Great Wall VIN Decoder

Decode any Great Wall VIN free in seconds. Enter the 17-character vehicle identification number from your Great Wall, GWM, Haval, Tank, Ora, or Wey into the decoder above and get the model, year, engine, trim, assembly plant, and recall status, with no sign-up and no credit card.

This page is the Great Wall VIN hub: WMI codes, a position-by-position guide to reading the VIN, where to find it on your vehicle, and how to check for open recalls in the country where your car was sold.
A quick note on market coverage: Great Wall Motors (branded GWM internationally) is a Chinese manufacturer headquartered in Baoding, Hebei Province, and not sold in the United States. It is, however, one of China’s largest and most globally active private automakers, exporting to Australia, Russia, Thailand, Brazil, Pakistan, Ecuador, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and parts of Europe. Because GWM sells through dozens of national markets rather than one dominant regime, this page can’t point to a single recall authority the way a US-market brand’s page can; instead it explains how to find the right one for your country. The VIN structure itself is the same worldwide ISO 3779 standard every carmaker uses, so the decoder above reads a Great Wall VIN exactly like it reads a Ford or Toyota VIN.

About Great Wall Motors

Great Wall Motor’s roots go back to 1976, when a small workshop in Baoding began repairing and later building agricultural and commercial vehicles under a collaboration with the local township government. Wei Jianjun, whose uncle had helped found that workshop, took over as general manager in 1990 and restructured the operation into Great Wall Motor Company. In 1996 the company launched the Deer pickup, and by the late 1990s Great Wall had become China’s top-selling domestic pickup truck maker, a category most Chinese automakers had ignored in favor of sedans.

From that pickup-truck base, Great Wall expanded into SUVs and passenger cars through the 2000s and 2010s, organizing its lineup into distinct brands rather than one broad model range. Today’s main names are Haval (mainstream SUVs and by far the company’s largest volume seller worldwide), Tank (rugged, body-on-frame off-roaders), Ora (compact electric vehicles, named for mathematician Leonhard Euler, whose export models have shifted to a numbered lineup like the Ora 03), Wey (a premium SUV line sold mainly in China), and GWM Poer or Wingle (pickups, direct descendants of the original Deer). Since 2023, GWM has restructured how these names appear outside China: rather than standing alone, Haval, Tank, Ora, and Wey are now marketed as sub-brands under the single “GWM” parent name, so a Haval H6 sold overseas is typically badged “GWM Haval H6.”

Great Wall also has a track record as a manufacturing partner for other automakers: Spotlight Automotive, a joint venture between BMW and Great Wall in Zhangjiagang, China, builds electric Mini models for the Chinese market. GWM’s global footprint includes full-process plants in China (Baoding and Tianjin), Tula in Russia (since 2019), Rayong in Thailand (since 2021, its main ASEAN export hub), and Iracemápolis in Brazil (opened 2025), plus knock-down assembly in Pakistan, Ecuador, and other countries.

Great Wall WMI codes (positions 1-3)

The first three characters of your VIN, the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI), identify who built the vehicle. WMI codes are assigned under ISO 3780 by SAE International, and the letter L marks a vehicle built in China. Great Wall isn’t sold in the US, so its WMI doesn’t appear in NHTSA’s public vPIC registry (a direct query for “Great Wall” returns zero results); the table below instead reflects the prefix independent VIN-decoding services and Chinese-market registries consistently document:

Vehicles assembled outside China may carry a WMI reflecting that country’s own manufacturer registration rather than LGW. A VIN that doesn’t start with LGW doesn’t necessarily rule out a genuine Great Wall vehicle built overseas; decode the full 17 characters with the tool above to confirm the model and origin.

How to read a Great Wall VIN: position by position

Every current Great Wall VIN follows the same ISO 3779 17-character structure used worldwide. The 17 characters split into three blocks:

Here is what each position means specifically on a Great Wall vehicle:

Positions 1-3: World Manufacturer Identifier

See the WMI table above. LGW is the code most consistently documented for China-built Great Wall, Haval, Tank, Ora, and Wey vehicles. The specific model and sub-brand are identified later, in the VDS block.

Positions 4-8: Vehicle Descriptor Section (VDS)

These five characters encode the model line, body style, drivetrain (petrol, diesel, hybrid, or electric), and restraint system, separating a Haval H6 from a Tank 300, or a plug-in hybrid from a combustion variant sharing the same platform.

