GREAT Wall Motors, China’s largest sports utility vehicle (SUV) and pickup manufacturer, saw vehicle sales rise 15 percent month on month to 135,559 units in October, hitting a new monthly sales record.

Haval, GWM’s leading SUV brand, drove the overall sales growth of the company, with 97,950 units sold in October. The Haval H6 model sold 52,734 units last month, making it the best-selling SUV in China for 89 months, the company said.

Great Wall pickups further strengthened their dominant position in the market in October with sales of 20,405 vehicles, a year-on-year growth of 28 percent.

Among new energy vehicles, the ORA brand sold 8,011 units in October, a strong year-on-year growth of 352 percent.

With an accelerating globalization strategy, GWM sold 10,804 vehicles overseas in October, up 148 percent year on year. From January to October, its total sales volume in the overseas market reached 52,261 units.

Headquartered in the city of Baoding, North China’s Hebei Province, GWM owns SUV and car brands including Haval, Great Wall, WEY and ORA.

Great Wall Motor also plans to roll out SUV and pickup trucks from its recently acquired plants in Thailand early next year, previous media reports said.

Great Wall took over two General Motors plants in Thailand in February and will produce SUVs and pickup trucks in 2021.

The company will launch two to three models first and focus on building the brand and customer service to gain “reasonable market share.” Great Wall Motor vice president Steven Wang said, adding they would not focus on volume in the first few years. (SD-Xinhua)