China is making some of the most interesting vehicles in the world right now—and I don’t mean just cars. Yes, the Yangwang U9 and its 308-mph top speed are cool, but you know what’s even cooler? Great Wall Motor’s eight-cylinder motorcycle.
The GWM Souo S2000 (no relation to the Honda roadster) is a giant cruiser bike that’s been on sale in mainland China for just over one year. Its main draw – for me, anyway – is the 2.0-liter boxer eight-cylinder (yes, eight cylinders in a production motorcycle), connected to an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission that has its own reverse gear.
Great Wall has no product presence in America right now, since import duties make it prohibitively expensive to sell vehicles here. Despite that, the company still had a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, seeing as how CES is a pretty global event with lots of foreign attendees. While checking out the Souo S2000 in person, a representative confirmed to me the bike will eventually make its way Stateside. And I’m hyped.
I’m Not Even Into Bikes, And I’d Own One Of These
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the authority on motorcycles here at The Autopian—that crown goes to Mercedes. But when there’s something particularly weird going on in the bike world, I tend to pay attention. The Souo S2000 has been on my radar since it went into production, simply because I couldn’t believe it existed at all. China’s modern transportation products are virtually all EVs or hybrids, with the hybrids powered by tiny, forgettable four-cylinders. So to see a Chinese production vehicle with an eight-cylinder—much less a boxer-8 with no electric assistance to speak of—seemed absolutely ridiculous (and still does). It sounds pretty awesome, which shouldn’t be a surprise:
The 2.0-liter engine, which makes 154 horsepower and 140 pound-feet of torque, isn’t the only interesting part about this bike. At 1,016 pounds, it’s absolutely loaded with tech and other useful stuff. Getting power to the rear wheel is an eight-speed dual-clutch with its own reverse gear, which a GWM representative told me allows you to travel up to 3 km/h (just under 2 mph) in reverse, which is nice for such a heavy bike.
There’s also all the equipment. From Mercedes’s piece back in 2024:
The S2000 comes with a 12.3-inch instrument panel, a Qualcomm SA8155P Snapdragon SoC, heated handlebars, heated seats, OTA upgrades, and rear parking sensors. Other goodies include an automatic parking brake, an electrically adjustable windshield, cruise control, and an eight-speaker sound system. All of this is wrapped in a bolt-free welded aluminum frame and stopped with Brembo 4-piston calipers on both ends.
Those who know bikes will be seeing some fairly obvious similarities between the Souo and the Honda Goldwing, its closest competitor. The Gold Wing is also a large cruiser with an unusual, opposed-cylinder engine layout featuring a high number of cylinders (six, in Honda’s case). Specs-wise, the S2000 has the Honda beat on power (the Gold Wing makes 125 horses and 130 lb-ft) and top speed (130 mph for the Souo, and just 111 mph for the Honda). The Honda is nearly 200 pounds lighter, though.
Great Wall brought an updated version of the bike, revealed in October, to this year’s CES, which is the one I got a close look at. While the general configuration is the same as before, this “CL” cruiser model has an updated fairing and new covers for the cooling setup ahead of the engine. In place of the huge screen from the original bike is a new 4-inch circular display. Virtually every piece of metal on this bike was a blinding chrome, which I don’t think would help when riding on sunny days, but it did look awesome. I’m just 5’9”, but I was able to fit on it just fine:
What got me about this bike in person was just how huge it was. It wasn’t just the size, but the length. The wheelbase is 71.3 inches, about a foot longer than the BMW Isetta’s. It’s a large machine that would probably need a regular-ass parking spot in most situations. It’s totally and completely unapologetic about its over-the-topness, and I dig it.
Ok, So When Will It Show Up? And How Much Will It Cost?
The Great Wall representative told me over the course of our short conversation that it plans to expand the Souo brand into places like Australia and Europe throughout 2026, before moving to South America and, eventually, North America in 2027.
When I asked how much the S2000 would cost when it arrived Stateside, the rep told me it’d be about $30,000, which is roughly in line with the bike’s starting price of 189,800 yuan in China. How Great Wall will be able to keep the price down with America’s significant import tariffs in place is unknown. It’s entirely possible the rep misheard my question and simply told me how much the bike cost in China.
At $30,000, the S2000 would be a bit more expensive than the Honda Gold Wing, which currently starts at $25,200 in its cheapest configuration. That price is also more than a lot of whole-ass cars you can buy in America right now, including the Honda Accord, the Hyundai Tucson, and the Chevy Equinox. In reality, the S2000 could be quite a bit more expensive once you factor in tariff charges.
It’s important to note that while all of those cars have five seats, an enclosed cabin, and ample luggage space, none of them have naturally aspirated flat-8 engines that sound like sports cars. So which is the better value, really?
Top graphic images: Brian Silvestro; Griffin Riley
It should have 8 exhaust tips a la the motorcycle from Full Throttle (the video game).
The guys that build lightweight cars around bike engines will be staking out Copart waiting for these to wreck.
