GWM Tank 500 vs Ssangyong Rexton

What's the difference?

The GWM Tank 500 Ultra PHEV is an impressive five-seat 4WD wagon. It’s reasonably nice to drive, it’s comfortable and it’s a capable 4WD. These vehicles keep improving and are increasingly stacked with characteristics to like.

There are still glaring range-specific issues with some of its driver-assist tech and its plug-in hybrid set-up doesn’t offer the fuel economy you’d hope for. At least not under real-world testing conditions. But the Tank 500 is packed with features and represents decent value-for-money when cross-shopped against the likes of its stablemate the regular hybrid, or the Prado and Everest.

If KG Group can provide the long-term stability and new model investment that has eluded SsangYong for so long, the brand could have a promising future in Australia judging by the MY24 Rexton Adventure. It’s a solid package and what it lacks in benchmark ANCAP safety and third-row comfort is offset by a compelling driveaway price, generous warranty and national dealer network. So, if you’re looking for a feature-packed 4x4 seven-seater SUV for less than $55K, you might be pleasantly surprised by this competent Korean.

In terms of dimensions, the Tank 500 Hi4-T PHEV is 5078mm long (with a 2850mm wheelbase), 1934mm wide and 1905mm high. It has a listed kerb weight of 2820kg, so it’s not an insubstantial vehicle.

There are plenty of old-school 4WD design cues in the Tank 500’s appearance. It’s mostly chunky and straight up and down, with some softer curves here and there as concessions to contemporary styling.

It's clear to see where the GWM Tank 500 takes its cues from – most of the current crop of popular 4WD wagons, such as the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series.

The Tank 500 is a large vehicle straddling that line between large and extra-large 4WD wagons. It is longer than any 300 Series, but it’s narrower and shorter.

It has a sunroof, roof rails, electric side steps (that extend when doors are opened and retract when doors are shut) and 18-inch alloy wheels.

The interior is well laid-out and functional with some understated class to it. There are soft-touch surfaces and genuine Nappa leather seating throughout.

With its 4850mm overall length and 1960mm width, the Rexton rides on a 2865mm wheelbase with a compact 11-metre turning circle.

Its smooth ride comes from four-coil suspension with double-wishbones up front and an independent multi-link arrangement in the rear. For those venturing into the rough stuff, it has 20.5 degrees approach and departure angles, 20 degrees ramp break-over angle and 203mm of ground clearance.

Looks are subjective, of course, but we reckon it has attractive and cohesive styling, with its prominent and ornate diamond-style grille complimented by distinctive side-body contours that can’t be mistaken for other SUVs.

The interior has a premium look and feel, with lots of exposed stitching along soft-touch seams and a tasteful blend of contrasting surfaces including chrome, satin chrome, piano black and textured patterns.

There’s good attention to detail and build quality is excellent, but there are some annoying design quirks like the need for the front passenger to access a touchscreen menu just to adjust the audio volume.

The second-row of seating has a/c vents in the centre console and is spacious even for tall people like me (186cm). When sitting behind the driver’s seat in my position, there’s about 60mm of clearance between my knees and the driver’s seat backrest, which combined with ample head and shoulder room makes for a comfortable ride.

By contrast, the third-row seating is strictly for young kids, as there are no adjustments for the second-row’s backrest angle or fore/aft base cushion positioning to accommodate taller frames like mine. The side windows in the thick rear roof pillar are also conspicuously small, which adds to a claustrophobic feel.

Fortunately, access to the third-row is made easier by the 60/40-split second-row, which can be folded and tumbled forward.

However, given I’ve found tolerable third-row comfort in some rival seven-seaters, the Rexton’s third-row is my only gripe for those with longer limbs.

This Tank 500 has five seats because the two at the very rear have been removed to accommodate the hybrid battery.

The front seats are Nappa leather, power-adjustable (eight-way for the driver, six-way for the front passenger), as well as being ventilated with massage and memory functions.

The three-position second row – set up in a 60/40 split-folding configuration – breaks the usual 4WD wagon second-row seat tradition of being fine but not fantastic. The second-row set-up in this Tank is a first-class-cabin-style back seat with a flip-down control console (which includes air-con controls) instead of a basic centre armrest.

As mentioned there is no third row in this Tank 500 because of its underfloor battery.

