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A great drive
By Li Fangfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-21 13:42 Ambition Located in Baoding, Hebei province, Great Wall has a modern auto industry zone with area of almost 2,000 sqm, 150 km southwest to Beijing. Besides its manufacturing plants Great Wall also possesses a state-of-the-art R&D center. "We have invested more than 1 billion yuan into the center for facilities and equipment. And we are planning to invest another one billion yuan on a new center for our rising R&D demand for new models," says Wang. In 2005, Great Wall opened its production base for 200,000 units of passenger cars and last October, the company's first passenger cars, GWPeri and MPV Cowry, rolled off the production line. "Now is the right time for us to enter the passenger car market. Of course, as I always insisted, we will first focus on producing small cars to occupy the leading position in that area then expand our reach to the middle- and large-sized sedan markets from 2009," Wang says. Although the passenger market is the industry's most competitive battlefield and Great Wall seems to be a latecomer, Wang has confidence. "We will develop ten economical small cars based on the same pre-2009 chassis and technology. Then we can double our R&D investment in the technology to produce larger, higher quality cars based on an advanced technology," she explains. "That's our strategy to compete in the passenger car segment." Wang also says that in the next three years Great Wall plans to spend 10 billion yuan on its production facilities and R&D infrastructure. By 2010, she hopes Great Wall's annual output will be 500,000 units, with a sales income of up to 30 billion yuan.
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