-
Although official ANCAP results for the Great Wall SUV have not yet been released, Australian importer Rick Hull of Ateco Automotive is 'very confident'.
Chinese cars are about to get a safety boost with the country's first four-star crash-test score.
The result is achieved in Australia by a family SUV produced by the Great Wall brand and the score ties the four-star effort of the locally-made Toyota Camry hybrid. Both are short of the maximum five-star rating of the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon, but the Great Wall result is a massive improvement on the paltry two-star rating achieved last year by the brand's four-door ute in Australian New-Car Assessment Program tests.
The official ANCAP results for the Great Wall SUV and Camry hybrid will not be made public for another week but the four-star performance is already common knowledge in the motor industry.
"It is too early to comment, but we are very confident," the head of the Great Wall importer, Rick Hull of Ateco Automotive, told the Herald-Sun today in China.
Hull is leading a group of journalists on a visit to Great Wall, as well as the Chery brand - which Ateco will also import from later this year - and the Auto China show in Beijing at the end of this week. He believes Chinese cars are improving rapidly and the crash-test result shows Great Wall's commitment to safety. Journalists will see the Great Wall safety facility and its crashlab this week as one of the keys to understanding the brand and its sales plans for Australia.
"They had engineers at the original ute test by ANCAP and have been working very hard since. We know the work they have done beefing up the chassis of the SUV and it will flow into the utes," Hull said.