Up front, the 14.6-inch multimedia screen (with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto) dominates the dash. It's generally easy enough to use, although I had difficulty getting my iPhone hooked up to the system and the cabin set-up remains clunky and counter-intuitive in its operation.

The cabin has wireless charging, front and rear USB ports, as well as 12V and 220V power outlets.

The second row folds away to expand the rear storage capacity. Cargo volume is a listed 640 litres when all seats are in use and 1400 litres when the second row is stowed away.

The rear cargo area has tie-down points and a cargo slide cover.

With its 2130kg kerb weight and 2960kg GVM, our test vehicle has a sizeable load capacity of up to 830kg, which should be ample for five occupants and their luggage.

It’s also rated to tow up to the class-benchmark 3500kg of braked trailer and its 350kg maximum tow-ball download is compatible with that requirement.

Plus, its generous 6460kg GCM (or how much it can legally carry and tow at the same time) means it can legally tow its maximum trailer weight while carrying its maximum car-load, which is a practical set of numbers for just about any recreational requirement.

Front-row cabin storage includes cup/bottle-holders and a small bin in each front door, plus a single glove box. The stylish centre console has a bin up front with sliding-lid, two cupholders in the middle with another sliding-lid, plus a box at the rear with hinged padded-lid that doubles as a driver’s elbow rest.

Those seated in the second-row get a cup/bottle holder and bin in each door, plus pockets on each front seat backrest. The fold-down centre armrest has two more cupholders and a handy hidden compartment that’s ideal for small items. Third-row occupants get storage bins on each side but no cup/bottle holders.

Accessing the cargo area through the power tailgate reveals 236 litres (VDA) of load volume with the third-row seats upright. This expands to 641 litres with the third-row folded flat and 1806 litres (or more than 1.8 cubic metres) with the second and third-rows folded.

The cargo area’s rear floor has a two-tiered design, with the top floor lying flush with the third-row seats when folded but it can be removed to reveal a lower floor that provides a second level of storage. There’s also a usefully large bin in the right-hand-side wall cavity. The only things missing are sturdy load-anchorage points at floor level to secure cargo nets or straps.

Our test vehicle is the new ‘Adventure’ model, which serves as the middle-grade offering between the entry-level ELX and top-shelf Ultimate.

It’s equipped with the same 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel, eight-speed automatic and part-time 4WD as other Rextons, for a drive-away price of only $54,000 (our 'Space Black' metallic paint is a $595 option).

That pricing looks razor-sharp compared with mid-grade 4x4 seven-seaters offered by segment leaders like the Isuzu MU-X LS-U ($61,400), Ford Everest Trend ($66,790) and Toyota Prado GXL ($69,530).

And they are 'list' prices (not including on-road costs) whereas the Rexton is 'drive-away-no-more-to-pay'.

The MY24 upgrades include a new dash layout and high-mounted 12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple/Android wired connectivity. There’s also a restyled dual-zone climate control hub with touchscreen, plus new lower body mounts for improved ride quality.

The Adventure brings numerous luxuries like a walk-up welcome system (mirrors unfold and puddle lamps illuminate), touch-sensing front door locks with walk-away auto door-locking, power tailgate and soft-touch synthetic leather seats with the fronts offering power adjustment, heating and cooling.

The second-row outer rear seats and steering wheel are also heated, plus there’s speed-sensitive power steering and tyre pressure monitoring.

These appointments are in addition to the base ELX’s generous standard equipment list including 18-inch 'diamond-cut' alloy wheels with 255/60 tyres and a full-size alloy spare, LED dusk-sensing headlights/DRLs/front fog lights/tail-lights, heated door mirrors, a four-way-adjustable leather steering wheel and 12.3-inch driver's digital instrument display.

There are also four USB-C ports (two front and two in second row centre console), three 12-volt outlets (front console box, second row centre console and cargo area), electric parking brake, reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors and more. It's fair to say the Rexton Adventure is feature-packed.

Every Tank 500 Hi4-T PHEV has a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine, a 37.11kWh lithium-ion battery and an electric motor. And that combination produces a total* of 300kW and 750Nm. 

* Electric motor 120kW, petrol engine 180kW at 6000rpm. Motor 400Nm, engine 380Nm at 1700-4000rpm.

This system is mostly seamless in operation but as for GWM’s claims that it delivers “outstanding efficiency, performance, and refinement smooth, responsive take-offs, strong acceleration, and exceptional fuel savings - while ensuring minimal noise and maximum driving confidence”. Well, let’s just say this Tank 500 gets off the mark well for a large 4WD but the prompting requires a heavy right foot.

