will become “the heart of GWM’s mission to deliver more refined and locally tuned vehicles” and that its expanded commitment to local chassis tuning comes after several years of “listening closely, learning, and adapting within global parameters”.
The fast-growing brand is the only automaker to become a permanent resident of the proving ground since GM sold the historic purpose-built facility 95km southeast of Melbourne to Vietnamese automaker VinFast in September 2020, as part of its decision to kill off the Holden brand following the end of Australian manufacturing in 2017.
VinFast, however, remains the owner of the sprawling 877-hectare facility, which was opened in 1957 and has been used to test every locally produced Holden since the FC of 1958, after a deal with three potential new owners reportedly fell through at the 11th hour in October 2024.
GWM’s local operating chief also confirmed a big push on the brand’s ‘Hi4′ and Hi4-T’ plug-in hybrid technologies in the short-term.
The popular Tank 300 is adding Hi4-T PHEV tech from April, bolstering the existing petrol, diesel and hybrid powertrains already on sale, while the Haval H6 GT will soon get the option of the regular H6 SUV’s Hi4 AWD PHEV system in conjunction with a comprehensive interior upgrade to bring it in line with its facelifted sister model.
Also confirmed for this year is a new 3.0-litre turbo-diesel for the Cannon Alpha dual-cab ute, aiming straight for the top-selling Ford Ranger, while the smaller Cannon will gain a PHEV drivetrain to compete with the BYD Shark 6.
Another opportunity is the all-electric Ora sub-brand, which will expand from the current singular ‘Ora’ hatchback to potentially “three, maybe even four models” by the end of 2026 – including an SUV.
Further, GWM has confirmed it will also launch its premium ‘Wey’ sub-brand in 2026, opening up another portfolio of products to the market and pushing the Chinese company into new segments in Australia.
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