Wingle becomes a Steed as Chinese carmaker enters UK

Great Wall Motors taps into the British market with its compact pickup truck the Steed, which sells for 14,000 pounds. Provided to China Daily

Great Wall motors introduces the most affordable pickup to the market

Great Wall Motors, China's biggest maker of sport utility vehicles, launched a compact pickup truck in London on April 18, becoming the first home grown Chinese automotive brand to enter the British market.

The Great Wall Wingle, rebranded the Steed for the British market, also became the cheapest pickup truck in the market.

It is being sold in Britain by International Motors, whose Great Wall UK director, Paul Hegarty, says affordability is the Steed's key selling point.

Sold across the country through 40 appointed dealers, the Steed comes in two versions: the Steed S for 14,000 pounds ($22,200, 17,000 euros) and the Steed SE for 16,000 pounds.

Before Great Wall's entrance, Britain's cheapest pickup was the Isuzu Rodeo, the most basic version of which sells at a little more than 15,000 pounds.

Other competitors in the market include the Nissan Navara, the Volkswagen Amarok, the Mitsubishi L200, the Toyota Hilux and the Ford Ranger pickups. Of these, the Amarok is the most expensive, the basic version costing 22,500 pounds.

"Our view is, when a new brand comes to a European market, almost inevitably the pricing has to be more competitive than established brands," Hegarty says, adding that the Steed's value is demonstrated by its specifications.

Many of these are unusual for a basic pickup, including Bluetooth connectivity, heated seats and full leather interior, he says.

The Steed will appear in the Commercial Vehicle Show that opens in Birmingham on April 24.

The British market has become increasingly popular with Chinese carmakers in recent years.

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp bought the intellectual property of the Birmingham company MG Rover in 2005 and launched MG6 about a year ago. The only new MG in 16 years drummed up more than 3 million pounds of business in just two weeks through the sale of 180 cars.

Whereas Great Wall exports vehicles wholly manufactured in China, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp designs and assembles MG cars at MG's old plant in Birmingham, in the English Midlands.

More similar to Great Wall's experience is that of the Chinese carmaker Geely, which will make a debut in Britain this year with the Emgrand EC7, to be sold through its British distributor Manganese Bronze Holdings.

Great Wall, founded in Baoding, Hebei province, in 1976, has been China's largest automotive exporter in volume and revenue since 1998.

With a sales network covering more than 100 countries, Great Wall sold 85,000 vehicles abroad last year, a 50 percent increase from 2010.

Its key export markets include North and South America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Australia, Russia and Italy.

International Motors and Great Wall have been talking about the partnership for more than five years, but it was only in 2009 that Great Wall's four main models (the Florid MPV, the Coolbear baby SUV, the Hover 5 SUV and the Wingle 4 pickup) gained approval from the Vehicle Certification Agency of Britain.

Hegarty says selecting the Steed as Great Wall's debut in Britain is a natural choice, given Great Wall's leading position in China for pickups.

About 120,000 Wingle pickups are sold in China each year, and 700,000 have been sold since it was introduced in 2006.

Hegarty says the next step is to introduce a Great Wall SUV to the British market, with the same strategy of providing good value for money, hence establishing a firm foundation in the British SUV market.

This strategy has won approval from branding experts in Britain.

Brian Millar, of the consultancy Sense Worldwide, says Great Wall's entrance into Britain is well-timed.

"Right now we're seeing consumers being squeezed by the downturn, and looking to pay less for badges and more for 'good enough' products."

Although Britain's car market is notorious for being hostile to foreign brands, South Korean brands such as Kia and Hyundai found success about 30 years ago because they marketed themselves to a niche segment of economy-minded consumers.

Millar says things have changed in recent years as the South Korean brands started to focus more on branding, leaving room for other brands to "come in underneath them".

For example, Kia hired the former Audi designer Peter Schreyer to be its chief design officer in 2006. This is similar to the path Hyundai has taken over the past years with cars such as the Genesis, a premium sports sedan.

Andy Turton, global development director of automotive at TNS, a market research firm whose headquarters are in London, also says the Steed will appeal to a niche segment in Britain who care much less about a brand's country of origin.

"Those are individuals looking for a vehicle which is not heavily equipped, (and is) reliable, functional, easy to fix, has low running costs and absolutely low purchase price." This group includes many small-business owners, he says.

Turton says one brand that has found success with this segment is the Romanian Dacia, which Renault bought in 1999.

"Renault originally acquired Dacia for the developing markets, but was pleasantly surprised that it has done well in the Western markets, because of that easy-to-fix, value-for-money, low-purchase-price proposition."

Although products from China are commonly stereotyped as being of relatively poor quality, Turton says that the Steed can overcome this challenge by explaining clearly its value proposition.

"It isn't a quality trade-off, but a specification trade-off. If Great Wall is promoting a Volkswagen or Ford Ranger specification, then it wouldn't be credible. But with a very stripped out specification, the Steed represents value for money."

Great Wall's Hover and Wingle have been sold in the Italian market through the local distributor Eurasia Motor Co since 2006.

But sales did not reach the expected heights. Eurasia Motor hoped Great Wall vehicles would sell 12,000 units annually after three years, but only 1,785 units were sold in 2009, Automotive News Europe reported in 2010.

Eurasia Chairman Guido Ognissanti told Automotive News Europe that it is hard for a distributor to make plans with a carmaker that, distracted by a buoyant domestic market, frequently revises its export plans.

In 2006, Great Wall promised Eurasia that it would quickly add passenger cars to a line-up featuring SUVs and pickups, Ognissanti said. But the Great Wall Voleex, a passenger car, only became available in Italy last year.

The Great Wall Hover has been more successful in Australia, with sales volume surpassing that of the Kia Sportage in 2010, just one year after it first went on sale in Australia.

However, two Hover versions have had recalls, casting the brand's quality into doubt.

In December 2009, the Great Wall V240's front passenger seatbelt retractor failed during a crash test conducted by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program.

Australian authorities ordered a recall, requesting seatbelts of the entire batch of 115 cars that the test vehicle was plucked from be replaced.

There was a second recall in May when a problem on an X240 brake pipe was found. Consequently, 922 potentially effected X240s were recalled for inspection, according to a notice on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission website.

But these incidents did not severely affect Great Wall's popularity in Australia, where it has announced two new product launches for this year - a diesel compact SUV and a light-weight car.

Another overseas development for Great Wall was the opening in February of a factory in Bulgaria in partnership with the Bulgarian company Litex Motors.

The plant, aimed at supplying Eastern European markets, has a planned annual capacity of 50,000 cars.

In a recent interview with Beijing Business Today, Great Wall President Wang Fengying said its 15 years of export experience has slowly allowed it to build a brand reputation abroad.

"Great Wall aims to be consistent in our overseas markets. We hope to find a right place in every market, and maximize product differentiation."

Contact the writers at cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn and zhanghaizhou@chinadaily.com.cn