Want a cheaper Ford Ranger Raptor and Nissan Navara Warrior rival? GWM Ute range set to gain hardcore performance 4x4 ute flagship

If the Ford Ranger Raptor or the Nissan Navara Pro-4X Warrior are perhaps too pricey - could a butched-up Great Wall Ute tempt you?

GWM appears to be edging closer to a Raptor rival, with the Chinese company’s local outpost keen to add a performance pick-up to the Australian roster.

The Ute currently makes up about a third of all GWM-Haval sales in Australia, and GWM Australia knows there are more opportunities at both the top and bottom end of the model range.

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At the moment, the GWM Ute line-up includes a sole two-wheel drive variant from $34,990 drive-away and three four-wheel drive grades priced from $37,990 to $44,490.

None, however, have the off-road accessories and added dollop of performance that would allow GWM to nab sales away from Ford or Nissan.

Speaking with CarsGuide, GWM Australia head of marketing Steve Maciver said while the company isn’t ready to announce anything yet, it is actively working on a new variant.

“We've always talked about there being higher variants available, potentially more powerful variants available. That's still something that we are working on, but nothing else to confirm just at this stage,” he said.

CarsGuide also understands that the range will expand further with the addition of a cab-chassis version of the GWM Ute that will act as an entry point for the light-commercial range, and it should be here before the end of the year. A single-cab version with different front-end styling is also on the cards.

Back to the top end of the Ute range, as our render shows, a hardcore GWM Ute could add more equipment to appeal to the Australian off-road enthusiasts.

It sounds like the new flagship could also get a power boost over the 120kW/400Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine found in the current Ute range. It’s unclear if it would be a completely different powertrain, or an uprated version of the existing one that is paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission.

GWM has revealed a number of Ute variants for its Chinese home market, including the Black Bullet Overlanding Concept from 2020, that CarsGuide has previously reported could form the basis for whatever flagship variant ends up coming to Australia.

It is unclear if the possible future range-topper would be imported to Australia already with extra cladding and off-road bits that are par for the course for these sorts of utes, or if they would be added by a third party locally.

GWM also revealed the Cannon Everest at last year's Chengdu motor show, and while the name wouldn’t fly in Australia, thanks to Ford, it could be a slightly less hardcore model that would compete against ute variants like the Ranger Wildtrak and Toyota HiLux Rogue or Rugged X.

Given GWM’s strategy of undercutting mainstream rivals in price, you could expect that any potential Wildtrak or Raptor-rivalling variants would be cheaper.

A Wildtrak starts from $67,190 before on-road costs while the Raptor is priced from $85,490. The Navara Warrior starts from $58,000 for the just-launched SL manual and tops out at $70,590 for the Pro-4X Warrior auto.

Adding one rugged variant, let alone both, would give GWM a leg up over these existing rivals, but also the coming competition.

Mitsubishi is expected to announce a hardcore version of its Triton ute shortly, while Volkswagen is keen to build on the success of its Walkinshaw partnership with the new-gen Amarok.