GWM SA defends Tank 500’s R1.2m price-tag

GWM South Africa’s sales director says critics who believe the Chinese firm is “arrogant” for pricing its Tank 500 at over R1.2-million are off the mark…

In August 2024, the Tank 500 launched in South Africa as GWM’s first model priced on the far side of R1-million, pushing the Chinese brand into unchartered pricing territory. But a high-ranking executive at the automaker’s local division says this just reflects the brand’s confidence in its product.

Desmond Els, Sales Director at GWM South Africa, made the comments during a wide-ranging interview conducted in Cars.co.za’s custom-built podcast booth at Naamsa’s recent South African Auto Week 2024 in Cape Town.

GWM P-Series P500
The top-spec P500 comes in just short of 7 figures.

“We’ve been, I’d say, the first Chinese OEM [original equipment manufacturer] that has brought a car to market over R1-million. So, we launched P500 HEV just under R1-million and we launched Tank 500 at the R1.2-million mark.

“People would say: ‘is that slightly arrogant, bringing something like that to market?’. And I would say ‘no’. We’ve got confidence. We’ve got confidence in our product – we know what we’re planning towards,” Els told us.

In South Africa, the Tank 500 is offered exclusively in petrol-hybrid form.

Priced at R1 222 900, the Tank 500 ladder-frame SUV is offered exclusively in petrol-hybrid form, boasting total system outputs of 255 kW and 648 Nm, with a 9-speed automatic transmission and 4×4 shipping standard. As has become the norm with Chinese brands, this model’s list of standard equipment is a lengthy one.

Its positioning, of course, sees the 7-seater Tank 500 2.0T Ultra Luxury Hybrid 4×4 9AT going head to head with established 7-seater SUVs, such as the V6 turbodiesel versions of the Ford Everest (the Wildtrak for R1 199 500 and the Platinum for R1 278 000, though those prices are sans service plans) and even the base model in the J250-generation Toyota Land Cruiser Prado range (the 2.8GD TX, priced at R1 296 300).

GWM Tank 500 interior
As has become expected from Chinese brands, the Tank 500 is crammed with standard kit.

For the record, the 3-row Tank 500 measures 5 078 mm from nose to tail, making it longer than both the Everest (4 940 mm) and Prado (4 925 mm) – and even lengthier than the Land Cruiser 300 (5 005 mm). However, we should keep in mind that GWM’s 7-seater SUV features a tailgate-mounted spare, which is seemingly included in this measurement.

In August 2024 (effectively a partial month in which the Tank 500 was launched), GWM SA reported 13 sales of its luxury off-road SUV, a figure that grew to 17 units in September. A further 8 units were registered prior to the local launch, presumably as part of the vehicle’s local homologation process.

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