Saturday 1 June was somewhat of a special day for Haval Motors South Africa. May marked the brand’s second anniversary since they started trading in South Africa as a wholly owned subsidiary to founding company, Great Wall Motor Corporation. To celebrate this auspicious occasion, Haval/GWM invited their customers to a family day dubbed “The Haval-GWM Harvest Day” hosted at the venue Africa Land just outside Hartbeespoort and west of Pretoria.
When Haval started trading in May 2017 as a wholly owned subsidiary in South Africa, the brand had three dealers and started with a clean slate in terms of sales figures. Since then more than 14 000 have been sold in South Africa. In May of 2018, Haval and GWM sold roughly 600 cars into the domestic market. In May 2019 Haval GWM sold over 900units to South Africans. Haval and GWM currently have 46 South African dealers and 4 in Neighbouring countries namely Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mauritius. The Brand is aiming to have 57 dealers by the end of the year in South Africa alone. This growth and accelerated expansion is nothing short of miraculous and the pride in the brand was quite clear on every Harvest day goers face.
The celebrations at the Harvest day included something for everyone making it a truly family affair. A DJ was on sight to entertain throughout the day whilst various activities ran their course. At the top of the agenda was a 4X4 experience for anyone who wanted to partake, this in the mighty all conquering and pinnacle of Haval luxury and technological advancement, the Haval H9. This activity was met with much jubilation and the off-road prowess of the H9 wowed every participant. Three Diesel powered Steed 5 bakkies were on hand for customers to do a self-drive fuel economy competition and it was amazing to see just how competitive entrants became whether they were male or female.
To further allow for customer to interact with the products while learning at the same time, a Haval H2 wheel changing competition was held for anyone that wanted to enter and technicians were on hand for those that didn’t care about being timed but wanted to learn this crucial part of motoring even though all Haval and GWM products offer full road side assistance. Something that was very well received and entered by all was the Car name competition. Entrants had to give their story as to what and why they named their vehicle. A product and Brand knowledge competition was also held for everyone present. The fact that Haval and GWM owners really know their cars as well as the brand was the clear result of this quiz.
The kids were catered for too and they had huge amounts of fun when they weren’t with their parents in the H9s with things like jumping castles, a climbing wall, face painting, a mechanical bull and a dance competition keeping the little ones occupied while the adults did their thing. Like all good things, the day had to come to end, but not before the staff at Haval launched a new greeting for Haval owners. One just has to drive one of these luxurious vehicles to notice the agreeable nods and waves from other owners so they coined an official Haval greeting in South Africa called the Haval Howzit. Now every Haval owner can say hi to another in a special way. Check out their social media pages if you’re curious as to what the greeting entails. Till next year, everyone at Haval GWM says #HAVALhowzit.