GWM Steed Reviews

GWM Haval’s flagship H9 seven-seat SUV offering overseas is about to be upgraded, now featuring standard front and rear diff locks and other tweaks designed to bolster its capabilities.

The GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV has recently replaced its ground-breaking Hybrid predecessor, but does the newcomer's rechargeable battery tech and electric-only driving mode enhance or hinder its workhorse practicality?

After more than two years in market here GWM’s compact, pure-electric Ora hatch has been upgraded with improvements to battery power, additional tech, revised pricing and a ground-breaking switch in production from China to Thailand.

China’s answer to the new Subaru Forester and coming next-gen Toyota RAV4 takes shape.Dubbed the Haval Raptor, the butch looking SUV features the brand’s new plug-in hybrid four-wheel drive set-up.The Raptor pairs a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine with a dual-motor hybrid system to deliver all-wheel drive and combined outputs of 330kW and 750Nm.That’s some serious grunt for a mid-size SUV and easily outguns the incoming Toyota RAV4 plug-in hybrid’s 227kW.Despite the superior levels of performance the Raptor is about as fast as the new RAV4 all-wheel drive plug-in hybrid with a 0-100km/h sprint time of 5.9 seconds. The Raptor has a mammoth 35kWh battery that allows it to drive up to 151km via the benchmark WLTP test cycle. This again trumps the coming RAV4 with its 22.7kWh battery good for up to 100km.GWM has given the Raptor some head-turning looks, with its chunky, square-jawed and broad shoulder appeal similar to red hot hits such as the new Toyota Prado and BYD's coming Denza B5. It also has some off-road ability to back up its looks, which puts it on par with a Subaru Forester. It won’t climb a proper 4WD track but can handle rugged dirt and gravel roads.There is a decent chance of it coming to Australia, too.GWM previously told CarsGuide the Raptor might make it Down Under in the future as a replacement for the similar-sized H7.The H7 just launched in Australia, but is based on an older platform than the Raptor's and doesn’t get the advanced plug-in hybrid tech.The Raptor name is a no go in Australia as Ford owns the rights to it locally, which strengthens its case to be called H7 when it arrives.Plug-in hybrid technology will prove vital for car brands in Australia from 2027 onwards when the federal government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) starts to bite.The NVES penalises carmakers $100 per gram of CO2 over a certain limit, with the threshold getting lower every year until 2030. From 2027 onwards most conventional hybrids won’t slip under the CO2 threshold, with only plug-in hybrids and EVs likely to escape fines.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret that ever-so-slightly undermines the good work I and others do for this esteemed tome. But do keep it between us, ok?

Think back to the before times – before GWM sent its Cannon Alpha PHEV charging up Beer O'Clock Hill, before BYD caught the old-guard napping with its Shark 6, and before brands like MG, JAC and more announced their own plans for innovative dual cabs.

The Lux is now the entry-level trim in the local 2026 GWM Haval H6 line-up.

China’s GWM has slowly but surely been ramping up how it’s localising its cars for Australian conditions and it has now reached a major milestone.After hiring ex-GM Holden Chief Engineer Rob Trubiani as its new Product Engineering Manager in March this year, the Chinese carmaker has now taken up a permanent residency at the Lang Lang Proving Ground in Victoria.This iconic facility is currently owned by Vietnamese carmaker Vinfast, but was previously owned by Holden where countless Australian classics were developed.It’s worth noting that GWM hasn’t given any indication on whether it actually plans to purchase the Australian proving ground from Vinfast.As a result of taking up this long-term permanent residency, GWM now has the ability to use Lang Lang as a “cornerstone” for its local product development.GWM’s engineering teams have already been using Lang Lang, but this residency now allows for “even greater opportunities for collaboration, faster iteration, and more ambitious goals”.This means the Chinese carmaker can now engineer dedicated ride and handling packages, undertake full vehicle integration and execute precision tuning for its vehicle line-up under Australian conditions.“With full-time access to Lang Lang now secured, this is far more than symbolic, it’s a statement of intent,” said GWM Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Chief Operating Officer John Kett.“When Rob presented the idea of establishing Lang Lang as our home base for local development, it was met with overwhelming support, both locally and from our global leadership.“Rob has been relentless in defining what the true GWM feel should be for our markets, and with the right tools now in place, we’re confident this investment will deliver improved products right here on home soil.”“Lang Lang is an iconic proving ground, one of the best in the world,” said Trubiani.“It’s an absolute dream to be back, developing great cars specifically for Australian and New Zealand drivers.“I know this track like the back of my hand, having spent a considerable amount of my career here with Holden.“The intimate knowledge I have of the road network, combined with understanding the high-performance benchmarks required here, is key to ‘Aussifying’ our vehicles and ensuring what we develop here translates directly to real-world driving.“LLPG provides me the ability to push vehicle dynamics to the edge, identifying precisely where we can optimise and improve.“We’re not just tweaking cars, we’re transforming them to deliver the confidence, control, and comfort that local drivers deserve.”In a few months GWM will show off Trubiani’s work, currently codenamed ‘AT1’, which will demonstrate ride and handling tweaks from local feedback.The Chinese carmaker will also detail how Trubiani’s expertise is already showing potential at shaping future global programs. This means Australia could form a part in developing GWM cars globally.This latest development follows a very fast cadence of new vehicle launches in Australia recently, as well as a spike in vehicle sales.In the first six months of 2025 GWM has sold a total of 25,189 vehicles, which is up 17.0 per cent year-on-year.Moving forward GWM has already laid out its plan to become a sustained top-five brand in Australia by 2030.