So much (too much) chrome! Doctor, my eyes!
I had a previous generation Gold Wing GL1800 for a couple of years and it was an amazing bike in its own way. And thank goodness it had a reverse gear for backing out of head in parking spaces on crowned streets. Although that used the starter motor for propulsion in that mode.
But this thing is a very hard Nope! for me. I will stick with my ADV 160 these days.
I wondered what it was doing at the Consumer Electronics Show, but you did mention all the frippery it comes with. So, okay.
I know a guy who has a 2300 cc Triumph Rocket III. Those even more ccs are distributed across just 3 cylinders. There are some wacky bikes out there.
At a certain size point you should probably just buy a convertible.
This is like one of those comment threads where people try to work Honda model names into normal conversation.
That sentence was only a Prelude to a greater discussion about Honda. I hope Great Wall Motors doesn’t get out of its Element with the S2000, and that the motorcycle has its Passport in order before trying to come to America. Del Sol.
My thoughts immediately went to: “alright, how would that engine look, sound, and go in the back of a ’60s-grand-prix-style car…”
I’m well over 6′ and having been on some rather large motorcycles – I find that I get lost in them.
This is just silly, and I’m sure I’d not want to perform any parkinglot or emergency manoevers in it.
yes, it is a flat, 180degree v8.
but i’m not convinced it’s a boxer with individual crank pins for all 8 cylinders…
every reference i can find says “boxer”, but that’s also true for jake paul.
I was wondering that, too, as it looks rather short to be a boxer.
I wanna buy just the engine to throw in something. Maybe a Miata or a Suzuki Cappuccino.
You look absolutely unhinged on that bike in that lighting. Like a Temu Batman Villain. In a good way.
kind of disappointing output. I mean its inline for what a car engine of that size would produce but tiny balanced cylinders should be able to rev higher than most car engines. It doesn’t really matter.
That was the disappointing thing about my Gold Wing 1800. Redline was 6K and the fuel cutoff was maybe 100 rpm above that. Sounded like a Porsche, until it didn’t.
eh sounds cool but if im going for a large displacement bike that can kill me, id load up a gently used triumph rocket 3 touring or a bagged vmax. probably at half the cost to boot.
Eight cylinders and two litres — guess the torque only starts twisting at high revs… Which is fine as long as you are not stuck in lots of city traffic.
Higher than a typical motorcycle engine? From outside searching, it appears to have a 6k or 6.5k redline with peak torque around 4.5k, which means the power numbers are pretty much inline with a typical car N/A 2.0 4.
Yeah, but typical two litre car has four cylinders. Put six in, as Ford did with a 2.8 litre, and torque arrives at hight revs — put eight in and it is even higher….
Not sure of the physics but lots of little pots always give less torque than one or two big pots.
You know, I never gave that a thought from that angle before. I had only compared old engines, stuff like Italian V12s vs US V8s, which I attributed primarily to tuning for high vs low rpm. I suppose it might be as simple as the same displacement divided over more cylinders will yield a shorter stroke (unless some really weird comparison engines were used), which would reduce torque.
I’m suing The Autopian and Souo for the ocular damage I’ve received from the photos of all that chrome……
When I said I was blinded in person, I was not exaggerating. They had lights pointed all over this thing for the sole purpose of frying retinas
My cameras weren’t happy looking at it either; the thing literally wouldn’t stop twinkling in the videos, it’s CRAZY
Will they sell crate engines? Because a few possibilities come to mind
Like swapping it into an OG Mini Cooper.
Or a Karmann Ghia
Oooh, a Meyers Manx kit with one.
A friend of mine has swapped a Goldwing flat 6 into a 72 VW Beetle, and it fits beautifully. It stands to reason that this could fit, and I would LOVE to see and hear it.
Steveston Motor Co. out of Vancouver is currently building up one with a Goldwing boxer 6, with the factory 7 speed DCT. It’s gonna be RWD, I’m stoked to see the finished product.
This is a hard no. And I even like Harley’s and Goldwings
I’ve only ever owned sports bikes, so assumed a 2.0 motorcycle engine would be making 3-400bhp, so this flat eight would be an amazing engine swap in to a GT86.
But no. It makes much less power than a normally aspirated car engine of the same capacity.
I’m sure I’d find the torque terrifying on a bike though. Great noise too.
It’s not that much less than a typical N/A 2.0 in a car with GDI and more power than one with MPFI (though that’s getting old at this point).
I grew up in the UK where 16 valve Peugeot/Citroen 1.9s made 160bhp back in the early 90’s. Even GM 2.0 engines made 150bhp. My 2.0 MR2 made 158bhp in 1992 (and the Beams version of that engine made 200bhp, NA).
