China’s Great Wall Motor to enter Vietnam in August

The private company plans to launch in Vietnam with the sale of the SUV HAVAL H6 Hybrid Electric Vehicle, it said.

Initially the cars will be imported from Thailand where the company has already established a plant.

It has also signed an authorized cooperation agreement with Vietnamese dealers in January and plans to establish eight sales networks in the country this year.

Eventually it eyes an auto manufacturing plant in Vietnam by 2025.

In the past two years, GWM has expanded to six markets: Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Brunei, the Philippines and Cambodia.

GWM is the fourth Chinese automaker to announce a plan to establish a factory in Vietnam, after BYD, Chery and SAIC Motor.

SAIC Motor, China’s biggest auto brand, will build a factory in Vietnam next year and hopes to achieve sales of 100,000 units a year within five years.

It plans to start selling cars under the U.K. brand MG in Vietnam in July, taking over from a Malaysian distributor.

Vietnam is the fourth-largest auto market in ASEAN after Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, according to 2022 passenger car sales figures released by the ASEAN Automotive Federation.