Can Great Wall Motor handle the big IP of "WEI Jianjun"?

At the beginning of 2026, Great Wall Motor has been making frequent moves.

First, it officially abolished the "alternating five - and six - day workweeks" system that had been in place for many years, giving employees about 20 more days of vacation per year.

Then, it "showed off its muscles" at CES 2026 with its own technologies and multiple models under its banner, and revealed that it will start overseas adaptation work in areas such as intelligent assisted driving and intelligent cockpits in 2026.

Recently, Great Wall Motor held a live - broadcast event simultaneously in Ruian, Zhejiang, and Baoding, Hebei, and officially launched the "Guiyuan" automotive platform, which is compatible with five power forms: pure - electric, plug - in hybrid, hybrid, fuel, and hydrogen energy.

Picture/Source of the "Guiyuan" automotive platform: Screenshot from the Internet, New Energy Outlook

The name "Guiyuan" was selected by 22,000 netizens, beating nominations like "Wanli" with 21,000 votes and "Lvhuo" with 12,000 votes. Great Wall Motor and Wei Jianjun also attracted considerable attention through this naming process co - created with netizens.

In fact, Wei Jianjun has been very active on various social platforms in recent years. He has given interviews, done live - broadcasts, posted videos, and even criticized competitors. His frequent catchphrases have kept him at the forefront of public opinion.

However, as netizens' discussions increasingly focus on Wei Jianjun himself, the problems of Great Wall Motor seem to become more prominent. For example, the product strength "falls short", there is a lack of blockbuster models, and the achievement rate of the sales target in 2025 was less than 30%. Can't the big IP of "Wei Jianjun" boost Great Wall Motor?

Annual sales reached a record high, but only one - third of the target sales were achieved?

Looking at the overall data, Great Wall Motor presented a "year - on - year growth" report card in 2025.

In 2025, Great Wall Motor sold a total of 1.3237 million vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 7.33%, setting a new historical high; among them, 403,700 new - energy vehicles were sold, a year - on - year increase of 25.44%, and the overseas market sales reached 506,100 vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 11.68%. Both core growth points achieved breakthroughs.

Picture/Sales of Great Wall Motor in 2025: Screenshot from the Internet, New Energy Outlook

Perhaps based on this "record - high" performance, Great Wall Motor set its sales target for 2026 at 1.8 million vehicles, a year - on - year increase of up to 36%.

When summarizing Great Wall Motor's performance in 2025, Wei Jianjun mentioned that throughout 2025, the company received a lot of encouragement and expectations from netizens and car owners, and he was well aware that Great Wall Motor still had a long way to go.

As Wei Jianjun said, Great Wall Motor indeed has room for improvement. After all, the seemingly steadily growing sales data doesn't look good when compared with traditional automakers in the same period or in light of Great Wall's own long - term strategy.

In terms of the sales volume of self - owned brand groups, Great Wall Motor failed to make it into the top five. Among the top five automaker groups, BYD won the championship with an annual sales volume of 4.6024 million vehicles. SAIC, FAW, Geely, and Changan followed closely with 4.507 million, 3.303 million, 3.025 million, and 2.913 million vehicles respectively, all far exceeding Great Wall Motor's sales volume of 1.32 million vehicles.

Picture/Sales of the top 15 self - owned brand groups in 2025: Screenshot from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, New Energy Outlook

In the domestic retail ranking of passenger cars, although Great Wall Motor made it into the top five, the gap between it and the other four automakers was too large, even a cliff - like gap.

Data shows that in 2025, the top five automakers in the domestic retail sales ranking of self - owned brand passenger cars were BYD, Geely Automobile, Changan Automobile, Chery Automobile, and Great Wall Motor, with sales volumes of 3.459 million, 2.6052 million, 1.4026 million, 1.3306 million, and 702,000 vehicles respectively.

What's more noteworthy is that the 1.32 million vehicles sold by Great Wall Motor in 2025 also fell far short of the strategic goal set by Wei Jianjun earlier.

Wei Jianjun, the chairman of Great Wall Motor, once made a bold statement: By 2025, Great Wall Motor will achieve an annual sales volume of 4 million vehicles, with new - energy vehicles accounting for 80%, and an operating income of over 600 billion yuan. To this end, Great Wall Motor will invest a cumulative 100 billion yuan in R & D in the next five years.

Picture/Strategic goals of Great Wall Motor in 2025: Screenshot from the Internet, New Energy Outlook

However, the actual sales volume in 2025 only reached 33.09% of the target. Although the proportion of new - energy vehicles increased year - on - year, it still accounted for less than one - third of the total sales volume, far from the 80% target.

Seems to cover everything, but actually fails to excel in anything?

In the current domestic automobile market, blockbuster models are often a must for enterprises to stand out in the red - ocean competition or achieve economies of scale.

