It’s official: the facelifted GWM P-Series is scheduled to touch down in South Africa in the opening quarter of 2025, wearing the P300 badge and gaining a new engine option…
GWM South Africa has confirmed to Cars.co.za that the facelifted P-Series is scheduled to launch locally in the opening quarter of 2025. Slotting in below the super-sized P500, the refreshed version of the Chinese firm’s bakkie looks set to debut the P300 badge, while also gaining a new engine option.
Desmond Els, Sales Director at GWM South Africa, confirmed the brand’s upcoming P-Series plans to Cars.co.za during a wide-ranging interview conducted inside a custom-built podcast booth at Naamsa’s recent South African Auto Week 2024 in Cape Town.
“The P-Series, as it stands today, is on runout phase. We’re busy running out the current model, which was introduced to the South African market around the [end of 2020]. It’s time for the vehicle to have its official facelift,” he told us.
“The P300 is on its way and will be reaching South African shores in the 1st quarter of next year [2025],” added Els, who recently completed his 1st year with GWM SA, having previously worked at Renault, Suzuki and – most recently – Nissan.
As with the outgoing P-Series portfolio, GWM SA plans to offer both commercial- and passenger-spec versions of the P300. However, Els furthermore told us that while commercial derivatives will again employ the familiar 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine, passenger-spec variants will be available with a choice of either this motor or the newer 2.4-litre turbodiesel unit.
As a reminder, the 2.0-litre oil-burning mill makes 120 kW and 400 Nm, while the new 2.4-litre (likewise 4-cylinder) turbodiesel engine generates peak outputs of 135 kW and 480 Nm, with drive delivered via a 9-speed automatic transmission rather than the 8-speeder mated to the smaller-capacity engine. Codenamed GW4D24, this 2.4-litre motor debuted in the P500 that launched locally in August 2024.
While other local specification details have yet to be divulged, it’s worth noting the facelifted P-Series on offer in China features a new grille design, along with a restyled front bumper housing updated foglamps. The wheel-arch extensions, too, have been tweaked. Inside, the revised Chinese-spec P-Series gains a freestanding 7-inch colour LCD instrument cluster and a new 12.3-inch touchscreen (as opposed to the old integrated 9-inch item) that likewise sits proud of the facia.
The cabin seems to employ fewer physical controls than before, which suggests more functions have been moved to the touchscreen, while we also spotted new steering-wheel and automatic gear-shifter designs as well as a change in orientation for the air vents (from vertical to a more conventional horizontal layout).
As a reminder, the outgoing P-Series range launched in SA in December 2020. The local line-up currently comprises 17 derivatives (4 single cabs, 8 “commercial” double cabs and 5 “passenger” double cabs) – if you don’t count the trio of new P500 variants, that is – with pricing running from R413 050 to R694 950.
Over the opening 9 months of 2024, GWM has registered 2 852 units of the P-Series in Mzansi, seeing it slip a place to 8th (from the 7th position it secured in 2023), sitting just behind the SA-built Volkswagen Amarok with 3 months of the year to go.
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