00:00Australia and New Zealand are two of the toughest environments in the world for a vehicle.
00:05From coarse chip highways and broken regional roads,
00:07to rocky terrain, sandy beaches and everything in between,
00:11it's a market that demands more than just a global setup.
00:15Customers here know what a good vehicle feels like and they expect it.
00:19To lead this local development, GWM Australia and New Zealand
00:23has brought in one of the most experienced names in vehicle dynamics, Rob Tribbiani.
00:28With more than three decades of experience tuning ride and handling,
00:32including a long career at Holden,
00:34culminating in the globally praised ride and handling of the VE and VF Commodore programs,
00:39Rob's resume speaks for itself.
00:41Now leading GWM's local suspension tuning program,
00:44the directive and goals were clear from day one.
00:47Australia and New Zealand have quite varied road networks
00:51and certainly quite different to many other places around the world.
00:55From a purely ride and handling perspective,
00:58we thought that it would be good to do a localisation program
01:01to really optimise the performance of the car for our roads and our local conditions.
01:07For me, a car that is really enjoyable to drive and gives you a great feeling
01:13is a car that makes you confident behind the wheel.
01:15The Add One program really came about through us, GWM,
01:20listening to our customer feedback.
01:22GWM is really trying to stand out with our ride and handling package.
01:27So having the capability in-house allows us to continue this program for the long term.
01:33We're planning on doing this work on all models coming in in the future
01:37and it'll be an ongoing program.
01:39It won't just be a one and done where we've done one model and that's it.
01:44No, this will be an ongoing process.
01:46In April 2025, the program took shape and the work began.
01:50Key to success would be having the right base to ensure these goals could be achieved
01:54and repeated moving forward.
01:56That foundation starts with where and how the vehicles are tested.
02:00Having Lang Lang as a facility to use for Add One development is key.
02:06It allows us to have a very repeatable road network.
02:10We're on the skid pad at the moment surrounded by the ride and handling road,
02:13which we use every day.
02:15Having that repeatable road that you can just drive over and over again
02:18and make small changes to the car and then feel those changes
02:22is a real key part of Add One tuning.
02:24As part of the road network, we are able to test other things other than just ride and handling.
02:30So there are specific line markings on the road that the ADAS systems use.
02:35We have traffic sign recognition and other functions in the car.
02:42Alongside local development, close support and collaboration with GWM's engineering teams in China has been key.
02:48We work really closely with our head office team in China.
02:52We constantly have teams of people coming out here to work with us in Australia.
02:57The collaboration allows us to go faster, which is great.
03:00It just shows the support that we're getting from GWM's head office.
03:04And we are truly building global cars as a result.
03:07The tuning work that we're doing here for the Australian and New Zealand region is having global reach.
03:13Those inputs are going back to head office and we're shaping the development and the inputs into the car for
03:21future product, not just for our region, but globally.
03:24With GWM vehicles already well received across Australia and New Zealand, the question becomes why go further?
03:31Part of the At One tuning philosophy is to give all of the GWM product a family feel.
03:37It was part of what I came on board for.
03:39Having our characteristics feel similar between the models allows people to get in and out of GWM cars and think,
03:46yeah, this does feel like it's from the same family.
03:50So what does all of that actually mean behind the wheel?
03:53The Australian and New Zealand car industry and car markets are really mature and customers really know what they want.
04:00I don't want to go into too much detail on what we actually do because that's sort of our secret
04:07in making GWM cars really special for the region.
04:11It's fair to say that we offer lots of control in the car and the car performance is really strong.
04:18It handles our road network and all of the different road inputs really well.
04:21And we make sure that we tune for all of our different road segments.
04:25In a market this competitive, those refinements matter.
04:29What we're hoping people feel with our At One tune is primarily that they're confident.
04:34How do they get that confidence?
04:36Well, it's derived from lots of steering tuning work that we're doing.
04:40Lots of people won't necessarily feel the level of detail that someone like me who is tuning the car feels.
04:46They might just say, oh, the car feels good.
04:49Or I've arrived at my destination after two hours behind the wheel and I don't feel tired.
04:54I feel great.
04:55That's all part of our local tuning.
04:57As well as ride and handling development, we're looking at other things.
05:00So ADAS, for example, we look at powertrain calibration.
05:04So this is how the engine performs as well as the transmission.
05:08Tow mode is another one which we've started to introduce in our cars and we'll see that roll out more
05:14and more.
05:14This is uniquely changing the engine and transmissions calibration.
05:18And that's where the GWM At One philosophy came from.
05:22It's having that connection and that confidence behind the wheel to really enjoy the driving experience.
05:27So when will customers start to see the results?
05:30First cars to be influenced, I guess, by At One tuning are H6.
05:36We've tuned all the variants of H6.
05:38All of the changes that we've made for At One tuning will certainly be noticed both on normal sealed roads
05:44and also off-road.
05:45We've done lots of development work on rural roads and so the cars perform well in all areas of Australia
05:52and New Zealand.
05:53And this is just the beginning.
05:55H6 GT, Tank 500 plug-in hybrid, Tank 300 plug-in hybrid, Canon Alpha.
06:02We're starting to get lots of good influence over our product.
06:05The plan is that as we progress the tunes and we make those steps little by little every day as
06:11our GWM philosophy is,
06:12We'll get more customers on board. It's an exciting time with GWM.
06:17We're growing and the product portfolio is growing.
06:19We're bringing in cars that I think are really relevant for our market.
06:23I can't wait to see people getting behind the wheel of them.
06:26We know our customers value the capability of our vehicles, but it's the refinement that is going to truly set
06:32them apart.
06:33As our customers start to drive cars without One tuning, I'm sure word will get out.
06:37They'll start to talk to more and more people about their vehicle
06:40and we'll start to see people coming to our dealerships and really enjoy the test drive experience.
06:46I'm excited to see more and more GWM vehicles out on the road.
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