Behind Great Wall Motor's lower sales volume compared to its "competitors", it may be because of the core shortcoming of lacking a "star player" in its product matrix.

According to data from Dongchedi, in the sales ranking of all - power models (including fuel - powered and new - energy vehicles) in the past six months, SAIC's Wuling Hongguang MINIEV ranked first with 264,500 vehicles sold, followed by Geely Xingyuan with 260,800 vehicles.

Picture/Sales data of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV in the past six months: Screenshot from the Internet, New Energy Outlook

In the top 10 of the new - energy vehicle ranking, self - owned brands accounted for 8 seats. Among them, SAIC occupied 1 seat, Geely 1 seat, Wenjie 1 seat, Xiaomi Automobile 2 seats, and BYD 3 seats.

However, Great Wall Motor didn't appear in any of the rankings, regardless of the power form.

Actually, Great Wall Motor owns five brands: Haval, Wey, Tank, Ora, and Pickup, covering multiple segments such as SUVs, new - energy vehicles, high - end vehicles, and niche off - road vehicles. However, instead of achieving all - around success, Great Wall, with its many brands and products, has fallen into an embarrassing situation of "being involved in everything but excelling in nothing".

Looking at the sales volume of each brand, Haval remains the sales pillar, selling a total of 758,600 new vehicles in 2025, accounting for as much as 57.3% of Great Wall Motor's annual total sales volume.

Picture/Haval's sales volume in 2025: Screenshot from the Internet, New Energy Outlook

However, its sales volume fluctuations have become more obvious in recent years' growth rates. From 2023 to 2025, the sales volumes of the Haval brand were 715,200, 706,200, and 758,600 vehicles respectively, with year - on - year growth rates of 27.21%, - 1.27%, and 7.41% respectively.

However, what may worry Great Wall Motor more than Haval is the Tank brand, which was once popular in the market with its "tough off - road style". Its growth rate has almost stagnated.

In 2025, the Tank brand sold 232,700 vehicles. Great Wall Motor mentioned "synchronized and steady growth". In fact, it's not difficult to find from the data that the sales volume of the Tank brand in 2024 was 231,000 vehicles, only a difference of 1,700 vehicles.

Picture/Tank's sales volume in 2025: Screenshot from the Internet, New Energy Outlook

As for the Wey brand, which Great Wall pinned high hopes on for high - end breakthroughs, and the restarted pure - electric brand Ora, although the growth rate of the former in 2025 was indeed impressive, reaching 86.29% year - on - year, the annual sales volume of 102,000 vehicles may not satisfy Wei Jianjun.

This can also be seen from the fact that the Wey brand has changed its CEO ten times in eight years. Although Wei Jianjun mentioned that "it's not that Great Wall fired them; they just felt the pressure was too great", the pressure of being the CEO of the Wey brand can be imagined.

As for Ora, it didn't disclose its 2025 sales volume directly. Instead, its global cumulative sales volume appeared in Great Wall Motor's annual sales breakdown data.

 Is the hard - core strength of Great Wall "Wei Jianjun"?

In fact, regardless of how each brand of Great Wall Motor is currently developing, an indisputable fact is that Great Wall Motor's sales volume achieved year - on - year growth in 2025.

This is also a good performance in the current domestic new - energy vehicle market with stock competition.

Picture/Sales situation of each brand of Great Wall Motor in 2025: Screenshot from the Internet, New Energy Outlook

However, it's not difficult to find from the above content that Great Wall Motor's products are not very competitive. So, what is the key factor for the continuous growth of sales?

The answer may be its helmsman, Wei Jianjun.

In today's automotive circle, it has become a trend for founders to act as "public relations spokespersons" themselves. Li Xiang of Li Auto, Lei Jun of Xiaomi Automobile, and He Xiaopeng of XPeng Motors have frequently spoken on social platforms and participated in live - broadcasts, converting their personal popularity into brand popularity.

Compared with the popularity craze of new - force automakers, most traditional automaker bosses are relatively low - key and have a certain distance from consumers, except for Wei Jianjun.

Wei Jianjun "likes" to speak out, and he even likes to tell "blunt truths" that go against the views of his peers. As a result, he has earned the label of a "phenomenal critic".

In 2025 alone, Wei Jianjun "criticized" the excessive "involution" in the industry, exposed the chaos of "zero - kilometer used cars", and even questioned some popular technologies in the automotive industry and the potential safety hazards of hidden door handles.

Picture/Wei Jianjun exposing industry chaos: Screenshot from the Internet, New Energy Outlook

It's precisely this "non - conformity" that has won Wei Jianjun countless fans.

In particular, statements such as "I am the first responsible person of Great Wall Motor. If there are any problems or defects with Great Wall Motor, the company will take full responsibility" and "In my heart, whether it's car - making or various developments, we must adhere to the principle