Shanghai (ZXZC)- Great Wall Motor (GWM) said its annual revenues in 2018 edged down 1.68% from a year ago to RMB99.469 billion, while the full-year net profits grew 6.97% year on year to RMB5.395 billion. Besides, the net profits attributable to shareholders of listed company totaled RMB5.354 billion with an increase of 6.51%.

The automaker attributes the decline of gross margin to the price cuts over part of products. Meanwhile, thanks to the delicacy management of R&D programs, the capitalization over a portion of R&D investment and the growth from funds interests, its net profits attributable to shareholders accomplished positive increase.

GWM targets 1.2 million-unit sales volume for 2019 based on the overall macroeconomic climate, the holistic demands for automotive industry and the company's new product roll-out plan.

China's vehicle outputs and sales in 2018 dropped 4.16% and 2.76% year on year respectively to 27,809,200 units and 28,080,600 units, according to sales data released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). This was the first-time negative growth since 1990.

Under the overall downward pressure of economy, GWM saw its full-year sales in 2018 edged down 1.6% over the year-ago period to 1,053,039 units, failing to fulfill its 1.16 million-unit yearly sales target.

The automaker's annual SUV sales dropped 3.49% from a year ago to 905,548 units. As GWM's absolute sales mainstay, Haval SUV brand faced a YoY decrease of 10.07%, which cannot be offset by the significant YoY sales leap of 61.39% made by WEY.