great wall currently has the affordable electric ora brand and is building an ev factory with bmw in chinabeijingshanghai chinas great wall motor plans to launch a new standalone brand for electric and smart vehicles sources familiar with the plan said as automakers in worlds biggest car market pursue growth in the new segment inspired by the market success of electric vehicle leader tesla inc as well as chinese startups nio inc li auto and xpeng inc several chinese automakers this year announced plans for new electric brands mostly to offer more expensive products than their massmarket lines advt conventional chinese automakers such as saic motor changan automobile and gac are seeking to move their products up the value chain as chinas economic planners push new technologies baodingbased great wall will launch a new standalone brand internally coded as sl project for electric and smart vehicles which will be priced higher than existing products two people who declined to be named said the new brand the name of which sources declined to reveal will include sport utility vehicles suv and sedans which will be battery electric vehicles or extended range electric vehicles that allow drivers to charge their cars with electricity or gasoline asked about the plan a great wall spokesman said the big tide has come we will join the game without elaborating great wall currently has the affordable electric ora brand and is building an ev factory with bmw in china to compete with rival geely great wall has added the pseries pickup truck and offroad suv models to its range in the first 11 months it sold almost a million vehicles the new brand is great walls second attempt to crack the premium segment in 2016 it launched its wey brand for more upscale models although it has struggled to generate sales growth reuters published on dec 10 2020 at 0736 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etauto app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app gwm new electric brand saic motor great wall motor gwm smart vehicle brans changan automobile homenewsindustrychinas great wall plans new electric smart vehicle brand sources