The GWM Haval H6 has always been a solid budget buy, but this latest update sees it duke it out with segment stalwarts like the Toyota RAV4, Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson.

If you need any more proof that China is becoming the dominant force in Australia’s automotive landscape, consider this.In the first six months of this year, 102,938 Chinese-made vehicles have been sold in Australia. Flash back five years to 2020, Chinese vehicle sales totalled just 11,055 in the same six-month period.That’s an 831 per cent increase in just five years. At this rate, China will overtake Thailand as the number two country of origin in Australia by next year. Japan is currently number one for imports, but for how long?Clearly a large number of Australians have no issue buying Chinese-built cars.The top 10 car brands for the first half of the year include Chinese giants GWM and BYD in seventh and eighth place respectively, while Tesla - which only imports cars to Australia from China - is ninth and SAIC-owned MG is just outside the table in eleventh.Yet looking at some of the commentary around this trend you’d be mistaken for thinking otherwise. There’s still a lot of negativity around Chinese brands and models despite the appetite for them here in Australia. But is it warranted?Honestly, it’s complicated.I appreciate some people have a moral issue buying a Chinese car given the long list of alleged current and historical human rights abuses carried out by the Chinese government. This is understandable.However, you could argue that if you take a stand against a particular country for historical human rights abuses there wouldn't be many countries left to buy cars from. The US isn’t exactly covering itself in glory when it comes to human rights at the moment.Other people take issue with the perceived quality of Chinese-made vehicles, in terms of build quality, materials and what they’re like to drive. And some of this concern is absolutely valid.The first crop of Chinese cars to hit Australia were, largely, awful. GWM, back in 2009 when it was just called Great Wall, served up some stinkers. The V240 SUV and X240 ute were terrible to drive, had poor build quality and the ute was even engulfed in an asbestos scandal.MG’s reboot as a Chinese-owned marque started in 2013 with the already dated MG6 sedan, but before it, Chery’s terrible trio of the J1 and J3 hatches and the J11 SUV ensured an early exit for the brand.Even some more recent attempts have been less than successful. Poorly calibrated advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) impacted Chery’s relaunch here a few years back with the Omoda 5, while even Deepal’s own company executives admitted the S07 EV was the most annoying car on sale in Australia thanks to incessant beeping and ADAS intervention.And, having driven a large number of Chinese cars currently on sale in Australia, I can confirm it is a mixed bag of good, bad and in between.But things are changing fast. I spent some time recently in China driving a raft of new models from BYD. While the test track was far too limited to develop decent drive impressions, it’s clear the overall quality of their cars has improved significantly. The interior design, materials used and even things like seat design impressed a lot of us hardened Aussie motoring writers.MG is on a roll at the minute, too. While I am yet to drive one myself, everyone that’s tested the MGS5 EV, including our very own Laura Berry, has raved about it. It’s like an SUV version of the already impressive MG4, only even better.GWM is consistently improving its models as it goes and having driven cars like the Tank 300 diesel and Haval H6 GT PHEV, I can confirm this to be true. Hiring noted former GM Holden engineer Rob Trubiani to tune its products will only help further.The quality of Tesla’s product improved greatly when Australian sourcing shifted from the USA to China a few years back.Granted, there are still some decidedly average cars in many of the Chinese brands’ model range.But to dismiss all cars from China is to fight a losing battle. Check those sales numbers again. Very soon half of the brands in the top 10 will be from China. GWM, MG and BYD all have ambitions for the top five or top three and some of the legacy brands aren’t doing much to stop them.I have had some alarming conversations with executives from legacy brands about China’s rise. I won’t name names, but multiple execs from top 10 brands have dismissed the popularity of Chinese brands in Australia and their potential to take over the industry. There is a sense from some that buyer loyalty will ultimately lead people back to long-standing brands.But this ignores the fact that hundreds of thousands of Australians don’t care about loyalty and they just want a good deal. And they are getting that in spades from the Chinese carmakers, much more than they are from the Japanese, Korean and European brands that have dominated for so long.So I guess what I am saying is, it might be time to get over the anti-China bias. Because you’re missing out on some pretty good cars. And in a few years there might not be as many non-Chinese brands to choose from.