Cannon ready to fire at big guns?

China’s high calibre ute seems close to releasing in New Zealand, the launch tying to a maker rebrand.

GWM’s latest shot … the Black Bullet edition of the Cannon/Ute was revealed at the Beijing motor show several days ago.

SO it’s the Cannon though the family might be simply called ‘Ute’, the maker has shortened its name from Great Wall Motors to simply GWM …. and expectation is that it will fire into New Zealand by the end of the year, in three double cab derivatives.

That’s the latest about the long-awaited big one-tonne wellside that was first shown to media, including this writer, at the international Shanghai motor show in April in 2019.

Back then it was designated a concept, yet appeared 100 percent production-ready, and it’s now at that state. 

The showroom fit versions look basically identically to the design study and have already spawned a special edition, called the Black Bullet, that was a star of last week’s Beijing motor show.

A replacement for the Great Wall Steed line that has been offered in New Zealand for some years, the Cannon/Ute is nonetheless a wholly fresh start, with no significant carry-over components.

The Ute unveiled in this Adventure specification last year. The kit-out was comprehensive and impressive.

Its promise is such that Great Wall Motors has also decided to rename as well; so, from end of year, it’ll be GWM, selling via the sales network established for Haval, GWM’s parent.

Haval has contributed the ute’s basic underpinning – it’s shared with the H9 H9 sports utility that came on sale in New Zealand in 2018.

Impression from considering the models at Shanghai – which ran from a hard-out off-road flagship (tagged Adventure on the stand) to a more streetwise ‘Urban Spec’ cruiser edition, both with a 120kW 2.0-litre turbodiesel and in four-wheel-drive, and something new to the sector, a full-out electric edition, in rear-drive – suggests Cannon/Ute has the size, drivetrains and equipment provision to be considered much more of a threat within the sector than its predecessor. 

Reports overnight from Australia suggest GWM, which runs out of Australia but with Auckland-sited representation consisting of just two employees with former Sime Darby and Jeep senior exec Todd Groves in charge, is good to go.

Pricing for Australia and NZ is understood to have been settled and the prospect is that both countries will share common specifications, spanning three distinct trim levels.

First examples are seemingly set to arrive in December, though launch proper might be delayed until January. 

The Black Bullet appears to keep many of the features seen on the Adventure.

China has been coy about releasing too much detail about the powerplant, though reports say a torque figure of around 400Nm seems likely. The transmission choice is as indicated at Shanghai; so a six-speed manual and eight-speed automatic transmission. Steed was manual-only.

A teaser site for the new ute operating in Australia suggests a 9.0-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capabilities will be standard.

Lane-keep assist, front and rear parking sensors and an extendable ladder to access the tray will be available for some variants.

Best in class leg room is also promised. The Adventure concept was impressively spacious in the rear and the bench seat was comfortable for a ute, largely though the seat back being set at an angle, rather than placed fully upright as it common it utes.

Suspension is independent up front, with a leaf-sprung axle at the rear, typical of the dual-cab segment.

Bosch all-terrain technology for the 4x4 system is promised. A year ago GWM promised their production edition would deliver a seven setting All-Terrain Control System, three diff locks and a feature you generally have to purchase from an after-market specialist: A built-in winch.

 Groves has been approached for comment.

the ‘Urban Spec’ edition was also shown at Shanghai.

Crumpy spirit ... and the pride of Aussie

Everything good arriving with the update of a Kiwi icon ute is due to Ocker influence. Apparently.

 "I'M sure if Hilux could talk, it would definitely have a strong Aussie accent." 

Yes, he really said that. ‘He’ being Toyota Australia's general manager of product planning and development.

Rod Ferguson claims a one-tonner whose Kiwiness is a core sales strength here is “more Australian than ever.”

The comment is based on the high degree of development work behind the model’s mid-life facelift having been undertaken across the Tasman.

Now just weeks from national introduction, the updated line – whose NZ pricing was announced today - is core to Toyota New Zealand putting any effort into renewing effort to regain ute market leadership.

It held that position with ease for more two decades until the pesky Ford Ranger turned up and nabbed the crown more than half a decade ago.

Hilux conceivably has a chance to get back on top, not this year but perhaps in 2021, which will be when Ford ends sale of the current Ranger and swaps to a new model that becomes a co-share with Volkswagen. Ford is leading that project, so the new Amarok will be a Ranger in engineering though probably not in look. 

Toyota NZ has worked hard to cement Hilux as a Kiwi icon; that effort beginning in earnest in the 1980s with advertising involving total Kiwi bloke, Barry Crump.

Back then, too, it used to host Japanese engineers keen to understand what New Zealanders wanted from their utes. Occasionally, pre-releasing testing was undertaken here.

