GWM's chairman wins China's most respectable award for auto industry captains; from simple cars to 1 million exports in 35 years
Sanjay · Jun 6, 2023 02:01 PM
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On May 2023, Jack Wei, Chairman of Great Wall Motor (GWM), was awarded the prestigious "Rao Bin Medal of China Automobile Industry" by the China Society of Automotive Engineers at this year's edition of the Congress of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles Technology (CICV 2023).
GWM made only 355 cars back in 1987, this CC130 is one of them. CC stands for ChangCheng, or Great Wall Photo credit: chinacarhistory.com
The award recognises stalwarts and entrepreneurs within the greater Chinese automotive industry, and is sponsored by the Chinese Society of Automotive Engineers. It is named after Rao Bin, an important founder of the Chinese auto industry, and known as the father of the Chinese automotive industry.
In the case of Wei, he was lauded for his innovation and continued growth of GWM in the past 32 years he's been at the helm.
Today's Haval H6 is just one of the many GWM products; far away from the copycat days of old
And strides they've made, as the brand has become a sales powerhouse in its home market as well as in other parts of the world. In China, their line of pick-up trucks have ranked first in domestic and import sales over the past 25 years; in 2022 the brand celebrated 1 million exports.
Left to right: GWM Cannon pick-up truck, Haval Jolion, Ora Good Cat
Along the way, sub-brands were founded like Haval - which is coming to Malaysia - and the Ora line of electric vehicles.
Past winners of the Rao Bin Award include Geely's founder and chairman, Li Shufu, Yutong Group's (world's largest bus manufacturer) Tang Yuxiang, and commercial vehicles giant, Sinotruk's Ma Chunji.
With humble beginnings collecting diecast models and spending hours virtually tuning dream cars on the computer, his love of cars has delightfully transformed into a career. Sanjay enjoys how the same passion for cars transcends boundaries and brings people together.
