Tank 300 enters battle
TURN OF A DIAL: FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE SYSTEM GIVES YOU FULL CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE’S RESPONSES New SUV from GWM excels off the beaten track.
There was a lot of interest shown in GWM’s Tank 300 in the lead up to the SUV’s official media event, and I wasn’t sure if this sentiment was sarcasm or appreciation to be honest.
People say some horrible things on social media and then put a smiley face at the end of it, and you are left wondering what they really meant.
I mean I went to the launch driving in a Toyota Land Cruiser 76 and announced that the recovery vehicle had arrived (insert smiley face), and the comment still went down like a Chinese balloon floating over America.
Ironically, off-road in Land Cruiser territory, is where I felt this Tank 300 did its best work and deserved the most praise.
Built on a ladder frame chassis, running on a modern multi-link rear suspension and a durable double-wishbone front suspension, and 224mm of ground clearance, with an approach angle of 33°, a departure angle of 34°, a ramp-over angle over of 23.1°, and a wading depth of 700mm, you can see that the Tank 300 has a very decent offroad platform on paper.
But those that know me, know I prefer my 4x4 to do a bit more of the hard work than I must when it comes to driving up the side of a mountain for no good reason.
There are Tank 300, 2.0-litre turbo Super Luxury, and 2.0-litre turbo Ultra Luxury models coming in a few months’ time, and these offer an All-Terrain Driving System with Multi-Terrain Select, while the Tank 300, 2.0-litre turbo Hybrid Electric (HEV) Super Luxury, I drove on the launch, the first model of the trio to arrive in the country, offers an all-time four-wheel drive system with intelligent electronic management and low range.
This system gives you full control of the vehicle’s responses with a turn of a dial, and the choices are between the following driving modes: Normal, Economic, Sport, Stone, Snow (for any slippery conditions), Sand and Low-Range 4x4 driving (4l) while also offering an electronically controlled rear differential lock, and a specialised Crawl Cruise Control system for slow-and-steady traction over rocky type terrain. Yip, it was that easy, turn a dial, select low range, and go up the side of that mountain for no good reason without any fuss or drama.
Getting out onto the open road gave us the chance to sample the 255kW of power (180kW petrol engine and 78kW electric motor) and 648Nm of torque (380Nm petrol engine and 268Nm electric motor) all running through an easy shifting 9-speed auto box that is on offer from this HEV model.
Pulling power is strong as is to be expected, but perhaps a long open road drive to our overnight stop was not the best way to advertise the expected fuel consumption benefits of having a self-charging battery on board, because we never saw below 11-litres per 100km/h despite the claim being 8.4-litres per 100km.
Maybe running around the city where you can use battery only power for long periods of time, the overall fuel consumption will decrease, but at some point, the petrol engine will have to charge the battery up again, this is not a Plug in Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV), and then the Chinese car Achilles heel problem of high fuel consumption will keep raising its head.
What was a bit of an unexpected blessing was that because the Tank 300 HEV is not the top of the range Ultra Luxury spec, the intrusive and aggressive lanes keep assist aids are omitted and this made the drive so much more peaceful. What did take a bit of time to get used to was the brake pedal feel and the fairly aggressive slowing down of the car when you came off the gas because of iBooster Intelligent Braking System that allows for energy regeneration during braking. Quirks, I guess you would get used to if you owned one and drove it every day.
For the record, the other two turbo petrol only models will offer 162kW of power and 380Nm of torque down through an 8-speed automatic box with a claimed fuel consumption figure of 9.5-litres per 100km. The Tank 300 also offers safety, practicality, and a host of onboard luxury, and tech from high definition LCD screens, to wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, ambient lighting, leather upholstery, type A, type C, 12 V, and 220 V charging ports, to electrically adjustable seats, dual zone climate control with rear high and low mounted air vents, electric windows all round, privacy glass, automatic low and high beams, and much more.