2025 GWM Cannon: Australian first drive

Today at 07:44 PM

2025 GWM Cannon Ultra

My, my, my. Look how far we've come.

The GWM Ute launched in Australia a little over four years ago, and set a new benchmark for where value-centric players in our 'work-life-balance' double-cab ute market needed to land. It was, at the time, a lot of ute for the money but needed a bit more power, and a bit less bounce to really take on the bigger players.

Now, with 48-months and 33,000 sales under its belt, the 2025 GWM Cannon (as it is now known) has matured, and arrived not so much as a facelift but as a self-proclaimed 'second generation', answering many of the shortcomings of its first iteration but still remaining true to its core value positioning.

Headlining the changes is a new 2.4-litre turbo diesel engine that offers 135kW/480Nm output, an increase of 15kW and 80Nm on the previous 2.0-litre unit. This puts it in the same ballpark as the Nissan Navara's 140kW/450Nm 2.3-litre twin-turbo and the Mitsubishi Triton's 150kW/470Nm 2.4-litre turbo diesel unit.

This has enabled the tow rating to step up from 3200kg to a class-expectation of 3500kg, but at the same time affords a reduction in claimed fuel consumption, down from 9.4L/100km to 8.4L/100km on a combined cycle (11 per cent improvement).

Drive remains an on-demand 4×4 system, but the transmission is now a 9-speed GWM unit, replacing the 8-speed ZF box.

The front and rear end have been refreshed, and the wheel arch flares tweaked, to give the Cannon a more macho and modern appeal, making the car slightly longer (6mm) and wider (13mm) in the process. The interior has been completely overhauled with a new dashboard, console, infotainment display and even a curious new steering wheel that represents the car's Google-maps-pin-lookalike teardrop logo as its hub.

Like a reborn popstar, the name has been solidified too. No longer the somewhat meta GWM Ute, it's now the GWM Cannon, with a variant split that aligns with other GWM products in Lux, Ultra, Vanta and the off-road oriented XSR. This align it with the larger GWM Cannon Alpha, which sits as the larger ute in GWM’s range.

We sampled the 2025 GWM Cannon Ultra (in Lunar Red) on and off-road on a short drive around Melbourne. The full 2025 GWM Cannon range pricing and specification breakdown can be found here.

The styling tweaks are subtle but do help the Cannon fit in more with the 2025 crowd. Apparently the US-style chrome nose and flourishes weren't a runaway hit with Australian buyers, which helped encourage the black-pack Vanta grade to make up the bulk of sales.

Our red Ultra looks smart enough, and arguably makes this the variant to get, considering the Vanta is an identical specification and asks $2000 extra to basically paint stuff black.

The handy rear step that is integrated into the tailgate is amost enough to warrant the $3K rise from the Lux grade, but the heated/vented/powered leather seats seal the deal. Don't worry about the sunroof though, despite being a rarity on twin-cab utes, this one causes so much buffeting when fully opened you'll enjoy it for a bit of extra cabin light but that's about it.

The tub itself has four tie points, but no power outlets. A spray-in bedliner is standard.

Rear seating room is good, for a ute, with a roof-scallop helping accommodate tall noggins despite the sunroof. The bench is comfy, there are grab handles on the roof and B-pillar, you have a vent and USB-A to share between left and right passengers, but the simple central armrest has no cup holders and that's a bit of a miss.

Up front, space is also good with the powered seat offering good adjustment and the reach/tilt adjustment on the steering wheel helpful to get settled for long journeys.

A big feature of the GWM Cannon update is the new dashboard, which makes the interior of the ute feel substantially more upmarket than the sub-$44K sticker would have you believe.

It's nicely designed, with modern lines, pleasant materials and even a fun 'ute' motif element in front of the passenger. Little things like the shelf above the glovebox and USB-port in the rear mirror housing (to power a dashcam) help to win favour, even if the lower air vent placement (hard to adjust and couldn't feel them doing much), asymmetrically sized cup holders (why?) and janky sunglasses holder above the driver's door seem a bit off.

Move past these and the A-pillar grab handles, funky 'boat throttle' gear shift lever, glossy screens, and chilled cubby make the cabin of the Cannon work well. The choice of materials is more premium than expected, and the fit and finish is good.

Showing the GWM is moving with the times, there is a wireless phone charger and a USB-C and -A port along with a 12-volt outlet on the lower dash. For the adventurers, there is now an array of three pre-wired 12-volt accessory switches on the centre console, handy if you want to trick up your Cannon with additional lighting, or an air compressor.

The 12.3-inch infotainment display is crisp and bright, and supports full screen smartphone projection. It looks great and responds well to touch, and didn't suffer any connection dropouts during our time with the car.

There are, however, some useability issues here.

If you are using Apple CarPlay (or Android Auto), you cannot access any of the native GWM system functions until you either return to the main menu (there's a shortcut button on the steering wheel that can do this) or use the voice commands.

For the latter, which occasionally welcomes you with a culturally insensitive "How can I help you, Master", it responds well to most requests most of the time, but remains active after your request so can pick up on general in-car chatter to confuse things.

Bottom line, it takes longer to tell the car to set the temperature to 18-degrees than it ever would take to just set the temperature to 18 degrees with a physical button. Volume is the same, there's no tactile dial for quick changes in level, just buttons on the wheel that need to be tap, tap, tap, tapped up and down.

Even the buttons that are present, which include shortcuts to the climate control and fan settings, don't respond if you are in the Apple CarPlay mode.

It is, in a simple word, frustrating.

Get the wheels turning in the Cannon though, and the world brightens up significantly.