Cats were mandated in 1975 in the US, not 1993, so 2.0s were more like 110-125hp at that time. The numbers with this are pretty close to US N/A 2.0s of the 2010s, even the 2.0 in the Civic that was dropped in ’23. The mk3 Focus was at the higher end of 2.0s and that was 160hp/146lbs-ft. It’s a bit behind the current Corolla that came out in ’18. I don’t think it is, but I can’t find if this is GDI like the 4s I’m comparing it to, so those numbers are impressive if it’s MPFI. Though, now that I think about it, what emission standards are these things having to meet? Maybe it’s not as impressive as I was thinking.
It makes way less power than the 2.0 in my GT86 (which isn’t anyone’s idea of a great engine) and not much more power than the 600cc engine in my 2025 Honda bike (which I admit is a tad peaky for relax cruising, but I’m pretty sure making a flat twelve from the same combustion system would fix that, and still only be a 1.8).
And now I want a 15,000rpm Honda flat twelve.
Yeah, but the FA20D only has about the same amount of torque and it comes at a higher rpm, so it will feel more gutless unless the gear ratios are so short that you’re shifting constantly and running high rpm at highway speeds. The only reason it makes more power is because it revs higher. In that regard, the FA20D is more of a motorcycle engine than this is.
We have very different ideas of desirable engines. When I see an engine with higher HP numbers and lower torque specs that are far apart, I lose interest unless that torque number is still considerable and has a reasonably low enough peak (this is a big reason why I had no interest in the 1st gen ’86, but bought the 2nd gen, though I feel the torque is merely adequate). If I had to take a large delta, I’ll take torque over hp since the opposite feels slow, leaves fewer gearing options, is less durable and uses more fuel, all things being equal. High rpms can sound good, but most engines don’t sound that great, either way.
You’re right, we have very different ideas of desirable engines. I like the first gen 86 because it feels slow unless you are in the right gear. It forces you to concentrate. I bought mine to replace a 350Z, which had loads of torque.
I found my NA MX5 less engaging after I turboed it, because it was less gear dependant. I suspect I’m a weirdo.
Reving the shit out of the engine every drive makes for a very uncomfortable experience for passengers though.
The Gold Wang.
Isn’t that an Austin Powers movie
Well, I want that bike now. And it’s one I’d actually want to ride, instead of just collecting or appreciating it from afar!
Parts availability and reliability concerns aside, that drivetrain might be cool for a small, lightweight car. A real reverse gear is something that’s been lacking in motorcycle drivetrains for conversion, it’s got enough power, it’s interesting, and it sounds great.
I was immediately imagining how cool of a swap this would be for an aircooled VW. It would be a an absolute riot to have a small, boxer 8 in the back of one.
If it is shaft drive it could be in something small and fun like a Saab Sonett or CJ-2.
It is shaft and the Sonett’s suspension is behind the engine, so any mods that might need to be made to fit a wider engine should be fairly straight forward.
the motor is unique and cool but I just can’t see a market for it here in the states.
Yeah, no. 1,016 pounds? Gross.
These will never go on sale in the US. There is near 0 market for an overpriced mega cruiser with no heritage and nothing that stands out from a Harley for the oldies, or a Goldwing for the younger crowd, or a BMW for the new age iron butts.
Nobody in NA will remember this thing in 6 months.
Hey now, I will remember it! But that’s because I like stupid and weird moonshots. Selling this at a price that’s higher than a Gold Wing is just plain crazy.
Hilarious you call out the Goldwing buyers as: “the younger crowd” as the average of riders I’ve seen on those are in their late-50s. While they certainly look younger than the average HD rider.
Rich 50 is middle class 38
Yeah, I should have qualified the range.
HD – 60+
GW – 40-60
BMW – any age, but covered in $3500 of aerostich.
At this point, everyone is know rides dirt, adv or entry level sport. No cruisers rolling around.
Guilty as charged. I was in my mid-50s when I had the GW. It was actually my then-wife’s idea. We went on a ride to southern Oregon and back and the windy roads near Cannon Beach (where she was leaning the wrong way, which forced me to lean the bike even more) convinced her that was not something she wanted to do again. We had intercom helmets, and I repeatedly asked her to lean with me and not against me. To no avail.
I sold it shortly thereafter. Not the bike’s fault. Above 5 mph, solo, that thing felt light as a feather.
I wonder how big the market is of people who want a bike like this, can afford a bike like this and would buy a Chinese bike like this. I would imagine it would be a low selling halo product.
As the middle and upper-middle classes continue to boom in China, I have to imagine there’s a TON of latent demand for specialty dentists who will buy these.
I was thinking here is the US.
Ahhhh, yeah. Um….well, definitely not anyone interested in lane-splitting or filtering unless they want a hefty insurance claim 🙂
There is a market for a stupidly huge touring bike in America. Harley-Davidson’s bread and butter is in motorcycles that weigh more than 900 pounds. HD’s trikes are also rather comical in how girthy they are.
The bigger problem, I think, is asking people to pay Harley-Davidson flagship money for a brand that nobody’s heard of from China.
So it’s heavier, slower, and more expensive than the BMW K 1600 GTL
That riding pic immediately made me think of Dr. Z sitting on the Dodge Tomahawk years ago at an auto show.