WEY VV7 Launched On The Chinese Car Market

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The WEY VV7 SUV has been launched on the Chinese auto market. The VV7, formerly known as the 01, is the first car of Great Wall’s new “premium SUV” WEY brand. The VV7 comes in two kinds: a basic version called VV7c and a sporty version  called VV7s. Price starts at 167.800 yuan and ends at 188.800 yuan ($24.388 – 27.384). Hardly premium money and not even that expensive for a Great Wall.

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This is the VV7s. It comes with a more aggressive bumper and four round exhaust pipes instead of two square shaped pipes. Those are really all the differences. Engine is the same too: a 2.0 turbo with 230hp and 360nm, mated to a seven-speed DCT, sending horses to all four wheels.

One might wonder why WEY even bothers to launch the s as a separate car. They could simply offer the bumper and pipes as an option.

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But as we know Great Wall does what it does…

Let’s have another look at the price; 167.800 to 188.800 yuan. That puts the WEY VV7 a tad above the middle of the Haval price range. And that is a little odd because WEY is supposed to be the premium brand and Haval the bread ‘n butter brand.

The H6 Coupe, which is just a little smaller than the VV7, goes for 122.800 to 171.800. The Haval H7 starts at 149.800 and ends at 185.800. The H7L, which is larger than the VV7, starts at 171.800 and ends at 193.800. The H8 starts at 188.8oo yuan and the big H9 at 209.800 yuan. The H7/H7L is powered by the same 230hp 2.0 turbo. The H8 and H9 have this engine too, but output is rated at 218hp.

The platform isn’t very premium either. It is based on an extended variant of the platform of the new Haval H6, which is basically an updated variant of the platform that underpins the current H6, which by the way will continue to be sold alongside the new H6. The new H6 and the current H6 have the same wheelbase.

So if you don’t buy a VV7 for being premium, not for engine, and not for its size, why would you? The WEY brand name perhaps..? Not likely. Still, Great Wall has set up an entirely new WEY dealer network and will launch many more new cars in the future.

Size VV7: 4749/1931/1655, and wheelbase is 2950.

Design is very good, but the Haval range is far from ugly.

A very long bonnet and a roof that sharply slopes down. A wide D-pillar and a tiny rear window make for a horrible line of sight.

The interior looks great and materials are indeed a few notches better than in the Haval series, compere for example with the new H6. The steering wheel, seats, buttons, air vents; they all have ring of luxury.

12.3 inch digital instrument panel.

The infotainment screen is 9 inch in diameter, rather small and the graphics don’t look very good. They WEY home-button is partially hidden beneath the edge.

Ship load of buttons on the stack and tunnel indicates the infotainment system doesn’t do that much. And empty button slots do not look very premium!

A comfortable bench. The VV7 seats five, there is no seven-seat option.

It is a fine looking car with a good engine, but its positioning is completely confusing. When the brand just launched many thought Great Wall was launching a Lexus or an Infiniti, but it is really just another dressed up Haval with a fancy pancy name.

The new Haval VV7 SUV from China.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. This thing needs a rear-view camera as standard equipment.
    I guess WEY has been created to build a new sales network for GWM, and nothing more, since it doesn’t really add much above Haval.
    Great Wall dose what it dose!

  2. A 12.3-inch digital instrument panel is standard across the whole range and features 3 different themes. It seems they made some small changes from the pre-production version, such as changing the color of the needles to orange. The navigation screen is just 9-inch in diameter, according to the official specifications. Great Wall never claimed the navigation screen to be 12.3-inch. I agree that the empty button slots look ugly, but more premium manufacturers such as Audi also conduct this practice. The empty button slots can be filled up with automatic parking function and massage seats, costing another 2000 yuan each.

    All in all Great Wall did a great job on delivering what seems a promising car for an attractive price. Its main problem however is the dealer network, or better said the lack of it. I live in a 2nd tier city in Guangdong and the nearest dealership is more than 100KM away.

  3. Well, we have just received this car today. It DOES have a rear camera, actually, when you look at your rear mirror, you are actually watching it not from the mirror but the camera views. It can park itself but if you want to do it yourself, when you put it on reverse gear, the infotainment monitor shows the car fro the top, shows the steering wheel range of movement.
    I do not understand the point of this article which doesn’t give enough info. Or may be this is the article on just the standard version, but hey, does the BMW standard come with full accesoires???

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