Great Wall Motor Co. Ltd. is targeting ramping up its annual sales to 2 million vehicles by 2025, Reuters reported, citing company President Wang Fengying.
In a session of the National People's Congress being held in Beijing, Wang noted that Great Wall intends to invest 20 billion yuan in research and development for electric vehicles by 2020.
The Chinese automaker expects a 58.42% decrease in net profit attributable to shareholders to 4.31 billion yuan for 2017. According to the preliminary estimates, the dive in profit was mainly due to higher research and development costs and promotional activities.
The company sold 950,315 vehicles in 2017, down 1.9% from 2016, Reuters reported, citing Shanghai-based consultancy Automotive Foresight.
Great Wall recently signed a letter of intent to potentially create a joint venture with Bayerische Motoren Werke AG in the field of new energy vehicles. The Chinese automaker will be a majority shareholder in the new entity.
Wang added March 8 that Great Wall plans to launch three new heavily electrified car models in 2018 and two more in 2019, Reuters noted. Of the targeted vehicle sales for 2025, the company expects roughly one-third to be all-electric battery cars.
As of March 7, US$1 was equivalent to 6.32 Chinese yuan.
