Great Wall Motors’ India Operations End: Last Few Employees Asked To Leave

Great Wall Motors is the eight largest automobile manufacturer in China and reportedly sold over 12.8 lakh cars in 2021. GWM is the largest producer of SUVs in China and hence it did seem like a good idea to enter an SUV-loving market like India.

Great Wall Motors had one of the largest pavilions at the 2020 Indian Auto Expo, and the brand displayed several cars with serious intentions to launch them in the Indian market. In fact, the brand had started hiring in India way before the Auto Expo showcase. In 2018, Kaushik Ganguly took on the role of Director for Strategy & Planning at Great Wall Motors for India.

The brand had massive plans for the Indian market. It was all set to take over the erstwhile GM plant at Talegaon in Maharashtra and announced an investment of $1 Billion (Around Rs 7,895 Crore). Some of the investment was to be used in renovating and modernizing the Talegaon plant and the rest would be used to build the brand's business in India.

Great Wall Motors had also planned to put up an R&D centre in Bangalore. This R&D centre, along with the manufacturing plant was supposed to generate employment for around 3,000 workers. The first GWM brand to enter India would have been Haval and the Chinese auto giant was to launch a few SUVs in India.

However, all didn't go according to plan. Great Wall Motors faced several challenges in the Indian market. The first challenge came because of the lockdowns and curfews that came as a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later in 2020, clashes between the Chinese and Indian Army in the Galwan valley led to restrictions on the import of Chinese goods and other restrictions on Chinese brands.

Since then, Great Wall Motors has faced multiple hurdles with getting regulatory approvals under the FDI regulations. As a result, there has been a multiple-year delay in the entry of Great Wall Motors and along the way, several high profile employees left the brand in search of a better future.

At the end, Great Wall Motors was left with only 11 employees in India. Now the brand has given all of them the pink slip along with three months' advance salary and has officially dropped its India ambitions.

Thoughts On Great Wall Motors Dropping India Plans & Shutting Down India Operations

Great Wall Motors was a success story waiting to unfold in India. Its Haval brand manufactures quite a few nice cars and they could be manufactured at an affordable price in India. However, things didn't go according to plan and we won't be seeing any GWM cars in India after all.

Source: ET Auto