If conquering mountains is the yardstick of automotive heroism, then Beer O’Clock Hill is Australia’s Everest for 4WD machines. This infamous 100-metre shale slope at The Springs 4×4 Adventure Park, with gradients up to 50 degrees, rock steps that could terrify a billy goat, and a summit-defending ledge fit for legends, has chewed up and spat out more than its fair share of hopefuls. Most who dare return with tails (and bumpers) between their legs, but GWM rolled in and rewrote the rules of engagement—using not just one, but three showroom-fresh vehicles to scale the heights and slam the door on the doubters.
First up was the diesel-driven Cannon XSR—no wild mods, no fancy lifts, no sticker bomb bodywork. Just Cooper A/T tyres, front and rear lockers, factory high/low range gearsets, and the kind of rugged suspension that says, “rocks are a food group.” It wasn’t just a footnote in history; it became only the second production-spec vehicle to officially conquer Beer O’Clock Hill, standing shoulder to shoulder (tyre to tyre?) with the lauded INEOS Grenadier.
Hot on its heels came the Tank 300 Diesel, similarly shod with all-terrain rubber and equally determined to silence the critics. Its performance was so “factory-tuned capable” that the park’s own keeper-of-the-gates, Lucas Bree, admitted that his jaw hit the shale when these untamed 4x4s—straight from the dealership—didn’t just attempt the impossible, but made it look effortless. “No lifts, no engine mods—just factory-spec GWM 4×4 vehicles. What happened next genuinely blew me away,” he confessed. Where the hill has caused “hundreds of thousands of dollars in vehicle damage” and halted many a “heavily modified rig,” GWM’s trio shrugged, summited, and then drove back to Brisbane for good measure.
But the true plot twist? Enter the Cannon Alpha PHEV, the plug-in hybrid that nobody—from seasoned cynics to GWM’s own marketing frontliners—expected to be the first PHEV of any flavour to tame Beer O’Clock Hill. No lift kits, no wild tuning, just all-terrain tyres and the trademarked Hi4-T platform, blending the seamless power delivery of EV torque with brainy 4WD controls. If ever a ute dropped the “electrified and capable” mic, this was it.
GWM’s Head of Marketing & Communications, Steve Maciver, put it best: “Many try, few succeed. For GWM to take multiple vehicles across different powertrains—including the new PHEV—to the summit speaks volumes about the strength, technology, and real-world engineering behind our 4WD lineup.” In an off-road world obsessed with lockup diffs and sacrificial armor plating, GWM just crash-landed a new reality: sometimes, the straight-from-the-factory ride is all the hero you need.
So next time you’re eyeing that daunting, slippery ascent and thinking you need six months of mods or an engineer’s wage in aftermarket kit, remember: GWM didn’t just climb Beer O’Clock Hill—they raised the bar, cracked open a can of innovation, and toasted to a new standard for what’s possible, right out of the box.
