GWM starts developing supply chain in Brazil

By Décio Costa | 2/14/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch

GWM is beginning to create a local supply chain to produce vehicles in Iracemápolis, SP. At the same time it starts the commercial operation in the country with the Haval H6, the company is scheduling talks with future partners.

According to Ricardo Bastos, GWM’s institutional and governmental relations director, a first meeting with Sindipeças has already happened. “A second one is already scheduled for March, and we will have meetings with possible suppliers afterward.”

Scheduled to start production next year, GWM’s Brazilian operation studies the products it will manufacture here. Bastos tells there will be three models, two SUVs and one pickup, among them unprecedented models, not yet launched by the Chinese manufacturer.

“Brazil is the company’s project of the time. Besides the opportunity, we are free to define the cars. But, independently from the model, the desire is a flex hybrid, as this technology is the most tuned to the country’s reality.”

The selection of national production products will also help the plant adaptation and the pace of activities. The Iracemápolis unit was built by Mercedes-Benz to manufacture the GLA and C-Class, with a 35 thousand units annual capacity.

GWM intends to produce up to 100 thousand units a year. Therefore, among the cars it intends to produce here, at least one shall have a profile to meet a high-volume demand. “We start from a structure bought from Mercedes-Benz, with a very good basis that gives us reliability to what we will intend to do”, resumes Bastos.

According to the director, the speed the business structure is being erected is amazing. GWM closed the Iracemápolis purchase in August 2021. Deliveries of the first brand’s model in the country, the Haval H6, will begin in April when most of the initial 50 dealerships belonging to 28 groups shall be opened. Nonetheless, the company programmed ten launches in Brazil up to 2025.