Wey is a brand of Great Wall Motor.
Great Wall created WEY in 2016 as its premium brand, taking the name from the surname of its founder Wei Jianjun.
Where it sits
Four levels. A figure marks a company boundary crossed; a word means the figure was never published.
Baoding Innovation Great Wall Asset Management controls Great Wall Motor with 59.77% of the shares, since 2006. The headline names Great Wall Motor because that is the company a reader is looking for.
Ten years, one owner
The year is coloured by whoever held it at the time.
- 2016 Great Wall created WEY in 2016 as its premium brand, taking the name from the surname of its founder Wei Jianjun. Its 2016 annual report says 「本集团于 2016 年发布全新品牌 WEY，计划今年上半年推出首款全新车型，并预计于下半年推出另外两款车型」 — "the Group launched the all-new brand WEY in 2016, plans to bring out its first all-new model in the first half of this year and expects two more in the second half" — and in the same report the group describes itself as 「目前，旗下拥有长城、哈弗、WEY 三个品牌」, holding the three brands Great Wall, Haval and WEY. The 2017 report calls that year 「长城汽车旗下豪华品牌「WEY」的开创元年」, the founding year of the WEY brand in the market, with the first car, the VV7, launched at the Shanghai show in April 2017 and the VV5 following in August. Great Wall's published timeline does not carry the brand launch and no company source found gives the month.
Pickups and off-roaders first: every name on its stand was invented in Baoding and split out of the parent brand as it grew, rather than bought from anyone. Control runs up through two unlisted holding companies to the chairman, who owns a majority of the one at the top in his own name.