GWM, Maker Of The Funky Cat, Is Building A Supercar

We best know Chinese manufacturer Great Wall Motor as the company that builds the car currently on sale in the UK as the Ora 03, but that will forever live in our hearts as the Funky Cat.
As is often the case with Chinese car manufacturers, though, its range we can currently sample in Europe is only a tiny slice of what it offers in its home market. There, Great Wall operates no fewer than five brands – GWM itself along with Ora, Haval (also now on sale in the UK), Wey and Tank.

Each of these brands specialises in different kinds of cars, but none of them does hybrid supercars. Remarkably, though, that’s the next segment GWM is planning on breaking into. A post on Chinese social media platform Weibo marking the company’s 35th anniversary shows a group of executives standing around what’s very clearly the covered-up silhouette of a low-slung, mid-engined sports car.
It’s not the first inkling we’ve had of the car. Per Autocar, GWM’s chief technology officer Wu Huixiao announced to Chinese media a few months ago that a carbon-tubbed supercar was in the works. At this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, meanwhile, the company unveiled a brand new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that seems like a shoo-in for the car.

Autocar also reports that the unnamed car (may we suggest Funky Cheetah?) will use a plug-in hybrid powertrain, with cars like the Ferrari 296 GTB and Lamborghini Temerario touted as rivals, and that it’ll be the first model from Confidence, a sixth, luxury-oriented brand due to be launched by GWM later this year.
That’s about all we have for now, but it’s yet more evidence of an ever more confident and ambitious Chinese car industry. It’s not the country’s only homegrown supercar, either – already on sale there is the 1287bhp electric Yangwang U9, complete with its party trick of being able to perform stationary bunny hops. Whether there’s a market for either car among Western buyers, though, remains to be seen.
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