GWM South Africa's first plugged-in bakkie will be positioned as an alternative to the 2.4-litre turbodiesel engine.
The plug-in hybrid P300 will become a first for the brand in South Africa. Picture: GWM China
Great Wall Motors (GWM) South Africa has broken its silence on the future of the plug-in hybrid P300 by confirming it for the local market from the third quarter of this year.
Diesel and PHEV
Making the announcement at the Kyalami Festival of Motoring last week, the hybrid, which will seemingly be called PHEV and not Hi4-T as in China, is expected to slot in above the current 2.4-litre turbodiesel models with or without four-wheel drive.
In China, where the P300 is known as the Cannon, two variants are offered, with the only differentiating factor, apart from price, being the choice of drive wheels.
Petrol-electric
A model that made its world debut at the Beijing Motor Show in April, the P300 PHEV’s powertrain consists of a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine developing 180kW/380Nm, and a 33.1-kWh battery pack powering a single 130kW/495Nm electric motor.
The combined is 310kW/750Nm, which results in a claimed 0-100 km/h sprint time of 6.4 seconds for the two-wheel drive and an all-electric range of 100 km according to the WLTP cycle.
By comparison, the four-wheel drive will dispatch the benchmark sprint in 6.1 seconds, but do 95 km on the electric hardware alone.
With the combustion engine included, GWM claims a total distance of 947 km for the two-wheel drive and 886 km for the four-wheel drive.
As with the diesel, drive is routed to the rear or all four wheels through a nine-speed automatic gearbox, with the latter once again privy to a BorgWarner-sourced part-time four-wheel drive system.
Similar to the diesel, the Hi4 has a ground clearance of 229 mm, though only the four-wheel drive receives an electronically locking rear differential.
Price?
In China, pricing starts at 149 800 yuan for the two-wheel drive and at 166 800 yuan, which equates to R358 951 and R399 686 respectively when directly converted and without taxes.
However, given that stickers for the diesel double cab P300 range from R446 950 to R699 900 in South Africa, expect the PHEV to have a significantly higher asking price when it goes on sale.
As it stands, a local market launch date is still to be approved.
