The Tank 300 is bigger than the Haval Big Dog, but from the same parent company.
Yesterday we talked about the Haval Big Dog, a funky off-road-ready SUV with styling from a Land Rover design veteran. Today, let us introduce you to another similarly boxy and rugged SUV from the same parent company as Haval, Great Wall Motor. It’s called the Tank 300. But first, a bit of backstory.
Great Wall Motor may not be on your radar, but they’re actually a huge auto conglomorate in China. They started off making military vehicles, and then specialised in passenger SUVs under the Great Wall brand. When they decided to ramp things up, they rebranded their core passenger SUV brand as Haval, which we’re sure a lot of Malaysians are familiar with. The Great Wall Motor group is now the parent company of Haval, and they’ve spawned some other new brands to tackle other segments of the market. Malaysians are probably also familiar with Ora, the electric brand from Great Wall Motor. Great Wall Motors’ premium subbrand is called ‘Wey’.
At the 2020 Chengdu Auto Show, a new product was displayed at the Wey booth. It was called the Wey Tank 300. It looked a bit like a retro-modern Land Cruiser J70 that’s been dolled up for modern premium sensibilities.
Before launching the car, Great Wall Motor made the decision to create yet ANOTHER sub-brand. So now, instead of it being a Wey Tank 300, it’s a TANK 300, with the brand being ‘Tank’ and the model being ‘300’. Why? Who knows. Maybe the vehicle didn’t particularly suite the Wey design aesthetic or there was more potential for expansion of this model range than initially expected. However, the Wey badge is still found on the vehicle in some press photos. We’ve even seen a render of it wearing a Haval badge.
Anyway, the Tank 300, along with the Haval Big Dog are both being considered by Great Wall representatives in Australia. So there’s a chance that a right-hand drive version of this SUV will be made as well. Despite the similar look, these two SUVs are not closely related. The Big Dog rides on GWM’s L.E.M.O.N. platform, while the TANK 300 sits on a new, specially developed GMW TANK platform.
The engine in the TANK 300 is a 2-litre and here it gets an 8-speed ZF automatic gearbox. Check out the dimensions and figures above. Head here to configure it for yourself.
