{"id":857,"date":"2025-11-21T10:06:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T10:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/?p=857"},"modified":"2025-12-01T10:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T10:35:08","slug":"gwm-showed-early-mzansi-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/?p=857","title":{"rendered":"GWM SHOWED EARLY MZANSI SUCCESS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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GWM<\/strong> has officially been in Mzansi<\/strong> for 18 years<\/strong>. Quite an unbelievable and hugely impressive<\/strong> feat for the Chinese<\/strong> automotive manufacturer, considering that back in 2007<\/strong>, automotive consumers were not too amiable<\/strong> to Chinese-built vehicles. There were not many to begin with, mainly grey imports<\/strong>. But those that were in the country did not cover themselves in glory as far as consumers were concerned, especially when it came to reliability<\/strong> and longevity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Enter GWM, which at the time was still going as Great Wall Motor<\/strong>. Founded as a truck modifying company back in 1976<\/strong> in Baoding<\/strong>, Hebei province of China, Great Wall Automobile Industry Company, GWM later became an SUV specialist. The first GWM cars arrived in Mzansi in 2007 via the Durban Port<\/strong>. The consignment was mainly made up of a total of 1 500 Steed<\/strong> bakkies and the Hover<\/strong> SUV. Excitement was palpable, because the Steed was the first bakkie<\/strong> of Chinese origin to be made available to our bakkie-loving<\/strong> consumers<\/strong>. As expected, the Steed took to market with great interest, proving to be a reliable<\/strong> and sturdy workhorse<\/strong> among its peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the cars that followed include the likes of H1<\/strong>, Florid, C20R<\/strong>, C50 T, H6<\/strong> and H5, as GWM sought to establish itself as a viable alternative<\/strong> in the burgeoning<\/strong> SUV segment at a time when SUVs were still considered novel vehicles<\/strong> in the overall market. Reaching 2010, GWM had sold a cumulative 10 000<\/strong> cars in Mzansi, and had entered the top 20 of best-selling manufacturers<\/strong> doing strong business in the country. By 2016, GWM had set up around 60 local dealerships<\/strong>, proving how its seriousness<\/strong> about this market. Cumulative sales have reached around 50 000 units<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was probably the introduction of the Haval brand<\/strong> that led to a surge in sales and recognition of GWM as a top player<\/strong> in the market. Haval, established in China in 2013<\/strong>, arrived in our market with ambitious<\/strong> intentions. The brand\u2019s future vision had been established quite early, with Haval entering the notoriously<\/strong> tough Dakar<\/strong> off-road race as a brand. And so pedigree<\/strong> would not be an issue as such in our market. Perhaps growing competition<\/strong> would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GWM has officially been in Mzansi for 18 years. Quite an unbelievable and hugely impressive feat for the Chinese automotive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_regular_price":[],"currency_symbol":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[365,364],"tags":[79,370,371,373,372,369,368,367],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gwm","category-haval","tag-gwm","tag-gwm-c20r","tag-gwm-c50","tag-gwm-h5","tag-gwm-h6","tag-gwm-hover","tag-gwm-steed","tag-haval"],"post_slider_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GWM-Hover-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GWM-Hover-1200x800.jpg",1200,800,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait_large":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GWM-Hover-1200x1440.jpg",1200,1440,true],"post_slider_layout_square_large":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GWM-Hover-1200x1200.jpg",1200,1200,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GWM-Hover-600x400.jpg",600,400,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GWM-Hover-600x900.jpg",600,900,true],"post_slider_layout_square":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GWM-Hover-600x600.jpg",600,600,true],"full":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GWM-Hover.jpg",1920,1440,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}