The new 2.4-litre engine is punchy and much smoother than the old unit. Peak power of 135kW hits at 3600rpm, but more importantly, the 480Nm torque band is at its peak between 1500 and 2500rpm. This gives the Cannon the ability to swiftly meet and travel with traffic, and a bit more athleticism for country overtaking.

Note that our drive was with an unloaded tub with nothing on the towbar, so we look forward to seeing how the revised driveline works when the Cannon is given some weight to manage.

Around town, the turning circle isn't as good as some (13.1m to the Navara's 12.5m) and the suspension errs to a softer compress over speed bumps and the like, but settles reasonably quickly for a manageable urban role.

Pop onto the highway and the Cannon is comfortable and easy enough to manage at speed, but it’s here where a few more implementation frustrations come to light.

First up, those indicators are terrible.

The stalk can't manage a light hold to signal a lane change and will leave the indicator flashing, you can't then simply reset to centre without flashing the other side. Indicator stalks aren't new technology. Why this has been seemingly engineered to drive you mad is beyond me.

Then there is the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) tune.

Again, the Cannon has a long list of features, which is great, but unless they work with you… what's the point.

For credit, the general setup is good. Cruise control is activated by its own column-mounted stalk which means you can adjust by feel when on the move. Big tick. Speed increments are in 5km/h blocks, which isn't much fun in Victoria, but does make things nice and easy to manage.

In practice though, it just needs some tweaks. For example even when set at the minimum follow distance, the gap is long. I can see that this is being done for a safety perspective and allows ample reaction and braking time should the car in front need to stop suddenly. However, the real world isn't as forgiving and the gap looks like an invitation to every other car to cut in front, which they do.

Upon sensing a closer vehicle, the GWM throws out the anchors to reestablish the big gap and slows down very quickly, which is not a very smooth or pleasant experience. Basically, if there's heavier traffic you're just better off not using it. Which kind of defeats the purpose.

Lane keep too can be quite aggressive, and where there is a swipe-down shortcut to access this setting on the touch screen, that doesn't work if you're using CarPlay. So again, the implementation of systems designed to make your drive safer simply make the drive more frustrating.

Move onto some regional roads (where ADAS isn't as relevant) and again the Cannon starts to shine. The local GWM team have worked on the suspension tune of this car, and it feels much better for it. Flowing corners and changing surfaces are managed well, and although we found it quite firm and jittery on corrugated gravel, that's more of a trait of an empty load carrying setup and leaf springs rather than a shortfall with the car.

There's a shuttle control to switch between Normal, Eco and Sport drive modes, but we found it wasn't particularly responsive and sometimes required a fair amount of fiddling to actually change a setting. There's no real need to alter though, as the changes in gear holding and steering weights don't fundamentally change the feel of the Cannon on the road. It's a ute. Be a ute. Leave it in Normal.

Step up to something a bit more technical though, and the Cannon will surprise again.

Simply put, this is a very easy and capable car to drive off road. We took it for a loop or two of the Lerderderg 4×4 park, and it was happy to just walk through obstacles without even needing to engage low-range or use the differential lock.

The 4×4 system will deliver drive to the front wheels when it feels a loss of traction, and while sometimes you can feel it figuring this out as you try to climb some steps or negotiate some ruts, for the most part it just… does it.

Where the suspension felt a bit soft around town, here it installs a sense of confidence as the car soaks up bumps and berms with surefootedness.

Engaging low range just makes it feel even more capable, as the very low gearing, combined with a tip of the shifter into manual gear mode, will see you crawl up plenty of reasonably technical obstacles, on highway tyres, without a stress.

Even the surround view camera, which can be a bit fiddly to access, can come in handy over high-side transfers or challenging ruts.

Back to town, with an as-tested average fuel consumption of 8.0L/100km (which aligns with the 8.4L/100km combined claim) and one more technical frustration reared its head.

The buttons on the right-side of the steering wheel control the menus on the instrument display. This allows you to switch between the default ADAS view to see music, telephony and trip data, in theory.

To access this though, you need to hold down a middle button for about three seconds then, assuming nothing changes in front of you, you can change the menu. When something does change; a car changes lanes, a vehicle comes into range, etc, the system returns immediately to the ADAS view. To get back to where you were you need to repeat the frustrating process again.

This isn't safety, this is distracting.

Why is the Ford Ranger such a successful vehicle? Not least of all, because when developing the current-generation ute, Ford engineers sat down with existing owners and learned how they used their cars, taking particular note of what worked best for the all-important HMI (Human Machine Interface) interactions.

The fundamental finding? Useability is key.

Simply having functions and features on the brochure isn't enough anymore, they need to work intuitively and within the context of the vehicle's role, and sadly, much of the tech in the new Cannon doesn't. Yet.

I say 'yet', partly to create a bit of drama on the page, but mainly because this week GWM Australia have committed to investing in local Australian development for the vehicles, for both software (screens, sensors etc) and hardware (suspension, transmission etc).

This is crucial for supporting GWM's local goal to not just lead competitors from China, but to take on Japanese stalwarts like Nissan and Mitsubishi in key market areas. Knowing how the Cannon is today, but considering how it could be tomorrow – with a few useability and configuration improvements – makes this fundamentally impressive platform something to pay even closer attention to.

It’s a pity that silly little things let the Cannon down so much, but I will say that the $43,490 out-the-door sticker and seven-year warranty (even for ABN buyers) does let you forgive an awful lot of frustrations.

Four years ago the GWM Ute redefined what a big value challenger brand could do in the burgeoning work-and-play ute market, but now, perhaps emboldened by its strong new naming convention, the GWM Cannon is poised to move beyond 'challenger' and mix it up with the established players.

To know that the brand is committed to better developing and aligning its vehicles to our market is great, it's just that we want to see some of that effort filter down into the simple useability side of things. To present great value is one thing, but to have a great product is even better.

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