Wey delay! Chinese premium brand won’t get up and rolling till 2027

GWM’s premium brand Wey is still a work in progress in Australia, with its big promotional push and product roll-out not happening until 2027.

Pitched as a BYD Denza rival, Wey was originally announced as a 2026 market entrant in October 2025. The original report confirms Wey for Australia and says the exact local lineup and pricing were yet to be finalised.

As recently as September, carsales reported on the homologation of the G9 people-mover in HEV and PHEV forms. It was expected to be the launch model.

It appears GWM is still planning to soft-launch the G9 this year with at least a price announcement. But the brand, which joins Cannon, Tank, Ora and Haval under the GWM Australia umbrella, won’t get up and rolling properly until 2027.

That will mean it joins HQ, Avatr and Exlantix (at least!) as new premium Chinese brands coming to Australia in 2027. The linked carsales coverage supports the 2027 timing for those brands.

“Just things we're going to work through in the back end in terms of just getting the product portfolio right, working out the timings, working through a few things with the network, etcetera. A whole load of things,” said GWM Australia marketing and communications chief Steve Maciver.

“In terms of launching a new sub-brand, that doesn't happen overnight, so we've just got to make sure we get that right.”

Maciver confirmed investigation of the Wey V9X SUV was part of the consideration now underway.

Wey models are included in GWM’s plan to launch 14 new or updated models in 2027 as it strives to climb from seventh to fifth in the sales rankings. The longer-term goal is the top three.

“It's [V9X] an incredible product. It's an incredible, large SUV. We're considering that.

“That's on the radar. When we see a product like that, which can be made available to us, if we've got an ambition to be a top three brand, we'd be crazy not to have a look at that.”

The six-seat V9X is Wey’s flagship luxury SUV, offered in China in 5205mm and 5299mm lengths. Its equipment includes air suspension, adaptive dampers, rear-wheel steering and 21-inch alloy wheels.

Its plug-in hybrid system combines a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine, two electric motors and all-wheel drive, producing up to 550kW and 930Nm. Depending on the version, claimed electric range is 240–363km WLTC, while the flagship can accelerate to 100km/h in a claimed 4.6sec and recharge from 30–80 per cent in nine minutes (claimed).

Chinese-market cabin equipment includes Nappa leather, heated, ventilated and massaging seats, second-row captain’s chairs, multiple entertainment screens, a 31-speaker audio system and a refrigerator.

Wey dealers will be selected members of the existing GWM lineup. That’s unlike fellow Chinese giant Chery, which is developing separate dealer networks for many of its brands.

“We will insist on one GWM. Our strategy is different from others,” said GWM Australia managing director Andrew Gao. “We don’t have five or six or seven or nine or 10 networks.”

Being the marketer he is, Maciver painted the situation going forward in the best possible light.

“For a brand like Wey, it's important that we have a product strategy that extends into a number of different models.

“We have to have that right and we have to have that bedded down before we launch.

“We're getting closer to that, but certainly products like V9X are conversations we are having right now to work out where we could get that car and what that would look like and what Wey in its totality would look like.

“We've got to understand what's Wey's future 12, 18, 24 months ahead and that's the bit we're trying to work through now, just to give us certainty that we're ready.”

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