Big diesel engine coming to 2027 GWM Tank 500 4WD and Cannon Alpha ute as it beefs-up performance to battle Ford Everest and Ranger

GWM will give its Cannon Alpha dual-cab ute and its very closely-related Tank 500 SUV a handy performance and economy boost with a big new internal combustion engine (ICE) transplant.

Due in August, the 3.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel unit is a coup for the local distributor, as Australia will be the first market in the world to receive it, according to a company spokesperson.

Final specifications and outputs are yet to be divulged, but in the Chinese-market 2027 models, the big four-pot diesel will deliver around 170kW of power and 620Nm of torque, pushed to the rear or all four wheels via a beefed-up version of the company’s in-house nine-speed torque-converter automatic transmission.

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This will be the first diesel application of any description in the 500 SUV, which has only been available here with a 258kW/615Nm 2.0-litre turbo-petrol hybrid since its 2024 Australian release and, more-recently, a 300kW/750Nm plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) option dubbed Hi4-T.

The same plug-in hybrid set-up is also available in the Cannon Alpha, which is the larger and newer of two Cannon utes GWM sells in Australia, but the 3.0-litre unit will supplant the existing 135kW/400Nm 2.4-litre turbo-diesel, suggesting that price rises are coming as a result of the switcheroo.

As announced at last month’s China Auto Show, hybrid and PHEV diesel versions will also be offered in various models across each of GWM’s sub-brands, as required, in the near future, including with the 120kW/400Nm 2.0-litre turbodiesel unit serving the entry-level P300 Cannon utes.

“Maybe the first quarter of 2027,” according to GWM Chief Technology Officer Nicole Wu. “That really depends on the real situation in each market.”

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The company has already released some data pertaining to the 2.4-litre TD hybrid as found in the 2027 Tank 500, making a combined 145kW and 500Nm, though electric motor outputs have not yet been announced.

Local timing for these electrified iterations has yet to be confirmed.

That said, the latest diesel seems very efficient.

2026 GWM Tank 500 HEV

In both the Cannon Alpha and Tank 500 versions that will launch in China later this year, the 3.0-litre engine is actually more economical than the 2.4-litre, according to the (comparatively lenient) Chinese combined average fuel-consumption cycle numbers.

In the ute it returns 7.1 litres per 100km with 2WD and 7.3L/100km with 4WD, as opposed to 8.1L/100km in the smaller diesel 4WD alternative, while the SUV’s equivalent 3.0-litre versus 2.4-litre figures are 8.4 and 8.6 respectively.

As a result, the coming 3.0-litre hybrid and PHEVs stand to be very frugal.

Better still, the big diesel slices nearly 5.5 seconds off the P500 Alpha 2.4-litre TD’s 0-100km/h sprint time, coming in at 10.6s. In the Tank 500, the corresponding figures see a 4.4s drop, to 10.1s.

Note, however, that the Hi4-T PHEV in both vehicle types is still the sprint champion of the range at just 7.4s (Alpha) and 6.9s (Tank 500), while still being able to return a theoretical 1.7L/100km and 2.2L/100km respectively.

Which probably makes offering the 2998cc 3.0-litre V6 twin-turbo petrol engine option in the Cannon Alpha and Tank 500 redundant for our market, particularly with record-high fuel prices, but GWM has left the door open by revealing that it is “…not decided yet for Australia.”

For the record, in the SUV, it makes 260kW and 500Nm, manages the 0-100km/h time in 7.3s and averages 11.5L/100km.