GWM’s Wey brand is getting another shot in the arm. Meet the V8X.
Big, bold, expensive? Yes. Pack with a V8 engine? Not a chance. The name is a bit of a tease. It shares its skin with the flagship V9X unveiled earlier this year, but this is a different beast. Files from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technologies, spotted by CarNewsChina, show it’s hitting the ground in China fast. It’s electric. Pure and simple.
It sits comfortably for five people.
Visually? Indistinguishable from the V9X at a distance. You’d have to get close. Real close. The V8X pulls in its weight at roughly 5,000 to 5,040 mm. The V9X stretches out to a lazy 5,205 mm. Maybe longer if you get the extended wheelbase variant. That puts the V8X right in the ring with the Tank 500. Size-wise. But the V8X sheds the body-on-frame toughness for a sleeker unibody chassis. More car, less truck.
A car-like unibody in a package this large changes the dynamics entirely.
Under the floor lives a serious battery and a lot of electric muscle. Two motors. One on the front pushing 220 kW, the other at the back hammering out 320 kW. Add it up and you’ve got 540 kW of combined output. All-wheel drive handles the rest. The wheelbase clocks in at 2,968 mm, a slight compromise compared to the standard V9X’s 3,050 mm stretch.
Why the electric focus here when the V9X gets hybrid, PHEV, and pure gas options? GWM is playing a numbers game in China, already selling the V9X with turbo-four engines and varying battery sizes. The V8X seems like the electric purist’s entry point.
Inside? It’s a tech palace. If it follows the V9X blueprint. Expect a massive 29-inch augmented reality heads-up display. It floats right in front of you. There’s a 12.3-inch cluster for the driver. And a pair of 17.3-inch touchscreens. One for you. One for your passenger, so they don’t have to bother you during long trips.
That’s not all. The second row gets a dedicated 21.4-inch screen. The doors slam shut softly, automatically. The audio system fires 31 speakers with a 3,080W amp. And yes. A fridge. Heating and cooling. Because if you aren’t serving cold water at 120 km/h, what’s the point?
Is this coming to Australia?
Wey is confirmed for a mid-2026 launch here. GWM has kept the model lineup under wraps. They treat Wey, along with Haval, Ora, and Tank, as sub-brands under the main GWM umbrella. The cars wear a GWM badge out back and their own specific logo out front.
They mentioned expanding into “large SUV and MPV segments” to kickstart their premium strategy in Australia.
Which brings up the question: Which models make the cut?
In China, the Wey range is lean. Just four models, now five with the V8X. You have the V9X. The Mocha SUV, which has been around since 2021. It’s aging. Unlikely to cross the ocean. The Blue Mountain SUV, born in 2023, has a better chance. And then there’s the Gaoshan. A luxury people-mover. It’s already built for right-hand drive in Asia as the GWM Wey PHEV MPV.
If the Gaoshan shows up, it goes straight after the GAC M8 and the growing crowd of premium Chinese MPVs.
Zeekr is arriving. Avatr is next. Hongqi is sniffing around too. The floodgates are opening for Chinese premium brands. Wey just needs to decide what fits in the bucket. For now, we wait. The V8X might not even come to our shores. It’s hard to say.
