GWM is returning to the Taklimakan Rally in 2026 following its strong performance and category success in last year’s event, further strengthening the brand’s expansion into global rally-raid competition and its factory-backed motorsport program, now represented by an expanded roster of international drivers.
The Taklimakan Rally 2026 will run from May 16 to June 3, 2026, and will once again push competitors through one of the most extreme cross-country environments in the world. This year’s course serves as an “Asia Dakar,” covering an extreme route spanning nearly 8,000 kilometres across Xinjiang, China. The event will feature seven campsites and 15 stages, with approximately 4,200 kilometres of timed special stages. For the first time, an ultra-long marathon stage will also be introduced. The route traverses a wide range of terrain including vast deserts, Gobi landscapes and Yardang formations, with desert sections accounting for around 60 percent of the total distance, making it one of the most demanding natural proving grounds for vehicle performance and endurance testing.
GWM will enter a strengthened factory program featuring international drivers in the TANK 700 Hi4-T, TANK 300 Hi4-T, and TANK 500 Hi4-Z, leveraging the brand’s latest electrified off-road platforms and hybrid performance architectures in a full-scale competitive environment designed to test durability, efficiency, and systems integration under extreme conditions.
Building on its previous success in production-based categories, GWM will return with a factory-backed entry that integrates advanced vehicle development and a newly formed international driver team.
The announcement follows a major milestone at GWM headquarters in Baoding, where Chairman Jack Wei personally welcomed four world-class rally-raid drivers and unveiled the company’s expanded motorsport direction. The meeting took place on the factory floor, transformed into a live pit environment showcasing GWM’s performance heritage and future engineering direction, including Dakar-winning platform architecture, a hybrid high-speed prototype racer, and an in-house developed V8 engine designed for track and endurance applications.
Just a month earlier, Chairman Wei had issued a global call for elite rally drivers to join GWM’s expanding competition program. That initiative has now resulted in the formation of a factory Taklimakan Rally squad featuring Pau Navarro of Spain, the youngest-ever Dakar Challenger category winner; Nicolas Cavigliasso of Argentina, a two-time Dakar champion across categories; Gérard Farrés of Spain, a veteran rally-raid competitor known for defeating factory teams as a privateer; and Rebecca Busi of Italy, one of the sport’s emerging international talents.
The drivers were given access to GWM’s private motorsport development collection, including Dakar-winning HAVAL H8 heritage vehicles, the #208 HAVAL H9 endurance platform used in Chinese cross-country competition, a 300+ km/h hybrid prototype racer, and the brand’s latest performance-focused engineering architectures. The group also reviewed the in-house V8 engine program, described by engineers as a lightweight, high-output platform designed specifically for extreme endurance racing conditions.
For the drivers, the appeal of the program went beyond machinery. Navarro noted that the decision to join was driven by GWM’s leadership approach and direct involvement in motorsport development, while Cavigliasso highlighted the technical credibility of the engineering program compared with established European platforms. Farrés and Busi both pointed to the unusual speed at which the program had been assembled and the level of factory commitment behind it.
Chairman Wei personally led discussions with the drivers, focusing on chassis feedback, suspension behaviour in desert conditions, and long-term vehicle development strategy. He reiterated that the Taklimakan program is not a one-off campaign, but a permanent performance platform designed to accelerate engineering development while building a bridge between Chinese motorsport talent and the world’s most experienced rally-raid competitors.
According to GWM, the broader objective is to establish a sustainable international motorsport ecosystem, bringing elite global drivers into direct collaboration with Chinese engineering teams. This model is intended to fast-track development cycles, improve competitive performance under extreme conditions, and strengthen China’s long-term presence in global off-road motorsport.
The initiative addresses a long-standing gap in access and opportunity within international rally-raid competition. Historically, Chinese drivers and engineers have had limited exposure to factory-level global programs, often requiring significant investment to compete abroad. The new structure reverses that flow by bringing world-class competitors directly into China-based development programs.
By the end of the Baoding gathering, all four drivers had committed to joining GWM’s factory Taklimakan Rally program, not as independent contractors, but as integrated development partners within the team.
As Busi summarised during the visit, the decision was driven by action rather than presentation, referencing both the rapid formation of the program and the tangible engineering focus demonstrated on site.
For GWM, the 2026 Taklimakan Rally continues the evolution of integrating motorsport into the brand’s DNA, further strengthening its long-term rally-raid ambitions ahead of a planned return to international competition, including future Dakar Rally involvement from 2027. With an expanded driver roster, advanced Hi4 electrified off-road platforms, and growing technical development across both hybrid and combustion-powered vehicles, GWM continues to use China’s most demanding desert rally as a proving ground for durability, performance, and next-generation off-road technologies.
Stay tuned to GWM’s news and social media channels throughout the event for the latest updates, behind-the-scenes content, stage results and team developments from the 2026 Taklimakan Rally.
