Will South Africans buy a R1m Chinese double cab?

Several landmark bakkies have been launched in the local market during the past decade, during which the price tags of some double cab variants have breached the R1m mark.

Ford’s Ranger Raptor changed how bakkie owners viewed high-speed off-road driving, with a competition-spec double cab off the dealership floor; Land Cruiser’s latest 70-Series proved that you can charge new money for very old technology; by contrast, the Mercedes-Benz X-Class was a lesson in humility for the Three-pointed Star – the model proved that a luxury badge doesn’t fool local buyers.

The X-Class was a terrible disappointment for Mercedes-Benz, but it is memorable for 1 reason – it gave South Africa its first R1m new bakkie. When order books opened in late 2018 and X-Class bakkies arrived at dealers during the first half of 2019, the V6 version was priced at a very ambitious R1m.

GWM is South Africa’s leading Chinese bakkie brand

During the early 2010s, when most Chinese bakkie brands that had rushed into South Africa during the early 2000s had faded from the local market, GWM remained. Its Steed double cabs (of that era) weren’t spectacular and traded on the appeal of recycled Japanese technology at very low prices.

GWM kept reinvesting in its bakkie product development, which led to further iterations of the Steed and, when the P-Series arrived in late 2020, it was evident that the Chinese automotive giant’s bakkies had advanced significantly. The P-Series was arguably the first Chinese bakkie which could compete with legacy Japanese and American brands on capability and driving experience, not merely price.

There is no question that GWM has developed brand awareness and loyalty, but how invested are its customers in the P-Series nameplate, as it moves progressively upmarket? The only way to test that is price. This is exactly what the new P500 (launched in Mzansi in late August 2024) is going to do.

The bigger, bolder (P-Series) P500 offers a slightly more potent 2.4-litre turbodiesel engine and a range-topping petrol-electric hybrid derivative that costs only R100 shy of R1m. That’s where the debate has formed: will South Africans choose the R1m GWM P500 over a Toyota Hilux or Ford Ranger?

It’s ‘cheaper’ than the Mercedes-Benz X-Class was

Split tailgate after 100,000 =km of corrugated Karoo or Free State dirt roads? We’ll see about its reliability.

The most luxurious and powerful version of GWM’s upgraded bakkie range has an elaborate name and very full price. The GWM P500 2.0T HEV Ultra Luxury 4×4 is listed at R999 900 (August 2024).

But does that price make it a part of the traditional R1m double cab argument? Not quite. And it has nothing to do with that R100 in change you’d get if you bought one with a R1m budget.

Inflation is a real thing, especially in Mzansi’s vehicle market. Rm today is not the R1m you paid for an X-Class a few years ago.

If we apply some inflation calculations to the moment when the X-Class became a R1m double cab, it would be R1.3m in current money. That’s a lot closer to Ranger Raptor and Jeep Gladiator pricing.

The P500 2.0T HEV might be touching that psychological R1m barrier, but it’s not quite as symbolic as some would imagine. It’s not the price-remaking moment Mercedes-Benz created for South African bakkies with the V6 turbodiesel-engined X-Class, back in 2019.

Still, how will South African bakkie buyers respond to a Chinese double cab priced so close to R1m?

The GWM P500 HEV is a lot of bakkie

Loaded with features, some more useful than others. The sunroof is pointless during South African summers.

The P500 2.0T HEV is very comprehensively equipped, as one would expect. There’s nothing at the price from Toyota or Ford that compares in terms of equipment, sensor fusion or infotainment gadgetry.

Seeing as bakkies priced in and around R1m are regarded as passenger cars, the P500 2.0T HEV’s luxury kit and trim are a valid flex from GWM. Price is not the P500 2.0T HEV’s problem. Neither is power.

The potential issues that are troublesome about this near-as-makes-no-difference R1m Chinese double cab are fuel and size. Or rather, the kind of fuel it uses and the reality of parking in urban areas.

South Africa remains a very diesel-biased market. That is unlikely to change. Ford and Jeep’s apex double cabs might be petrol-powered (Ranger Raptor and Jeep Gladiator), but they are niche offerings within a, well. niche of the bakkie market. Diesel is the default fuel for South African double-cab buyers.