However, what happened then – and hasn’t happened here for years – pales into insignificance in comparison with the rework job of the current Hilux that Japan headquarters has entrusted to Toyota Australia. 

Detail of that project has been revealed to an information pack that has circulated to media across the Tasman. 

Ferguson claims his design and engineering teams were entrusted with undertaking significant styling, development and evaluation work that finetunes the international specification.

In other short, that means the Hilux coming to us is all thanks to them.

Ferguson says Toyota Australia played a considerable role in styling the exterior of the Hilux range, as part of an international team, to the extent they had transformed the styling to align it more closely with the global Toyota ute and truck family.

Engineers from the brand’s Melbourne-based operation had focused on evaluating and helping to develop upgrades to power and torque, suspension and steering.

The combined effort from the Australian teams – who worked extensively with their Toyota counterparts in Japan and Thailand – has delivered the bolder looks while offering even stronger performance, enhanced ride comfort and a more precise steering feel.

"Being awarded this project was a real feather in the cap for our team - and a tribute to the level of design capability we have at Toyota Australia," Ferguson said.

"In addition, our vehicle evaluation team was instrumental in the global development of the 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine and improvements to the way it rides and handles across a wide variety of conditions," he said.

"I'm sure if Hilux could talk, it would definitely have a strong Aussie accent."

Toyota Australia's product design manager Peter Elliott said the brief was to develop a simple and strong athletic pick-up truck, a vehicle that was tough and genuine.

"From the beginning, our sketches investigated bold and tough themes that centred on a larger, more vertical trapezoid grille enhanced by an upper bonnet moulding and lower bumper components that lock into the grille surround," Mr Elliott said.

"The headlamps have been moved outboard and they now connect with the distinctly chiselled bumper corners, linking the design. We progressed through clay models and CAD, evolving the idea to be cohesive with the rest of the vehicle, while maintaining maximum visual impact.

"The final design was milled as a full-size clay model and shipped to Japan, where it was well received as a bold step forward with a strong Toyota DNA."

Development and evaluation of the 2.8-litre engine - which now develops 150kW and up to 500Nm with a recalibrated six-speed electronic automatic transmission (and 420Nm with the six-speed manual) - suspension and steering in Australia was conducted in collaboration with teams from Japan and Thailand, as well as representatives from ‘other’ markets. Presumably that means someone from Toyota NZ got to ride along.

Toyota Australia's vehicle evaluation manager Ray Munday said Australian road conditions cover more than 80 percent of the different environments around the world, and local customers are some of the toughest Hilux users.

Munday said higher engine output, particularly with a wider and flatter torque curve, had resulted in significantly improved acceleration, overtaking and towing.

Toyota engineers claim to have improved performance and fuel economy simultaneously by adopting a larger, heavy-duty turbocharger with a ball-bearing cartridge for exceptionally crisp and strong throttle response, and a new common-rail injection system with a higher maximum fuel pressure of 250 MPa.

Fuel economy is also said to benefit from a new combustion chamber that reduces cooling losses and more efficient exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) in the intake manifold. A water-cooled double-pipe pre-cooler results in optimum EGR gas temperature.

On SR and SR5, drivers can choose two modes: ECO which reduces throttle response in favour of fuel economy and reduces power consumption for heating and cooling; and POWER to provide sharper acceleration response for a more engaging drive on undulating and winding roads.

Munday said the six-speed automatic transmission had been recalibrated to allow earlier lockup for improved acceleration and cooling performance, especially while towing.

HE has also opened up about the suspension rework. The models introduce longer leaf springs to suppress road vibrations, wider spacing of the springs for stability while cornering under load, and revised attachment points to promote steering stability.

The 2020 facelift has resulted in retuning of spring rates, shock absorbers and suspension bushes as well as revised cabin mounts. These improvements are designed to deliver a more agile handling response and improving ride comfort, particularly when unladen on country roads and over speed humps.

"The ride comfort of the rear suspension has been noticeably improved when driving without a load. Importantly, the vehicle maintains the Hilux DNA of being able to carry heavy loads with excellent body control, both on sealed and dirt roads.

"We also confirmed that Hilux maintains its acknowledged off-road traction with the combination of high wheel articulation and traction control systems which have previously been tuned in the real-world customer conditions of Australia.

"In addition, we adopted a variable flow control power-steering pump to provide a more direct steering feel on narrow winding country roads and to reduce steering effort when parking."

Each part of the new package was tested in Australia to confirm that it met the performance targets in real-world customer conditions as well as on test benches and test tracks.

"Importantly, we were able to confirm the cooling performance was maintained in every test we could throw at it - including uphill highway towing with an ambient temperature well over 40 degrees.

