Rightly or wrongly, it is often assumed that Chinese motorcycles are copies – sometimes even imitations – of well-known and more established models. And while this is true in many cases, there are some bikes made in China that aim to innovate.

A new touring machine from automotive giant Great Wall Motors (GWM) seems to be the perfect example of this.

GWM is serious about entering the motorcycle market. It has even created a new subsidiary called Great Wall Souo Motorcycle. And it has a rather challenging concept as its debut model. Something with eight cylinders.

At the moment, the bike doesn’t have a name yet, but it’s destined to be a grand-tourer like the Honda Gold Wing – but even bigger. For some reason, someone in China thought that a six-cylinder, 1,833cc engine was too small. The solution? An eight-cylinder boxer engine. And although the exact displacement has not yet been revealed, it is expected to be over 2,000 cc.

This information was revealed by GWM’s Head of Design, Andrew Dyson, during a company conference that highlighted the brand’s plans for the future. Having done the rounds in the automotive industry, Dyson has previously worked with Volkswagen, Daimler-Chrysler and Opel.

As for the bike itself, we don’t yet know what kind of technology and features it will have; we only have a silhouette to guide us. However, it is clear that this is a luxury motorcycle, with its aerodynamic fairing conveying cruiser/tourer impressions similar to those of the Honda Gold Wing or the BMW K 1600. As such, in true Chinese fashion, we can expect this machine to be equipped with all the technological gadgets – perhaps even the latest adaptive cruise control that we see on top tourers.

That said, the question remains: do we really need an eight-cylinder grand tourer?