Position 9: Check digit

The check digit is the single most important character in any VIN. It’s calculated from the other 16 characters using a fixed weighting table and modulo-11 math. If even one character of a Great Wall VIN is mistyped or altered, the check digit won’t match, and a compliant decoder will flag the VIN as invalid.

Position 10: Model year

The 10th character maps to a model year on a 30-year cycle, identical worldwide under ISO 3779. Skim the chart below to translate yours:

The letters I, O, and Q are never used in any VIN, including Great Wall’s, because they look too similar to the digits 1 and 0.

Position 11: Assembly plant

The single character at position 11 identifies the specific factory. Great Wall’s footprint is unusually decentralized: multiple plants in China plus full-process factories in Russia, Thailand, and Brazil, and knock-down assembly in several more countries. Unlike the plant-code tables published for long-established European or Japanese brands, GWM’s position-11 codes aren’t consistently documented across public sources. Treat any single-letter plant code you find as unconfirmed unless your national importer or the decoder above verifies it directly.

Positions 12-17: Serial number

The final six characters are the production sequence number stamped on your specific vehicle as it rolled off the line. Combined with the previous 11 characters, this makes every Great Wall VIN globally unique.

Where to find the VIN on a Great Wall vehicle

You can find your Great Wall VIN in several places. The registration document and windshield or door-jamb sticker are the most reliable; the others help when a label has been damaged.

• Vehicle registration certificate or logbook (format varies by country)
• Lower-left corner of the windshield, visible from outside, on most models sold since the mid-2010s
• Driver’s-side door jamb sticker
• Stamped on the engine bay firewall or front cross-member
• Insurance documents and the GWM or Haval service booklet

Check Great Wall recalls and safety information

Because Great Wall sells through so many national markets rather than one dominant one, there is no single global recall authority, unlike NHTSA in the US. Each country handles recalls through its own regulator. In Australia, for example, GWM has issued recalls for models including the Tank 300, Tank 500, and Cannon Alpha, tracked through the government’s Vehicle Recalls portal; owners elsewhere need the equivalent body for their country.

The fastest way to check a specific Great Wall vehicle:

1. Decode the VIN with the tool above to confirm the model, model year, and sub-brand
2. Identify the country where the vehicle was originally sold and registered
3. Check that country’s national vehicle-recall database (for example, vehiclerecalls.gov.au in Australia), or contact your nearest GWM, Haval, Tank, Ora, or Wey authorized service center directly with the VIN
4. Review any open safety actions; recalls are carried out free of charge by the manufacturer regardless of vehicle age or ownership history

Frequently asked questions

How do I decode my Great Wall VIN?

Type the 17-character VIN from your vehicle’s windshield, door jamb, or registration document into the decoder at the top of this page. Results include model, model year, body style, engine or drivetrain, sub-brand, and any known recall actions for markets where that data is published. No registration is required.

Is Great Wall Motors (GWM) sold in the USA?

No. Great Wall Motors, including its Haval, Tank, Ora, and Wey sub-brands, is not currently sold in the United States. Its export focus has been Australia, Russia, Thailand, Brazil, Pakistan, the Middle East, South Africa, and parts of Europe.

Where is the VIN on my Great Wall vehicle?

The most reliable sources are your vehicle’s registration document and the windshield or door-jamb sticker, similar to cars sold in other markets. Older or commercial models may only have the VIN stamped on the chassis or engine bay firewall.

Is the Great Wall VIN decoder free?

Yes. VinDecoderPlus decodes every Great Wall VIN free of charge with no sign-up or credit card required.

What does the VIN tell me about my Great Wall vehicle?

A VIN decode confirms the original factory configuration: model, model year, body style, engine or drivetrain, sub-brand, and any recall actions published in markets with searchable recall databases. It does not record paint color, current odometer reading, accident history, or ownership chain.

Is a Great Wall VIN the same 17-character format as a European, Japanese, or American car’s VIN?

Yes. Great Wall follows the same ISO 3779 17-character VIN standard used worldwide, with the WMI prefix LGW commonly documented for vehicles built at its Chinese plants. The main difference is that recall lookups and registration rules depend on the specific country where your vehicle was sold, since GWM operates across dozens of national markets rather than one dominant regulatory system.

Decode any Great Wall VIN free

Type your 17-character Great Wall VIN into the decoder at the top of this page and get a full breakdown instantly. To learn more about VIN structure in general, see our guides:

• How to read a VIN number
• What every character in a VIN means
• Classic car VIN decoder (pre-1981)
• VIN decoder vs. vehicle history report
• How to check if a car is stolen by VIN