GWM Cannon Alpha 2024 Review

The 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid is the flagship of the Chinese brand’s new GWM Cannon Alpha ute line-up and is priced at $64,990 drive-away.

While this model is a petrol-electric plug-less hybrid, there are two other orthodox members of the range powered by a 2.4-litre turbo-diesel engine.

They are the 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Lux Turbo Diesel, priced from $51,990 drive-away, and the GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Turbo Diesel, starting at $57,990 drive-away.

The bigger brother of the GWM Cannon Ute that’s been on sale in Australia since 2021, the Cannon Alpha sits above the stars of the Aussie ute segment such as the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux in terms of size, but below them on price, especially when an equipment comparison is made.

It’s more like what equipment doesn’t come with the 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid!

Starting with what you can see from the outside you’ll find 18-inch alloy wheels, roof rails, a panoramic sunroof, LED headlights and lashings of chrome. Yep, it’s imposing.

Curiously, while the tray has a spray-in tub liner and lighting, it misses out on a sports bar – standard fit for most top-end utes – and a cover.

However, it does have the funkiest tailgate known to utedom. Depending on how long you press the button within the Cannon logo, it can split in two horizontally or do the expected thing and drop down in one piece.

It is quite handy depending on whether you’re loading, unloading or just checking on stuff in the tray. Hopefully, it’s robust enough to cope with inevitably rough treatment and roads.

Inside, the Ultra Hybrid has an equipment list more like a luxury car than a work ute. That’s emphasised by its garish wood trim, soft-touch upholstery and 64-colour ambient lighting that can be set up to flash in time with music. Off thanks.

GWM is gonna sell a bunch of Alpha Ultra Hybrid utes based on the price and the impression they make standing in the showroom… Which is handy for GWM for reasons we’ll get to later.

Accessed keylessly, the Ultra’s cabin includes leather-accented seats, dual-zone climate control with rear vents, a heated multifunction steering wheel, and an electric sliding rear window.

The seats are a story on their own. The driver gets eight-way power adjust plus memory and a welcome function that pushes the seat back to make it easier to enter. The front passenger seat gets six-way power adjustment.

But that’s not all. The rear outboard seats power-recline to a very relaxed position and they also get a welcome function and the ability to adjust the front passenger seat, just like in a luxury saloon.

Front and rear seats can be heated or cooled and something called a ‘bladder massage’ is on offer for front seat passengers.

The Cannon Alpha range is protected by a seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, seven years’ roadside assist and seven years of capped-price servicing.

At the time of writing, GWM hadn’t released service intervals – it’s expected to be 12 months and 15,000km – or the cost of visiting the workshop.

GWM Australia is forecasting the 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha range will score a maximum five-star ANCAP rating based on the latest protocols. Usually, car companies avoid such bold predictions.

The drive assist technology is extensive in the Alpha and there are a baffling number of acronyms on the spec sheet.

But what it boils down to is this: the Ultra Hybrid will brake for obstacles front and rear autonomously, use its cameras and sensors to do its best to keep you in your lane, monitor blind spots, the driver, the speed limit, tyre pressures and – no doubt – much more.

There are seven airbags, front and rear parking sensors (in fact 12 in total), a comprehensive 360-degree camera with even a transparent chassis view, auto parking and an auto reverse function that tracks the car back the way it has come for a short distance. That’s handy for getting out of a narrow driveway at night, for instance.

In concert with the trims and things, the 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra ute’s huge infotainment screens are going to reinforce the interior impression of luxury.

A 14.6-inch touch-screen protrudes from the dashboard while a 12.3-inch instrument cluster is embedded in front of the driver. There’s also a head-up display projected onto the windscreen.

Features include wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto, embedded satellite navigation, Bluetooth streaming, AM/FM and digital radio and a 10-speaker Infinity audio system. A connected car app is a new feature for GWM.

There are USB ports front and rear and – in a rare touch – wireless smartphone chargers in the rear as well as the front.

The Cannon Alpha also has voice recognition, but it just ignored me. It responded straight away to my colleague Nadine Armstrong though. So go figure.

The 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra’s powertrain concept is familiar to anyone who read our recent review of the GWM Tank 500 Hybrid SUV.

In fact, these two also share a significant amount of their underpinnings as well. Think of it a bit like the way the Ford Ranger and Everest piggyback.

In the GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid’s case, the hybrid system combines a 180kW/380Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine tuned to the efficiency-chasing Miller Cycle and a 78kW/268Nm e-motor mounted between the ICE and a nine-speed automatic transmission.

The e-motor is fed by a small 1.76kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

The combined powertrain output is claimed to be 255kW/648Nm. As we’ve previously pointed out, the torque number is interesting because it is the max outputs of the petrol engine and e-motor simply added up.

