‘Defining moment’: Chinese carmaker takes up residency at former Holden proving ground to begin ‘Aussifying’ its vehicles

China’s GWM has slowly but surely been ramping up how it’s localising its cars for Australian conditions and it has now reached a major milestone.

After hiring ex-GM Holden Chief Engineer Rob Trubiani as its new Product Engineering Manager in March this year, the Chinese carmaker has now taken up a permanent residency at the Lang Lang Proving Ground in Victoria.

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It’s worth noting that GWM hasn’t given any indication on whether it actually plans to purchase the Australian proving ground from Vinfast.

As a result of taking up this long-term permanent residency, GWM now has the ability to use Lang Lang as a “cornerstone” for its local product development.

GWM’s engineering teams have already been using Lang Lang, but this residency now allows for “even greater opportunities for collaboration, faster iteration, and more ambitious goals”.

This means the Chinese carmaker can now engineer dedicated ride and handling packages, undertake full vehicle integration and execute precision tuning for its vehicle line-up under Australian conditions.

“With full-time access to Lang Lang now secured, this is far more than symbolic, it’s a statement of intent,” said GWM Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Chief Operating Officer John Kett.

“When Rob presented the idea of establishing Lang Lang as our home base for local development, it was met with overwhelming support, both locally and from our global leadership.

“Rob has been relentless in defining what the true GWM feel should be for our markets, and with the right tools now in place, we’re confident this investment will deliver improved products right here on home soil.”

“Lang Lang is an iconic proving ground, one of the best in the world,” said Trubiani.

“It’s an absolute dream to be back, developing great cars specifically for Australian and New Zealand drivers.

“I know this track like the back of my hand, having spent a considerable amount of my career here with Holden.

“The intimate knowledge I have of the road network, combined with understanding the high-performance benchmarks required here, is key to ‘Aussifying’ our vehicles and ensuring what we develop here translates directly to real-world driving.

“LLPG provides me the ability to push vehicle dynamics to the edge, identifying precisely where we can optimise and improve.

“We’re not just tweaking cars, we’re transforming them to deliver the confidence, control, and comfort that local drivers deserve.”

In a few months GWM will show off Trubiani’s work, currently codenamed ‘AT1’, which will demonstrate ride and handling tweaks from local feedback.

The Chinese carmaker will also detail how Trubiani’s expertise is already showing potential at shaping future global programs. This means Australia could form a part in developing GWM cars globally.

This latest development follows a very fast cadence of new vehicle launches in Australia recently, as well as a spike in vehicle sales.

In the first six months of 2025 GWM has sold a total of 25,189 vehicles, which is up 17.0 per cent year-on-year.

Moving forward GWM has already laid out its plan to become a sustained top-five brand in Australia by 2030.