2018 was a successful year with 139,500 deliveries and a 61% increase. While that looked good, the latter part of the year was not so buoyant. A reputation for high fuel use in a tightening market didn't go down too well.
In 2019, sales dropped 28% to 100,000. Wey's original core models experienced a massive customer exodus.
As an example, the VV7 model sales tumbled from over 54,000 in 2018 to under 20,000 units in 2019 due to online criticism over heavy bodies leading to high fuel consumption and sluggish dual-clutch transmission shifts.
Moving on to 2020, another 22% was shed from sales. Now down to 78,500, about half of the volume just two years prior.
The turmoils of the year didn't affect GWM as a whole but the Wey division was not coping well. Could there be a turnaround in fortunes? Was there no way out? (Pun alert).
In 2021 it got worse. 58,400 sales (-26%). Foundation models were being replaced by ones named after coffee! Haval was slowly moving more upmarket, making Wey less relevant. The semiconductor shortage also hurt.
Did the Wey brand still have any relevance within GWM? Find out in part two, when it arrives.
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