It is generally quiet and comfortable and yields a smooth driving experience. And as for fuel saving, flick your eyes down to ‘Efficiency’ to see how it did on this test.

This Tank 500 has a nine-speed automatic transmission, low- and high-range 4WD gearing, as well as a front, centre and rear diff lock.

The quiet and refined 2.2-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-diesel, which meets Euro 6 emissions standards, produces 149kW at 3800rpm and 441Nm across a 1000rpm-wide torque band between 1600-2600rpm. It provides energetic response in city and suburban use.

This engine is paired with an equally refined eight-speed torque converter automatic, with overdrive on its sixth, seventh and eighth ratios ensuring low-rpm operation and optimum fuel economy at highway speeds.

Sequential manual-shifting is available using the steering wheel-mounted paddles and there's a choice of three drive modes ('Power'/'Winter'/'Eco') which can be selected using a console button.

The part-time, dual-range 4WD system is controlled by a console dial, offering the choice of 2H (2WD high-range), 4H (4WD high-range) and 4L (4WD low-range). It also has an auto-locking rear diff to optimise traction as required.

Official fuel consumption is 2.1L/100km on a combined cycle on regular unleaded fuel (91) with low-charge consumption at 8.4L/100km. For reference, low-charge fuel consumption on this test was 10.2L/100km as recorded. Okay, but not a particularly compelling result.

The Tank 500 has a 70-litre fuel tank so, going by those fuel figures, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 686km out of a full tank.

SsangYong claims an official combined cycle average of 8.7L/100km. At the completion of our 307km test, which comprised mostly city and suburban driving with a bit of highway travel, mostly in Eco mode with up to five occupants on some trips, our figure calculated from fuel bowser and trip meter readings came in at 11.0L/100km.

Although higher than SsangYong’s claim, it was within the usual 2.0-3.0L/100km discrepancy between official and ‘real-world’ figures. So, based on our numbers, you could expect a driving range of more than 600km from its 70-litre tank, which is not bad. Based on the official figure, driving range extends to around 800km.

The Tank 500 Hi4-T PHEV is decent on road – and that’s good news for anyone thinking about buying this large 4WD.

It has more power and torque than its hybrid stablemate (300kW/750Nm vs 255kW/648Nm) for general day-to-day drivability while it retains all of the regular hybrid’s positive driving characteristics and few of the negatives.

This Tank 500’s turbocharged petrol engine and the electric motor work seamlessly together, with no discernible clunking or shifting between systems in the powertrain.

This is a big, heavy four-wheel drive – even heavier in this plug-in hybrid form than the regular hybrid because of this vehicle’s battery. But it is nicely settled and composed because of that weight.

This flip side is the extra heft on-board means there is some body-roll to this vehicle. It’s noticeable, but not a deal-breaker.

On highways, sealed surfaces or well-maintained bush tracks the Tank 500 is quite impressive. It’s settled, controlled and quite nice to drive.

Overall, this Tank 500’s suspension – double wishbone independent with coil springs at the front, and multi-link live axle with coil springs at the rear – is firm. There has been talk of it having been retuned for Australian conditions, but it remains stiff and jittery at pace, especially through backcountry bitumen in poor condition and lightly corrugated dirt roads. However, GWM informs me that the suspension set-up will undergo more retuning for Australian conditions and those changes will be incorporated into 2026 production vehicles.

Besides that, the engine, electric motor and transmission work quite well together. It is a reasonably smooth 4WD wagon to drive.

There are, however, glaring issues with the driver-assist tech, which is quite annoying in its operation. It’s either very jarring or intrusive in its application (example: adaptive cruise control braking way too early), or bloody annoying/dangerous (example: road-sign recognition abruptly tried to cut my speed from 100km/h to 40km/h because it registered the school zone sign off to the side of the highway. At the time it was outside school drop-off and pick-up times anyway.).

You can switch off the driver-assist features every time you start up, but the system resets and defaults to being annoying again when you switch off.

When it comes to 4WDing though, the good news returns.

This hybrid retains all of the regular Tank 500’s 4WD mechanicals, including the (BorgWarner-sourced) transfer case with high- and low-range 4WD, and it offers up plenty of torque across a decent spread of revs.

