Hi4 stands for Hybrid intelligent 4WD and is the in-house plug-in hybrid platform behind every Great Wall Motors (GWM) brand — Haval for family SUVs, Tank for off-roaders, and WEY for luxury. Where most PHEVs use one or two motors, Hi4 uses three: an integrated starter-generator at the engine, a front drive motor, and a rear drive motor with its own gearbox. That combination gives standard electronic AWD without a propeller shaft, and lets the system choose between nine different power-flow modes on the fly. This guide explains the three Hi4 variants and which GWM cars use which.
The base Hi4 system
Hi4 starts with a 1.5T or 2.0T atkinson-cycle engine connected to a small motor-generator that acts as starter, alternator and a power buffer for the engine. A 2-speed DHT gearbox lets the engine and front drive motor share the front axle. A separate rear motor — with its own single-speed reduction gear — drives the rear wheels electronically; there is no driveshaft between front and rear. That layout is mechanically simple, packages a flat floor for the rear passengers, and lets the rear motor disengage entirely on the motorway to save energy.
Driving modes range from front-wheel-drive EV (rear motor off) to all-wheel-drive EV (both motors active), to series hybrid (engine spinning a generator), to parallel hybrid with the engine at its efficiency sweet spot. The vehicle picks between them on the fly. Haval Menglong Plus, Haval H6 Hi4, Haval Xiaolong Max and most 2026 Haval PHEVs use this baseline system; CLTC EV range is typically 100–255 km depending on battery choice, with empty-tank fuel consumption around 5 L/100 km.
Hi4-T: the off-road variant
Hi4-T is the version Tank uses. The biggest change is that the engine sits longitudinally on a ladder frame instead of transversely on a unibody — the same shift BYD made for DM-o. A 2.0T or 3.0T engine drives the front axle through a conventional 9HAT torque-converter gearbox; the front motor sits between engine and gearbox; the rear motor sits at the rear axle with a mechanical transfer case and locking differentials. The result behaves like a fuel SUV in low range — differential locks, crawl control, recovery hooks — but adds 100+ km of pure EV cruising on tarmac.
Tank 300 Hi4-T, Tank 400 Hi4-T, Tank 500 Hi4-T, Tank 700 Hi4-T and Tank 800 use this layout. The targets are the Toyota Land Cruiser and Range Rover — vehicles whose buyers want a hybrid badge but cannot give up real off-road hardware.
Hi4-G: the luxury variant
Hi4-G ("G" for grand) is the latest of the three, introduced on the WEY Lanshan and Tank 800 in 2025–26. It uses a larger 2.0T or 3.0TV6 engine paired with three more powerful motors and a 50+ kWh battery, giving 200+ km of CLTC EV range and a 0–100 km/h time under 5 seconds. The character is closer to DM-p or Lynk & Co EM-P than to a Tank: long EV range, fast acceleration, refined cruising. It is GWM's answer to the Mercedes-Maybach GLS and the BMW XM, at roughly half the price.
Why three motors at all
The architectural argument behind Hi4 is that two motors plus an engine still need a mechanical link between front and rear axles to provide AWD. Adding a third motor — the engine-side ISG — means the front and rear can be electronically coupled without a driveshaft, which makes the chassis lighter, the floor flatter, and the torque distribution faster than any mechanical AWD diff can manage. The penalty is one extra electric machine to design and cool. GWM's bet was that battery and motor costs would fall faster than the cost of a robust mechanical AWD system — and so far that bet has been right.
How to read the badge
- Haval Hi4: family SUV PHEV, FWD-biased AWD via electronic coupling. 100–255 km EV range.
- Tank Hi4-T: body-on-frame off-roader PHEV with mechanical AWD plus electric motors. 100–110 km EV range; designed for low-range crawling and towing.
- WEY / Tank Hi4-G: luxury or flagship PHEV with large battery, three powerful motors, performance focus. 200+ km EV range.
For our news coverage, "Hi4" alone in a Haval headline always means the baseline efficiency-focused system; "Hi4-T" tells you the car is built to crawl rocks; "Hi4-G" tells you it is built to embarrass a Mercedes-Maybach.
