Recently, the 600,000th vehicle under the Great Wall Cannon (also known as Poer or Pao) series rolled off the assembly line at the Great Wall Motor (GWM) Jingmen Smart Factory, becoming the first Chinese high-end pickup brand to reach this milestone, taking a total of 4 years and 10 months.

Currently, the series includes the Great Wall Cannon, King Kong Cannon, Shanhai Cannon, and related derivative models. The 600,000th vehicle was the Shanhai Cannon performance trim, which is built on the Tank platform with a 3.0T+9AT powertrain, priced at 279,800 yuan (38,500 USD). The Great Wall Cannon series is the flagship model of the Great Wall Pickup brand, which debuted at the Shanghai Auto Show on April 16, 2019. Previously, it took less than 100 days from the first to the 10,000th Great Wall Cannon to roll off the assembly line.

It is worth mentioning that GWM invested 6 billion yuan (825 million USD) into the Jingmen Smart Factory, where mass production started in 2022. Currently, the factory also manufactures other models including the Tank 400, Tank 500, King Kong Cannon, Shanhai Cannon, and the new Haval H5.

At its root, GWM started with pickup trucks. From January to June this year, Great Wall Pickup sold a total of 91,916 vehicles, claiming nearly 50% of the Chinese market share; and exported a total of 24,200 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%. So far, Great Wall Pickup’s cumulative global sales are more than 2.6 million vehicles. As of 2023, GWM pickup trucks have ranked first in Chinese domestic sales for 26 consecutive years. For every two pickup trucks sold in China, one is a GWM, according to the brand.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that more than 90% of Chinese cities above the prefecture level have lifted restrictions on pickup trucks entering the city. The general trend in China is to lift the ban on pickup trucks, which contributed to a significant increase in pickup truck sales.

Source: d1ev, Hubei Government, GWM Pickup, 36kr