GWM push ahead with major Australian engineering hub despite Lang Lang shutdown

GWM says it’s “disappointed” by the sale of the Lang Lang proving ground in Victoria, Australia, but insists the move won’t derail its local vehicle tuning and development plans.

The Lang Lang proving ground, long used by automakers for ride and handling development in Australia, has now been sold to a yet to be publicly named buyer. Lang Lang had been on the market since 2021 after VinFast abandoned plans to enter Australia's new-vehicle market.

GWM had taken up a permanent residency at the testing facility in July, 2025 under the leadership of ex-Holden engineer Rob Trubiani, where it tuned its models specifically for Australian and New Zealand conditions and customers.

Speaking to local media, GWM Australia and New Zealand chief operating officer John Kett confirmed the Chinese automaker is already progressing plans for a new Australian technical centre, which will house its engineering, training, service, and accessory development operations.

“I mean, it’s disappointing in terms of the way it’s ultimately going to be used, and all automotive companies eventually, over time, will be pushed out,” said Mr Kett.

“What we said in our announcement is we already have the plan B.”

GWM says the loss of access to the facility won’t impact its broader local engineering strategy, with the company planning to continue vehicle testing in Australia using alternative proving grounds.

“We’re going to invest in quite a significant technical centre ourselves in Australia that will largely allow us to maintain our tuning engineering development team,” said Mr Kett.

The new facility is also set to accommodate GWM’s technical training and service departments, while helping speed up local issue resolution and accessory development for Australia and New Zealand-market vehicles.

“To be honest, we would have found a home. All we’re missing now is the actual test track, which, that’s the complexity, because there’s not a lot of them,” he said.

“So for us, disappointing, but it’s not changing our pathway at all.”

Mr Kett added the facility will also allow GWM to bring accessory development in-house, an area he admitted “leaves a lot to be desired” currently.

The company says funding has already been allocated for the project, with the focus now narrowing down a location close to its existing offices. Mr Kett said the goal is to have it operational in the second half of 2026.

“We know exactly what we want and need. It’s financially being supported. We’ve just got to hone in on that location,” he said.

“There’s complete support around it.”

GWM Australia and New Zealand head of marketing and communications Steve Maciver said much of the company’s ride and handling calibration work for current models has already been completed through its partnership with Lang Lang and local chassis engineer Rob Trubiani.

“When we hired Rob and we got a contract with Lang Lang, what we we’re trying to do is get ahead of the curve on the vehicles we already had in market, and get them up to where we believe the right standard of ride and handling was for Australia and New Zealand,” said Mr Maciver.

“The vast majority of that work’s already been done.”

Maciver said future efforts will focus more on getting ahead of upcoming model launches rather than reworking existing vehicles already on sale.

“So there’s less of a focus on having a dedicated proving ground that we’ve had previously,” he said.

“We can probably act a bit more on the fly. We’ll find the right facilities and do it the right way.”