Can it convince bakkie buyers to go the petrol route?

Default 18-inch wheels are clever spec. A complex turbopetrol powertrain needs to woo diesel followers.

The P500 2.0T HEV is up against a lot of legacy diesel prejudice and its parallel-series hybrid configuration doesn’t help.

When you think “hybrid”, you imagine optimised fuel economy. But everyone knows that a PHEV is the only hybrid you really want (provided you can afford one) because it combines the best of petrol and battery power – with decent onboard battery capacity. The P500 2.0T HEV doesn’t work like that.

A high-power petrol bakkie isn’t popular in South Africa, because there is a real need for range.

The difference in cruising fuel consumption between a powerful petrol and diesel bakkie isn’t enormous, but when you are getting anxious about “the range left in the tank” with the nearest fuel stop that’s just a little bit too far away, 50 km can feel like 500 km. The margins matter.

The diesel issue is real

Lots of power on the test bench. But real-world fuel consumption will be the concern.

What do you gain from the P500 2.0T HEV’s hybrid powertrain? There’s a lot of peak power (255 kW), which matters when cruising long distances between provinces and needing safe overtaking margins. But what do you lose? Fuel economy – which sounds bizarre when discussing a hybrid, but it’s true.

A series-parallel hybrid uses petrol to charge electrons into the hybrid system, and on a large, (let’s just call it an) aerodynamically challenged bakkie, that’s a bit silly. It’s just a performance gain with marginal – if any – real-world fuel economy benefits. Especially when you compare it with the balance of performance and economy offered by a turbodiesel-powered double-cab bakkie.

The P500 2.0T HEV utilises the same powertrain as the Tank 300, which has proven to be rather heavy on fuel in local driving conditions. That powertrain in the larger, heavier and, forgive me, aerodynamically challenged P500, leaves little possibility of GWM’s hybrid double-cab matching the cruising fuel consumption of a turbodiesel Hilux or Ford Ranger.

For real-world towing and high-speed driving, not to mention low-range off-road driving, the Ranger’s 3lV6 and Hilux’s 2.8l four-cylinder turbodiesels are more usable engines than P500 2.0T HEV’s more sophisticated powertrain. Not only are they less complex, they’re likely to be more fuel efficient.

Oversized bakkies aren’t great to drive in town

Lots of space to park out here, but the P500 won’t easily fit into Sandton City or V&A Waterfront parking bays.

The P-Series P500’s other issue is its sheer size. All the surround view cameras and over-assisted power steering can’t mask the realities of steering geometry, wheel cut angles, vehicle width and an enormous wheelbase. Huge bakkies are a nightmare to park – and this GWM is bigger than any of its rivals.

Edging one of the current-generation double-cab bakkies into narrow parking bays is a chore, which often necessitates making 3-point turns. With the P500 being even wider than the Hilux or Ranger, it will be a proverbial mission to park the newcomer in crowded covered or underground parkades with pillars.

Off-road? Wider, longer vehicles have more risk of panel damage, especially on narrow, technical, rocky 4×4 routes. Being bigger really isn’t much of a win, for bakkies.

Price – or cost of ownership?

The latest Toyota Hilux upgrade offers very mild integrated hybridisation – and unrivalled residual values.

Buying a R1m double cab bakkie is more than the purchase price transaction; it’s also the cost of ownership, which is greatly determined by durability and depreciation.

Because of their popularity, strong brand affinity and reasonable technical simplicity, double cab bakkies lose less value than many comparably priced vehicles. But, as you pile on the electronics and gadgets, the risk of gremlins increases, especially in the mid-to long-term. And there is the question of depreciation, which remains constant during the entire ownership lifecycle with a bakkie.

This is where Toyota has proven that simple – works. The Hilux suffers very little depreciation, meaning you get the most for your R1-million double cab bakkie investment, even if its feature list and infotainment grade are nowhere near that of a GWM P500.

Is there sufficient demand for a very big, petrol-powered, luxury double-cab bakkie without brand legacy and many electronic gadgets, at R1 million? We’ll have to track sales until Christmas to know. However the market responds, the P500 can certainly do no worse than South Africa’s first R1-million bakkie did.

This article was originally published on Cars.co.za...