"If a vehicle can survive the Australian customer and the Australian environment, it can survive anywhere," Munday said.

MotoringNZ has previously touched on the spread of driver assists incoming, but to remind it has the usual full range of electronic braking and traction-control technologies, emergency stop signal (hazard lights), reversing camera (pick-ups), seven airbags, and seatbelt reminders for all seats. On double-cab variants, the rear seats have two top tether anchors and two ISOFIX points.

Downhill Assist Control is standard on all 4x4 SR5 variants and 4x4 automatic SR double cabs (including cab-chassis). Toyota Safety Sense technologies in HiLux are: a pre-collision system that can also detect pedestrians (day and night) and cyclist (daytime); high-speed active cruise control, and lane-departure alert that offers steering assist (via the brakes) to prevent unintended wandering into another lane. Road-sign assist can now recognise speed advisory signs. New for SR5 double and extra-cab pick-ups are front and four rear sonars to support parking. When the system detects objects, it alerts the driver with a buzzer and a message in the multi information display.

By the way, Ranger fans who see this Aussie influence as something funny should stop smirking now. Their favourite truck underwent exactly the same process and will again, with Ford Melbourne having maintained its role as the Ford model’s primary development centre.

Toyota NZ proposes to launch with 18 Hilux variants, evenly split in rear and four-wheel-drive. The rear drive models start with a 2.7-litre Workmate single cab chassis with automatic at $28,990 and topping with a 2.8TD PreRunner SR5 Cruiser Double Cab automatic for $47,490. The four-wheel-drive range is totally wed to the 2.8-litre and starts with a single cab chassis at $44,990 and tops with a $58,990 SR5 Cruiser double cab auto.

'Rangerok’ - making the best even better

The VW-Ford ute twinning programme will be a win-win for Kiwis.

Ranger, above, and Amarok coming off a common platform will be a win for both, their distributors suggest.

SLEEPING with the enemy will deliver exciting potentials and no obvious problems.

 That’s mutually-held thought from Ford and Volkswagen’s national distributors in response to additional information about the parent brands’ commercial vehicle marriage of convenience that has particular repercussion for the country’s favourite one-tonne traydeck.

Probable release next year of a new Ranger, followed from the start of 2022 by a new Amarok heavily based on the new Ford, is just the opening shot in the makers’ agreement. 

Volkswagen will also lend Ford its MEB electric vehicle and Caddy van architectures in exchange for a foot in the door with US automated drive pioneer Argo A1 (in which Ford has a stake) and the brands will share a one-ton commercial van platform in a deal that will deliver up to eight million vehicles.

The probability of all these undertakings creating impact on the Kiwi scene seems high.

However, in the here and now, focus is on the utes and, given their huge popularity here – not least for Ranger, the Kiwi choice for five years – it’s the new ‘Rangerok’ that is making headlines.

Ford New Zealand communications manager Tom Clancy and Volkswagen New Zealand Commercials boss Kevin Richards are optimistic about how this wll play out.

As much as brand pride demands that each proclaims their current offers to be the best in this hard-fought business, both have enough admiration for each other’s products to agree that a combined effort can only deliver an even better result.

“It’s definitely very promising,” says Clancy. “Whatever we can leverage from VW will be fantastic; they build nice vehicles.” 

He’s driven the current Amarok, which the present Ranger outsells by a factor of more than five-to-one, and likes it.

“It’s very good … it has lots of good points but perhaps delivers to a slightly different market.”

 He foresees the new association producing even more positive potentials than the now-ended relationship with Mazda that spawned the current BT-50 did, simply because the German maker is so much larger and more powerful. 

Richards has the same mindset about the brands being powerhouses. Also, there was no doubting current Ranger’s success was based on it being a well-considered and properly-developed product.

“If you have to partner with anyone in a JV (joint venture) then you partner with the market leader. And that’s what we have chosen to do.

“I legitimately think we have the best ute in the present market because it has been engineered and built 100 percent in Germany.”

Notwithstanding that, Ford clearly has costing advantage from making Ranger in Thailand.

Those plants might well continue to be the source point for next-gen Ranger, but not the new Amarok – latest detail about how the deal works pinpoints a Ford plant in South Africa as having the job of building new Amarok.

That bodes well, Richards says. German-built means good quality but at enough cost to “have given us a ute that is in the upper echelons of pricing.

“What the new deal does is give us a little bit more competitiveness in a segment which is ultra-competitive. It levels the playing field from that regard.

“Also, being from South Africa could mean that we will be right at the top of the queue for supply, as they are a right-hand drive market.”

Clancy says it was heartening the team in Melbourne that had driven the current T6 design were again running the new programme. 

“I cannot go into the likely specific vehicle benefits because we just don’t know about those yet, but the team over in Australia has obviously proven their capabilities, they’re really good at what they do.

