GWM is tuning vehicles for Australian conditions, with engineers working on not only calibrating driver assist technology for our conditions but also developing local suspension tunes.
While he joked much of the feedback on its advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) is from journalists, GWM Australia and New Zealand managing director Charles Zhao said the company is taking this seriously.
“We are taking this into consideration definitely,” he said.
“We see the difference between Australia and the Asian market, Chinese customers – in China it’s not like this. But here, maybe people are driving more confidently and the road condition is also different.
“We are going to update the software.”
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ADAS features include lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control.
The company said the same algorithms and software are used across most of its vehicles, so the lessons taken from testing one vehicle can be applied to others.
It plans to introduce updated ADAS tunes to all its vehicles.
“We do really value all the feedback of Australian customers and journalists and we’re trying to make this local test and local improvement for Australian driving habits to try to improve as fast as possible,” said Mr Zhao.
Not only is work being done to improve ADAS software, but GWM engineers in Australia are also looking at the suspension tuning of the brand’s vehicles.
“[Since] last year we’ve been doing that. There’s still some work to be done,” he said.
“When we launch these new models, you’ll see the difference between the current one, and the one in the future.
“The H6 GT PHEV and the Cannon Alpha PHEV will have the new tune, the ADAS, the driver assist and the chassis.”
The former is due here in the first quarter of 2025, with the latter following in the second quarter.
“Potentially also the 2.4-litre Cannon… as well is another car that is potentially under that program,” said Steve Maciver, GWM Australia and New Zealand’s head of marketing and communications, referring to its more powerful turbo-diesel ute due here in the first quarter of 2025.
“We have been testing different suspension settings, driving them on the same drive loops… and that’s all going back to the factory with the view to continuous improvement.
“We don’t take this market for granted, we know how hard we have to keep working to get the right product out there and to get the right buy-in from consumers.”
Evidently, the investment in this local tuning is justified by GWM’s growing sales in our market.
GWM’s sales in Australia and New Zealand account for around 50 per cent of its total right-hand drive sales, and for the first time the company expects to exceed 40,000 sales in Australia alone this year.
Over the first eight months of this year, GWM has sold 27,991 vehicles in Australia. That’s up 21.8 per cent on the same period last year, when models like the Cannon Alpha and Tank 500 weren’t yet available.
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