Great Wall Motor plans to close its European headquarters in Munich at the end of August and fire all of the 100 or so local employees, according to a German media report.
Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motor will reportedly drastically cut its operations in Europe, as sales there remain weak.
Great Wall Motor plans to close its European headquarters in Munich at the end of August and fire all of the 100 or so employees, German media outlet Manager Magazin said in a May 28 report.
The Chinese carmaker will halt its expansion into other European markets, but does not plan to exit Europe, according to the report.
Great Wall Motor had informed its employees and business partners of the move on Tuesday, and its chief commercial officer at its European headquarters, Steffen Cost, and his team of executives, were among those on the firing list, the report said, citing insider information.
The report noted that the closure of the Munich headquarters does not mean that Great Wall Motor plans to exit Europe; it will continue to provide services in existing markets, but its European operations will be managed from its headquarters in China.
Previously planned forays into new European markets are no longer on the agenda, at least not for a while, according to the report.
Great Wall Motor unveiled initial plans in 2021 to sell electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe, and in 2022 it entered into a partnership with Emil Frey, Europe's largest car dealer group, to help distribute its Ora and Wey branded vehicles.
Great Wall Motor fell short of its sales targets in Europe, with the company only reporting 6,300 new local registrations in 2023, according to the report.
The Chinese carmaker sold 1,230,530 vehicles in 2023, up 15.27 percent year-on-year, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.
It sold 316,018 vehicles overseas in 2023, up 82.48 percent year-on-year, contributing 25.68 percent of all vehicle sales.
Notably, Great Wall Motor postponed its goal of achieving 1 million annual sales overseas a month ago, as global market conditions become more challenging.
Great Wall Motor plans to achieve overseas sales of more than 1 million units by 2030, with premium models accounting for more than one-third of the total, the Chinese automaker said in an April 29 post on its WeChat account.
The latest plan is a delay from the target mentioned in October last year, when Great Wall Motor said it planned to achieve annual sales of 1 million units in overseas markets by 2025, with 400,000 of them produced locally overseas.
On October 4, 2023, the European Commission officially launched an anti-subsidy investigation into EVs from China, making additional tariffs a threat.
Still, startups including Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) are actively expanding into the European market.
On May 23, Nio added a Nio House in the Netherlands with eight floors, its largest in Europe to date.
Nio founder, chairman, and CEO William Li said during the opening of the Nio House that the company plans to continue expanding in Europe despite tariff uncertainties there, according to a Reuters report last week.
On May 16, Xpeng launched the G9 and G6 in France, further expanding its presence in Europe.
Nio plans to continue European expansion despite EU tariff uncertainties
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