A giant Great Wall Canon pickup truck, seen at a Great Wall dealer on a car market in north east Beijing in early 2020. The truck looked stylish in dark blue with a big shiny grille, sporty wheels, and cool LED lights.
The naming of the Cannon is a bit confusing, as is often the case with Great Wall vehicles. The company name is Great Wall Motors (GWM). The brand is Great Wall. The type name is Cannon. So far so easy.
But GWM has since turned Cannon from a single car to a series of cars. So now you got the naming like this: GWM Great Wall Gun XXX. The 2020 pickup truck on the photos, however, dates back from when Cannon was still just a single vehicle. The Cannon is also known as the Pao, the Poer, and, more recently, as the P-Series. The Chinese name is 炮, ‘pao’, which means, depending on context, cannon, gun, or artillery.
Even from the beginning, the Cannon had its own distinctive logo on the grille, depicting the muzzle of a cannon.
The Canon is a double-cab pickup truck with a large cabin and a relatively short bed. The wheel arches are clad in gray plastic and it has a chromed rack in the back.
The 18 inch wheels seem way too small for the car. We see that a lot with Chinese car makers. They fit smaller wheels in a bid to reduce fuel consumption. That may work, but it looks very odd.
The interior on the other hand looks great for the segment. There is a shipload of faux leather and other nice materials. The instrument panel if fully digital and it has a large screen in the center. But that screen doesn’t control very much really, as most functions are accessed by the many buttons and dials on the stack and tunnel.
The Great Wall Canon is rated as a 5-seat car. Size: 5362/1883/1884, with a 3230 wheelbase and a 2005 kilo curb weight.
The Canon is available with two engines: a 2.0 turbo diesel and a 2.0 turbo petrol, like the car we have here. Output is 190 hp and 360 Nm. The motor is mated to an 8-speed automatic, sending horses to all four wheels. The Canon as it stands here sells for 121.800 yuan.
Great Wall also sells several more basic models with less expensive trim, a 6-speed manual and 2WD. The base-base model costs 107.800 yuan.
Character time! 长城汽车, Changcheng Qiche, Great Wall Motors.
The Great Wall logo on the rear. The logo depicts a watch tower at the Great Wall of China.
长城炮, Changcheng Pao, Great Wall Canon.
Size of the bed is: 1520/1520/538, with a load capacity of 500 kilo. Note the two Hongqi H7 sedans in the background.
The Canon is a fine truck and it is quite popular in China, and it is exported to several countries including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Thailand.