Great Wall Motor Co. has established its new research and design office in Yokohama, Japan. The Chinese car manufacturer aims to gain technological knowledge from Japanese manufacture companies as well as to strengthen cooperation with Japanese auto parts makers.
According to Japan Times, the company is especially interested in learning from environmentally friendly companies and self-driving cars. The new R&D office was launched last Tuesday, with Hu Shunje as head of the Japanese development unit. The office has now five personnel but plans to hire 200 employees to work with them in areas including fuel-cell vehicles and autonomous driving.
Hu said that the company chose Yokohama as the place to settle their office because the city is hosts a multitude of auto suppliers, mainly from Nissan, Japan's second-biggest car manufacturer. Nissan's models have been sold worldwide and the company also produced popular eco-friendly and electric car. It is also known that Yokohama has been aggressively inviting foreign companies to invest.
Gaining knowledge from Nissan and other Japan car manufacturers is particularly important because Great Wall Motor also plan to enter the global market. As stated by Shunje, the company understand that to deliver high-quality products and services they have to invest in global research offices as well.
According to Bloomberg, Great Wall Motor is also planning to open research and design offices in North America, Europe and India. They plan to accomplish this in the next few years, said Suguya Fukusato, the company's vice president. As for now, the carmaker already has sales networks in Asia Pacific, Africa and South America.
This move follows a positive growth experienced by Great Wall Motors last year. Achieving sales of 853,000 units, they experienced a 17 percent growth, which led to the company's stock rising 2.7 percent in Hong Kong trading. The rise was mainly due to the high demands for SUVs, which are forecasted to rise even higher in 2016, as estimated by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Besides Great Wall Motor, some other Chinese big car manufacturers have also strived to enter global markets, especially developed markets such as the United States and Europe, as reported by Yibada.
China's considered largest car manufacturer, SAIC Motor Copr., has aim to extend to Silicon Valley to acquire latest technology development. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. also runs a joint research center in Sweden and has growing network sales worldwide. Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., has also established research centers in the United States, Japan, Britain, and Italy.
Great Wall Motor's move to expand overseas has received positive responses from investors so far. The company is also working towards expanding research and design centers worldwide, especially in the United States and Europe.
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