Denza B5 Base vs GWM Tank 300 Ultra PHEV

The two share a format, a ladder-frame plug-in-hybrid 4WD, but the B5 sits a class above on price and finish. At $81,986 driveaway (mid-2026 pricing) it commands a clear premium over the Tank, and the premium buys 100kW more power (400 against 300), a markedly plusher cabin, sharper approach and departure angles, and a fresh 2025 five-star ANCAP rating. The Tank counters with a lower kerb weight, deeper wading, a bigger battery, a longer warranty and published capped-price servicing, all for thousands less. Whether the step up is worth it comes down to how much cabin and outright performance matter to you against capability per dollar.

Both are proper ladder-frame four-wheel drives with low range and locking front and rear differentials, so the deltas sit at the margins. The B5 leads on geometry, a 35-degree approach and 32-degree departure against the Tank's 29 and 25, and adds a tank-turn function that spins the car on its axis, which the Tank doesn't offer. The Tank answers with 800mm of wading depth against the B5's 700, a 23-degree breakover against 20, and 224mm of clearance against 220. The B5's Leopard grade adds adjustable hydraulic suspension, but that is a step up from this base car. Read it as a wash on hardware: the B5 takes the technical, angle-dependent obstacles, the Tank the deep crossings.

Both tow 3,000kg braked and 750kg unbraked, a notch under the 3,500kg ute benchmark but strong for a plug-in-hybrid wagon. The published combination masses split them. The Tank's 6,261kg GCM covers its 3,225kg gross vehicle mass plus the full 3,000kg trailer, so it tows at the limit with all 610kg of payload aboard. The B5's 6,122kg GCM is tighter: a 3,000kg trailer caps the car at 3,122kg, its 2,897kg kerb weight plus around 225kg of people and gear. Keep the trailer under about 2.6 tonnes and the B5 gets its full payload back. At the limit, the Tank takes it.

The B5 wins the cabin argument decisively. Even this base car brings a 15.6-inch central touchscreen beside a 12.3-inch driver's screen, a 16-speaker stereo, leather, a head-up display, a panoramic roof and heated, ventilated and massaging front seats, all standard at a sub-$80,000 list price (mid-2026). The Tank 300 Ultra is no penalty box, with dual-zone climate, heated and ventilated front seats, a central touchscreen with wireless smartphone mirroring, and a 360-degree camera, but it reads as the plainer interior. Both run Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and digital radio. The head-up display is a B5 exclusive in this pair: the Australian Tank 300 doesn't offer one.

Both carry five-star ANCAP ratings and both fit a centre airbag between the front seats, so neither is the risky pick; they were simply tested on different protocols. The B5's rating is the fresher one, from 2025, and it leads on child-occupant protection with 95 per cent against 89. The Tank's rating dates to 2022 but scores higher on safety assist (85 per cent against 78), adult occupant (88 against 86) and vulnerable road user protection (81 against 74). Both fit the full active suite: autonomous emergency braking, lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert. Call it the fresher result and stronger child score against stronger assist and adult scores.

They are, which is what makes the matchup interesting. Almost every rival at this size, the Toyota Prado and Ford Everest among them, runs a turbo-diesel and nothing else. The B5 and the Tank 300 PHEV both pair a turbocharged petrol engine with electric drive and a battery you charge from a wall, wrapped around a true ladder-frame chassis with low range and locking diffs. The promise on both is the same: quiet, cheap electric running for the commute, petrol-hybrid reach for the bush, and real off-road hardware underneath. Both are five-seaters too. The difference is execution and price: the B5 is the premium, more powerful take, the Tank the value one, with a clear price gap between them.

The Tank 300 Ultra PHEV. The two share the essentials, a ladder-frame chassis, low range, locking differentials and a 3,000kg tow rating, and the Tank wades deeper (800mm against 700) and clears marginally more ground. The B5 counters with sharper approach and departure angles and its tank-turn function, but you pay a clear premium for them, and much of the premium sits in cabin kit this brief doesn't rank. If the goal is capability per dollar instead of badge or interior, the Tank delivers the hardware for far less, and the saving funds tyres, a winch, recovery gear and a lot of fuel. We'd pick the Tank here without much agonising.

The Denza B5. It spends its premium where you sit and how it moves: a combined 400kW against the Tank's 300, a claimed 4.8 seconds to 100km/h, and the plushest, best-equipped cabin of the pair, standard even on this base car. It also carries the fresher five-star ANCAP rating, from 2025, with the strongest child-occupant score of the two. You accept a 2,897kg kerb weight, a payload squeezed hard when towing, and a materially higher price for it. If polish, performance and a current safety result lead the brief and the budget allows, the B5 is the clear pick. We'd choose it for the cabin alone.

This one splits on what you weigh more heavily. The B5 makes the family case: the fresher ANCAP rating, 95 per cent child-occupant protection and the plusher interior. The Tank makes the towing case, and the published figures back it. Both are rated to 3,000kg braked, but the Tank tows the lot with its full 610kg payload aboard, where the B5 hitched to the same trailer has roughly 225kg left for people and gear. The Tank is also 282kg lighter and thousands cheaper. Both seat five, so neither is a seven-seat Prado alternative. Pick the B5 if cabin and child safety lead; pick the Tank if the trailer is heavy and the family rides along.