Often the combined torque number for hybrids is smaller than that because peak outputs are produced at different parts of the respective rev ranges. Toyota doesn’t even publish a combined torque figure for hybrids.

Further along the driveline, the Cannon Alpha and Tank 500 start to deviate. The ute has a part-time 4x4 system so it can’t run in 4x4 high-range on grippy (bitumen) surfaces.

Off-road it has no wheel-locking tank turn, off-road cruise control or off-road modes. But it does retain low range and dual diff locks. It has only three drive modes while the Tank 500 has nine.

GWM makes it quite clear that it developed the 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha ute’s hybrid system with a focus on performance rather than economy.

The official fuel economy number is 9.8L/100km, which sounds kinda diesel-ish. It also helps the budget that the engine will run on regular 91RON unleaded.

The tank (as in fuel, not 500) measures up at 80 litres so there’s a theoretically viable trekking range on offer.

Shift to the real world and a 650km trip with two passengers, a light load, lots of low-rpm freeway cruising and some suburban stop-start returned a 10.9L/100km average.

That is going to spiral once you go off-road, tow or haul a load. Or do all three at once! So traditional diesel still has the upper hand on that score.

So, let’s consider what we’re dealing with here. The 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid is only 35mm longer than the GWM Cannon Ute at 5445mm, 57mm wider at 1991mm and 38mm taller at 1924mm. But it also has a 120mm longer wheelbase at 3350mm.

The Ultra weighs in at 2575kg, so it’s a big sucker. It employs a ladder frame, double-wishbone front suspension and a combination of leaf springs and a rigid axle at the rear. Steering is electric-assist rack and pinion and disc brakes (ventilated up front) are employed all-round.

Alrighty then. You might remember the earlier reference to the importance of static showroom impressions in wooing buyers to the Cannon Alpha Ultra.

That’s because it will lose friends once it starts rolling.

Not because the underlying mechanical package is seriously flawed. It’s all the stuff laid over the top that is the problem.

The lane keeping police snatch at the steering wheel (not as egregiously as some systems but still obviously), the driver monitoring goes off at the slightest hint your eyes have strayed from the straight ahead – even to look at the relevant info on the touch-screen – and then gives you a follow-up lecture. Every time.

Transgress the speed limit and there’s a ‘bing’ gently resonating. Engage the adaptive cruise control and a disembodied voice reminds you to keep paying attention.

Ah, the cruise control… sheesh. The stalk is also hidden out of sight behind the steering wheel spoke – not helpful. At some point the resume function also stopped working. And the minimum detection gap to the car in front was too conservative, so the Ultra would start to slow down well before it needed to.

If you do get too close to the car in front – according to the Alpha’s sensors – then red warnings flash in the instrument panel, accompanied by the inevitable beeps. The rear cross traffic alert also lit up at one stage when reversing out of my driveway – brought the car to a halt for no apparent reason.

Activate the soft-touch indicators and it’s almost impossible to switch them off. If you see a Cannon Alpha driving straight ahead but alternately indicating left or right it’s not because the driver is indecisive. It’s because the bloody indicators are so over-reactive.

Now some of this stuff can be switched off and it stays off. Some of it must be switched off every time the car is started. Naturally, it’s located under several different drop-down sub-menus in the touch-screen!

And some of it – like the cruise control admonishment and the crap blinkers – you just have to put up with.

Eliminate or reduce as many of these irritants as possible and you’re left with a ute that drives acceptably.

The powertrain is healthily responsive, although not as strong as the raw numbers suggest. It’s supposed to have more torque than a Ford Ranger Raptor but that just can’t be the case. Part of the drag on the Ultra is its weight, but that alone isn’t the issue. Some optimistic arithmetic maybe?

There are more calibration issues here. Throttle modulation at tip-in is unpredictable. Press … nothing … press more … a little response … press more …. Woah, a lot of response! It’s a bit like a Volkswagen dual-clutch.

When the system gels the e-motor kicks in to provide a smooth and quiet take-off. The petrol engine adds power and helps move the vehicle along at a lively rate. It’s a reedy, quiet noise under throttle and a very different experience to the usual clattery turbo-diesel.

Calibration – there’s that word again – of the relationship with the automatic is not the best. There are clunks and shunts and a sense of gears not always meshing 100 per cent. It can also be busy down low with so many stacked gears to work through.

Perhaps the most frustrating bit is the hit-and-miss way the gear lever decides whether to engage, or not, or shift through drive into manual mode. Yep, that can be put down to operator error by not engaging the détente button properly. But does it have to be this fussy?

And what of the handling and steering? The latter can be tuned through three settings that noticeably vary weighting. But they are consistent in the way they all feel isolated from the vehicle. It’s not objectionable, just not convincingly integrated.

