The Cannon Alpha Valley and Tank 500 obtained key fixes to throttle response and superior driver help programs on the manufacturing unit earlier this 12 months, and now present house owners are in a position to have these upgrades utilized to their automobiles.
The adjustments had been utilized at manufacturing degree early in 2025, with CarExpert getting the chance to check them late final 12 months.
GWM says they’re now out there to present house owners although there’s no over-the-air replace out there, so house owners might want to head to one of many Chinese language model’s dealerships to obtain the replace.
Tons of of latest automobile offers can be found via CarExpert proper now. Get the specialists in your facet and rating a terrific deal. Browse now.
GWM has additionally confirmed there aren’t any adjustments for the Cannon ute and Tank 300 off-roader – as they use completely different programming, the updates made to their bigger platform-mates aren’t transferable.
“We proceed to work laborious to make sure the voice of our native market is heard and thought of,” mentioned GWM Australia and New Zealand advertising and communications boss Steve Maciver.
“These upgrades replicate current suggestions from our clients throughout Australia and New Zealand and show GWM’s world dedication to supporting our area and frequently refining the product to higher swimsuit native drivers.
“It’s not nearly constructing for the longer term – we’re additionally targeted on delivering significant updates and enhancements to our present house owners, making certain their expertise continues to strengthen with our model.”
GWM says it has improved throttle response and sensitivity in hybrid variations of the Cannon Alpha and Tank 500, whereas the next adjustments have been utilized to not solely these fashions but additionally the Cannon Alpha diesel:
- Adaptive cruise management
- Curve velocity management refinements to enhance degree of velocity discount when cornering
- Acceleration response elevated when resuming set velocity
- Driver monitoring system
- Voice warning modified to alert sound, quantity decreased
- On/off change reminiscence operate added, system now not defaults to on
- Emergency lane-keep help
- Visible warning alert modified to ‘lane flashing’ warning in digital instrument cluster
- Fast key now accessible within the shortcut menu, accessed by swiping down on the touchscreen
GWM additionally says it has “optimised” false triggering alerts on sure street surfaces with the emergency lane-keep help, and added a Trailer Hitch Observe guideline on the touchscreen.
In Paul Maric’s testing of the outdated calibration and new calibration back-to-back on the Cannon Alpha Hybrid late final 12 months, he discovered the throttle was extra responsive, the transition between electrical and hybrid mode smoother, and the ‘sticky throttle’ challenge had been eradicated.
The distraction monitoring adjustments had been additionally improved, although he famous extra work might be accomplished on the accuracy of the lane centring system.
GWM lately discontinued the Cannon Alpha Hybrid in Australialeaving solely the diesel and the lately launched plug-in hybrid (PHEV) on sale.
The Tank 500 stays hybrid-only in Australia, although a PHEV powertrain is due later this 12 months.
GWM quietly moved the Tank 500 Hybrid from a Chinese language to a Thai market suspension tune late final 12 months to enhance its dynamics.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t have a domestically developed suspension tune like in more moderen fashions such because the Cannon Alpha PHEV.
GWM is working to not solely enhance the efficiency of its superior driver help programs in Australia but additionally how the automobiles drive. To that finish, in April it appointed automobile experience and dealing with skilled Rob Trubiani who was Holden’s lead automobile dynamics engineer for almost 15 years.
As of late, an automaker having a devoted, everlasting native engineering and tuning program primarily based in Australia is much from widespread, and places GWM in the identical firm as Kia.
The fast-growing Chinese language model has been securing additional expertise from extra established manufacturers of late, with John Kett becoming a member of GWM as its chief working officer earlier this 12 months after holding the identical position at Hyundai Australia for greater than 5 years.
To the top of June, GWM can be Australia’s seventh best-selling model.
It delivered 25,189 automobiles within the first half of this 12 months, up 17 per cent and a brand new document for the modelinserting it behind solely Toyota (120,978), Mazda (48,942), Ford (47,300), Kia (40,750), Hyundai (38,948) and Mitsubishi (33,379) in year-to-date standings.