The off-road traction control system is suitably dialled in, hill descent control is effective, keeping you to a nice controlled low speed and there’s low-speed cruise control or the equivalent that keeps the vehicle to a controlled pace across varying terrain.

Not forgetting, the Tank 500 is triple locked – front, centre and rear diff locks – so there are few excuses to not be able to crawl over most off-road obstacles.

However, the tyres on this vehicle (Giti Xross HT71 SUV - 265/60R18) aren't up to scratch when it comes to off-roading beyond anything other than well-maintained tracks in the dry. The Tank 500 as is well suited, straight out of the dealership, for light to moderate off-roading. But if you swap in a decent set of aggressive all-terrain tyres the Tank 500 will be able to more comfortably take on more challenging terrain.

But it's capable of climbing. I took on a 30-35 degree incline of rock steps and the Tank 500 did it easily and comfortably on its standard highway tyres.

Most of the plug-in hybrid Tank’s off-roading characteristics check out. Approach, ramp over and departure angles are as per the regular hybrid Tank 500 (30, 22.5 and 24 degrees) and wading depth is a listed 800mm although the country was so dry at our proving ground that I never had the chance to test that claim.

Ground clearance on the Tank 500 Hi4-T PHEV is listed as 213mm (it’s 224mm in the normal hybrid) but that doesn't negatively impact this vehicle's off-roading capability if you drive it with control and consideration.

It is big, so it can be a little bit tricky to steer around, especially when the track becomes tighter and the obstacles become a bit more cheeky, but generally this can be driven very safely and with the utmost control through a lot of tricky four-wheel driving challenges.

It's not as polished in its off-road performance as something like the Toyota Prado or Ford Everest, but it does the job and there's a bit of a gruff edge to it, which some people might consider part of its charm.

As mentioned, the Tank 500’s 37.11kWh battery supports Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) functionality, which in theory means you’ll be able to power your camp-site (lights, fridge etc), but I’ll reserve final judgement on this set-up until I have the opportunity to test it over a long weekend with several appliances drawing power at the same time.

If you’re thinking about using this Tank PHEV as an adventure touring vehicle then it’s handy to know its payload is listed as 610kg, while it’s noted as 790kg in the Tank 500 HEV. Throw two adults, two teenagers, a dog, and camping gear in and you’ll hit that 610kg mark in no time.

The Tank 500 is rated to tow a 750kg unbraked trailer and 3000kg braked. Gross vehicle mass is 3430kg and gross combined mass is 6430kg.

The Rexton’s overall refinement and build quality are evident when you get behind the wheel. It offers good adjustability for driver comfort and the fundamentals of the vehicle are sound, as there were no red flags during our test.

The engine is smooth and quiet with good all-around performance, the automatic transmission shifts quickly and smoothly, the steering is nicely weighted and communicative, the brakes provide reassuring response and the ride quality is supple over bumps yet disciplined enough to provide good handling response.

It’s also pleasantly quiet at highway speeds, with low tyre and wind noise. Engine noise is also minimal, given that it requires only 1600rpm to maintain 110km/h, ensuring low-stress cruising.

Most of our driving time was spent in Eco mode, as we found performance in this setting more than adequate for our purposes. We did briefly use the Power mode but didn’t notice any significant change in response.

No ANCAP rating (as yet). Even so, it comes with numerous passive and active safety features highlighted by dual front, side and curtain airbags plus a driver’s knee protection bag (but no centre airbag between driver/front passenger).

There’s also AEB, lane assistance, blind-spot warning and rear cross-traffic alert, trailer sway control, hill descent control, front/rear parking sensors, reversing camera and more, but a notable absentee is speed-sign recognition and the cruise control is non-adaptive. There are also ISOFIX child seat anchorages on the two outer second-row seating positions plus top tethers for all three.

The Tank 500 is covered by a seven-year/unlimited km warranty, seven years' roadside assistance and seven years' capped price servicing.

The Tank 500’s 37.1kWh traction battery has an eight year/unlimited km warranty.

The first service is scheduled at 12 months/10,000km; the rest of the servicing appointments are set for every 12 months/15,000km. Lowest price per services is $335, highest is $975.

GWM has 122 dealerships nationwide at time of writing.

Warranty cover is seven years/unlimited km warranty plus seven years roadside assist.

Scheduled servicing is every 12 months/15,000km whichever occurs first.

The first seven scheduled services run to $375 each, up to seven years/105,000km, for a total of $2625.