“It’s pure speculation about what we will pull out of their vehicles of terms of engineering and design but, overall, it’s definitely very promising.”

Notwithstanding that VW has made clear that the terms of the alliance allow it to achieve “a medium pickup truck engineered and built by Ford”, this still allows the Germans to tune their own product to meet their own demands.

Richards says Wolfsburg headquarters have made clear that VW engineers are working alongside the Ford team and dedicating to tuning the Amarok so that it retains crucial VW DNA, as much in its driving feel and look. This will not be badge-engineering by any means, he says.

“This doesn’t feel as though it will be allowed to get to that level. There’s a way of making joint ventures work and the greater disparity you can have between the two products inevitably leads to the greater success.”

He is certain Ford and VW will have carefully analysed this in light of the poor experience Mercedes Benz had from trying to develop the X-Class from the current Nissan Navara. 

“I’m sure that, if nothing else, that exercise has given them a real set of key learnings and I’d be very surprised if we (VW) didn’t take something away from that.”

So he simply cannot see Amarok entering as “a VW badge on a Ford Ranger”.

“They need to have their own identity and from the feedback I’m getting from Germany, we can expect to see some significant VW design cues integrated. I imagine Ford will want to retain their own identity, and understandably so, and we will retain ours.

“One of the good things about Amarok that has influenced its desirability and maintained its customer base is that it is quite sophisticated in terms of how it drives. I feel that is something we will want to maintain. We might maintain that sophistication and allow Ford to take theirs into a more rough and rugged territory.”

What’s also heartening is expectation that another V6 will be in the mix, though this time it will be from Ford.

Suggestion is that current Amarok’s six-cylinder, which now puts 190kW in all current versions sold here, is to be dropped for a newly-developed Ford Power Stroke 3.0-litre V6 turbo diesel, recently bolted into Ford F150 pick-ups, where it produces 186kW and 596Nm. This will also replace the Ranger’s 3.2-litre five-cylinder. The models seem also set to continue with a four-cylinder turbodiesel.

Continuing in V6 will be great for Amarok, given the current edition now primarily sells in that format, Richards acknowledges. 

However, keeping a smaller engine in the mix as well is also important. He says it is interesting that Ranger is doing so well, now, with its 2.0-litre biturbo – basically, it’s a proof of VW being on the right track – if perhaps a little prematurely - when it released Amarok a decade ago in the same format.

“Since we brought the V6 in for Amarok in 2016 it has made up a huge proportion of our sales over the 2.-litre. Ford having gone the other way, from starting with the 3.2 and now offering the 2.0-litre is really interesting.

“I think we have established the V6 in the market as the product to have and I we would like to keep it.  My git feel is that we will get another V6 and it will continue to achieve the lion’s share of sales volume.”

Notwithstanding, indication from within the partner brands is that the new platform is designed to accommodate something new to both models - a high-performance plug-in hybrid (PHEV) drive – also excites Richards.

“I think a plug-in hybrid … gives a ‘best of both worlds.’ It would be something we would be exceptionally interested and I think we have a lot of customers who drive our product currently who would be interested, because it would suit their lifestyle.

“We have a strong Auckland customer base and the ability to drive all week on electric when you might have a 12km route that takes 90 minutes to accomplish … well, it’s perfect. You could save the conventional power for the weekend driving. That rings a lot of bells.”

That a PHEV would also likely introduce petrol power to Amarok holds no problems. It’s a recognised application and also might give the model a chance of competing in North America.

“I don’t think it would hinder the Kiwi appetite to try it (PHEV).”

Release timings? Nothing exact, but it’s thought Ford as programme lead gets dibs, akin to the Isuzu/Mazda arrangement which gives the D-Max a market introduction advantage of some months over the BT-50.

Clancy declined to add fuel to thought about this leaving Ford with an expected ETA of late-2021. “We have no information about launch timings.”

He says Ford NZ remains delighted by current Ranger’s massive imprint on the NZ scene and expects it to continue being a strong seller for the remainder of its production cycle.

Richards also confirms current Amarok’s availability will continue right up until the new one arrives.

Meantime, the EV sharing programme has fuelled conjecture that Ford could deliver 600,000 electric vehicles atop the MEB architecture, which is the basis of VW’s ID programme. 

Ford’s vehicle will be designed and engineered by Ford in Cologne, Germany, and is expected to become a smaller sister ship to its own all-electric Mustang Mach-E, which will be introduced in 2021.

Additionally, the companies will both work with Argo AI to form distinct, highly capable autonomous-vehicle businesses based on Argo AI’s self-driving technology, a pitch which will create the world’s largest geographic deployment potential of any autonomous driving technology to date.