As a brand automotive enterprise always focused on SUV, the accumulated technology of Great Wall WEY over the years has given them a good brand accumulation. I have always been looking forward to experiencing their pure hard-core SUV.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to test drive the Tank 300, which was launched on December 17th. Surprisingly, as a mainly hard-core SUV, this model is also equipped with assisted driving, which greatly exceeded my expectations.
First of all, as expected, the Tank 300 adopts a non-load-bearing body structure design. In terms of power system, it is equipped with a 2.0T direct injection turbocharged engine with a maximum power of 167 kW and a maximum torque of 387N·m, with a ZF 8AT gearbox.
In terms of off-road capabilities, it is equipped with “three locks”, crawl mode, “tank turn”, etc. In addition, there are 9 different driving modes available, including standard 2-wheel drive, standard 4-wheel drive, snow 4-wheel drive, 4L (standard, concave-convex road, mud and sand, mountain, and rock), and expert mode.
It is worth mentioning that the differential lock of the Tank 300 can mechanically lock the front/rear differential within 200 milliseconds and lock the central differential electronically, transmitting 100% of the traction force of the engine to the wheels that have adhesion, which greatly improves the ability to get out of trouble outdoors.
The principle of “tank turn” is that when the system detects that the steering wheel angle is greater than the set value, the EPB braking system will apply braking force to the inner rear wheel of the vehicle, reducing the turning radius. This allows the Tank 300 to complete a U-turn even on narrow outdoor roads.
The “crawl mode” is used in camel-shaped, sloping and other road conditions. When the Tank 300 is engaged in low-speed 4-wheel drive and the crawl mode is enabled, the system can crawl uphill at a set speed uniformly. This is similar to the principle of “hill descent control” that we usually use.
The most unexpected feature of the Tank 300 is that it is equipped with L2-level automatic driving assistance function. The Tank 300 has functions such as full-speed ACC intelligent adaptive cruise, LKA lane keeping, AEB automatic emergency braking, TST traffic sign automatic recognition, RPA remote parking, and BSD full-range blind spot monitoring.
As a pure hard-core SUV, without sacrificing the functionality of outdoor off-road capabilities, the Tank 300 also has some intelligent and luxurious elements, which to some extent redefines our inherent understanding of a hard-core SUV. For the WEY brand, the appearance of the Tank 300 further enriches the product line of the brand’s models, and it also proves that the design and manufacturing level of the independent brand have reached a first-class level.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.