GWM passes 250,000 Australian sales as July volume slips

GWM has recorded its 250,000th Australian vehicle sale, marking the milestone with the handover of an ORA 5 electric SUV to a Melbourne primary school teacher at Werribee GWM.

The cumulative figure lands in a month when the brand’s growth stalled. GWM finished ninth in the July VFACTS brand ranking with volume down 4.3% year-on-year, the only Chinese brand inside the top 10 to go backwards in a market that set a July record of 103,656 units.

Chery took eighth place on 4,615 sales, extending its run of record months to 18, while MG rounded out the top 10 and Geely finished 11th on 3,685.

That contrasts with GWM’s first half, when it delivered 30,359 vehicles, up 20.5%. The Haval Jolion rose 27.1% to 11,480 units and the Haval H6 was up 11.9% to 7,730. The Tank 500 was the only major line to fall, down 12.9% to 629, ahead of its move from hybrid to diesel power.

GWM delivered close to 53,000 vehicles in Australia in 2025 and told AutoTalk in March it was targeting more than 60,000 this year.

Top five still a distance away

GWM Australia and New Zealand chief operating officer John Kett frames the result as a staging post rather than an endpoint.

“Two hundred and fifty thousand sales is a significant achievement for any brand, but what means the most to us is who that number represents,” Kett says.

“With a strong pipeline of new models still to launch this year, including the Cannon Hi4-T plug-in hybrid and our new 3.0-litre turbo-diesel variants, this is a milestone along the way rather than the finish line.”

GWM has held a stated ambition of reaching a top five brand position by 2027. On July’s numbers that means displacing Mazda on 6,400, Kia on 6,458 and Ford on 6,553, with BYD second on 7,857 and Toyota clear at 20,409.

Nine models and a bigger network

GWM says nine new and updated models are scheduled to launch over the coming months, supported by continued investment in its dealer network and its local engineering and validation program. In March the company told AutoTalk it planned up to 10 new and refreshed models across 2026.

That program covers the Tank 300 Hi4-T, a Haval Jolion Max, a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel making its global debut in the Cannon Alpha and Tank 500, at least two additional ORA models and the introduction of WEY as a premium marque.

The company is lifting its dealer count from 123 towards a targeted 135 by the end of 2026, and has been adding staff across product planning, customer experience, technical service and parts.

The choice of an ORA 5 as the milestone vehicle reflects where the volume is moving. Battery electric vehicles held above 20% of the Australian market in July on combined VFACTS and Electric Vehicle Council reporting, a second consecutive month above that mark and up from under 7% a year earlier.