Unsurprisingly, the Ultra Hybrid feels big, long and ponderous on the road. It sets a course and tries to follow it.

Early-onset front-wheel pushing (understeer) is no surprise. But there’s also lots of intrusions from the conservatively tuned stability and traction control reminiscent of the way Toyotas used to be shut down to a crawl by their sensors.

The best dynamic feature of the Ultra is undoubtedly the ride. It’s a tad on the soft side at the rear, there is a constant small patter on what looks like smooth roads and some frame shake on the rougher stuff. But it holds its composure well overall.

Combine that with the cabin quietness and it’s a nice vehicle for long-distance highway travel.

Okay, so let’s check out the key numbers for the 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra when it comes to off-roading.

The ground clearance is 224mm, the wading depth is 800mm, the approach angle is 28.5 degrees, the breakover 19 degrees and the departure angle 23 degrees. The turning circle is a sizeable 13 metres.

The combination of high and low range and diff locks mean the Ultra can deal with off-road obstacles up to the quite challenging.

The throttle modulation can make things a bit less pleasant. And it’s just getting to the size where it’s slightly harder to manoeuvre in the tight stuff than smaller utes like the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux.

The key numbers when it comes to carrying stuff in the 2024 Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid are just a tad disappointing.

Its maximum payload is only 735kg and it’s too narrow between the wheel-arches to fit an Aussie pallet.

It can tow 3500kg braked – which is good – but once you crunch the numbers on gross vehicle mass (GVM), the payload comes out at 385kg – which is mediocre.

It is significantly better than the new Toyota HiLux SR5 48V auto (200kg), but is well shy of the Mitsubishi Triton GLS (665kg) and the Ford Ranger XLT biturbo (586kg).

We’ve already spent a lot of time on how impressive the cabin presentation and materials of the 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid’s interior are, so we won’t reprise a lot of that.

Importantly, there are more big ticks for seat comfort and adjustability, passenger room and the storage available for their everyone’s stuff.

Rear seat space and equipment is amazing. Unlike most utes, the Ultra is capable of adult-friendly long-distance travel. This thing could be an Uber.

There is no other ute this side of the full-size American pick-ups such as the Ford F-150 and RAM 1500 that provide this sort of pampering and real estate for their occupants. That the Ultra Hybrid does it for about half the money says a lot.

There are nice detail touches front and rear: a softly damped cover in the centre console, a small sliding lid in the centre console bin, large door pockets with dividers and slide-out containers under the rear seats.

So, what lets it down? Well, there’s just too much drilling into the touch-screen to get stuff done.

Despite a row of hard buttons for the air-conditioning, you still must tap away into the touch-screen to adjust temperature.

And there’s no way I could find on the dashboard to adjust volume. Its either done through the steering wheel or touch-screen (or voice, if you can get it to pay attention).

The instrument cluster is a curiosity. The space devoted to the speedo is small and there’s no permanent tacho.

There are two views on offer – one is a 3D graphic showing where the Alpha sits in traffic. Thanks, I have eyes. The other version bleeds the embedded sat-nav map across the screen. It can also display your smartphone map, but only a small portion of it.

There are other minor irritations. The circular black plastic key fob – shaped like the Cannon logo – is easy to get lost in the recesses of the storage bins; the driver doesn’t get an A-pillar grab-handle; the B-pillar is thick and obscuring for a head-check; and it’s easy to turn the headlights off when operating that bloody indicator stalk.

There’s much to like about the 2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid. It’s keenly priced, incredibly well equipped, backed up by a long and reassuring warranty and delivers sprawling space inside.

There’s also evidence the core driving experience – while a bit rough and rugged around the edges – has improved enough to at least be acceptable by the coarse standards applied to utes.

Off-road it is very solid and the overall performance of the hybrid drivetrain is more evidence of how electrification can work for utes.

But there’s still stuff here that needs to be better. The undersized payload – especially when towing – will put some people off, as will some of the drivetrain calibration shortfalls.

But ultimately the GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid ute disappoints because of all the fussing and farting around with monitors and controls. They are just so crazily irritating it’s impossible to imagine living with them every day.

If that stuff was more sympathetically tuned, could be turned off once and left off (if appropriate) and the endless lectures extinguished, then this would be a brilliantly priced, exceptionally equipped ute with ordinary but acceptable driving manners.

It would deservedly sell heaps.

But for now, if you like the GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid when you sit in it in the showroom, do make sure you drive it before signing your money over.

2024 GWM Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid at a glance:
Price: $64,990 (drive-away)
Available: Now
Powertrain: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol-electric
Output: 180kW/380Nm (electric motor: 78kW/268Nm)
Combined output: 255kW/648Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel: 9.8L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 225g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested