GWM is firing some serious shots at the established stalwarts like the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger with the P500 bakkie. With its sights set on South Africa’s best-selling bakkie pair, GWM is hoping to fill some pretty big shoes and make a strong statement that it is the country’s number one Chinese vehicle brand. We were down in the Southern Cape to see if the GWM P500 could back up the impressive resume that this double cab presents on paper.
GWM P500 has plenty of urge The GWM P500 offers a combined 255kW of power and 648Nm of torque. A 180kW/380Nm 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine is seamlessly integrated with a 325-volt electric motor that brings 78kW and 268Nm to the power party.
This is enough to slot the GWM P500 right near the top of the performance charts, just behind the Ford Ranger Raptor , and way ahead of any of the oil burners in the form of a Toyota Hilux, Isuzu D-Max, Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi Triton. ALSO READ: WATCH: First look at GWM’s new flagship P500 bakkie Loads of creature comforts Jumping inside the GWM P500, and I mean jump as this bakkie is also larger than anything the competition have on the market, you are greeted by a modern, well put together interior. It offers every imaginable luxury feature you could want from a head-up display, panoramic sunroof, multi-media infotainment screen, virtual instrument cluster to electrically adjustable heated and cooled seats with eight-option massage function.
It looks substantial and it feels li.