Aion V review

It’s just like when you think the earthquake has finished but then there’s another tremor. By now you might’ve got to grips with Jaecoo, BYD, and maybe even Geely, but there are far more Chinese brands coming to shake up the UK. Even though our tiny island is pretty saturated with new car choices already.

This one’s from Aion, a brand owned by GAC, which is the fifth biggest of China’s car megacorps. First up is this Aion V SUV, before the UT hatchback lands later in 2026.

It’s fully electric, which’ll rule it out for some of the Jaecoo crowd, but the stats are decent enough if you are after an electric SUV. You get up to 317 miles of range, fast-charging capability to give you a 10-80% top-up in under 25 minutes, and performance that’s brisk without feeling intimidating.

Like many of its contemporaries, the Aion V has an interior that feels posh and is very touchscreen-heavy. Somewhat unusually, you can get genuine leather upholstery (and much more) by opting for the £1,495 Premium Pack, which will elevate the perceived quality up another notch.

Even though it’s longer than a Volkswagen Tiguan, the Aion V doesn’t feel oversized and unwieldy. And the passenger space you get is tremendous. It feels more like a long-wheelbase Range Rover than an everyday family SUV.

There’s a freshness to the styling, and its upright, solid stance will win it fans. There are a few clever design touches to reduce the visual weight of the bodywork, plus crisp lines and chromey 19-inch alloy wheels.

Buying an Aion won’t be an emotional purchase, but the rational argument is hard to ignore. Aion is leading with its ‘Great 8’ aftercare package. This includes an eight-year warranty for the car and for the battery, but also eight years of servicing, breakdown cover and MOT tests. It’s tied to the VIN of the car, so transfers automatically if you sell it on. As a knock-on effect, Aion expects residual values to be strong, which reduces PCP finance costs for the customer.

Both in terms of PCP and cash prices, the Aion V is in the same ballpark as the Skoda Elroq, Kia EV3 and Renault Scenic. These options typically go a bit further on a charge, but don’t come with as much standard equipment as the Aion.

Here, we could copy and paste what we’ve said about other Chinese SUVs. Like all the others, the Aion’s interior comes with plush materials, a big but frustrating touchscreen, two phone trays and plenty of gadgets and gizmos.

We like that you can have a map view as the home screen, and how the handy touchscreen widgets are on the driver’s side. The screen is quick to respond and to load, the graphics are crisper than a freshly pressed trouser, and we quite like that it doesn’t do any novelty rotating or spinning like in a BYD or Changan.

But you often have to scroll through the widgets to see more than just a couple of options, which is utterly unnecessary given how big the screen is. On a similar note, the icons at the bottom of the screen are pretty titchy and hard to hit while driving. There’s not as much configurability as in a Changan or in a modern VW Group car, so you’ll be wading through distracting sub menus to change every setting – including the strength of the regenerative braking.

Interestingly, there are modes for rest and meditation. These lay your seat back and play some relaxing music, and the rest mode gives you the option to set an alarm so the car can wake you up. Would you use this regularly without feeling very self aware? We certainly wouldn’t.

The materials are lovely to touch, all soft and plush, and the build quality is strong – we didn’t find any rattles or squeaks. Opt for the Premium Pack (which Aion expects over half of buyers will), and you’ll get proper leather, massaging front seats, a second-row tray table that’s apparently modelled on the ones in a Bentley, and a cooled/heated armrest storage cubby. Choosing this pack also unlocks the choice of cream or tan interiors, as well as the standard black.

The list of standard equipment is far longer than we can write here, but highlights include a 360-degree parking camera, adaptive cruise control, a panoramic sunroof, powered front seats that are heated and cooled (plus heated rear seats), wireless phone charging and a powered bootlid.

The Aion V pulls off a clever trick of being incredibly spacious on the inside without feeling like you’re driving something that’s too big for our roads.

Passenger space is particularly generous, with decent levels of front seat adjustment and opulent amounts of rear legroom. Those rear seats recline quite a long way for extra comfort on long journeys, if you wish. Headroom is plentiful, even with the sunroof, and the big windows should give kids a great view out. Speaking of kids, the doors open wide so it’s easy to install bulky child seats.

Rear-seat passengers get the same plush materials as in the front (not always a given) plus a fold-down armrest with cupholders, air vents, seatback pockets, lights and door bins.

Slightly curiously, there’s one USB socket and it’s the older USB-A type. It also seems a bit miserly that the front passenger seat doesn’t get height adjustment.

Our test car had a very low mounted parcel shelf, which felt like an afterthought and got in the way. However, Aion’s press pics show the parcel shelf in the usual position in line with the top of the rear seats, so perhaps this has already been updated.

Boot space is 500 litres exactly, which is a good size for a family SUV and should manage several big suitcases. Need more space? The Skoda Enyaq’s 585-litre boot is one of the biggest you’ll find in an e-SUV.

There’s room under the Aion’s boot floor for charging cables or an air compressor, plus deep side pockets and a couple of useful hooks and sockets. You’ll also notice a little smiley face on the bootlid when it’s open, which is a fun little touch.

Although there’s no glovebox, there should be enough interior storage to keep most users happy.

Every V features a 75kWh battery and a quoted 317-mile range. That’s between the smaller and bigger battery options offered in the Skoda Elroq, Ford Explorer and Kia EV3, and should be enough – especially if you can regularly charge at home.

A charge from empty to completely full takes eight-and-a-half hours on an 11kW charger, so budget for a bit longer from a 7.4kW home wallbox. But how often are you going to be charging from 0-100%? In most occurrences, you’ll be able to charge the car during periods of cheap electricity on an EV-focused tariff.

On longer journeys, the V can accept 180kW of charging power, for a 10-80% charge in 24 minutes.

If you want to charge other electricals from the car’s battery, a Vehicle-to-Load adapter costs £179. We’re pleased to see a heat pump fitted as standard to boost cold-weather efficiency.

The front-mounted electric motor produces 204hp and gets the V from 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds. The power delivery is smooth and linear, making the car feel plenty fast enough for daily driving but without you having to hold on for dear life. If this’ll be your first electric car, it won’t feel dramatically different from a well-sorted petrol or diesel car.

Some similarly powerful front-wheel-drive EVs can struggle for grip in certain circumstances – such as leaving a leaf-strewn or puddle-y junction. The V never breaks traction like this, because its traction control system quickly steps in and the 210Nm torque figure is fairly modest.

The driving experience is spot on for the type of car. It’s stable and assured, with a relaxed gait and very little to annoy the occupants. Don’t go looking for driving thrills – it’s very much a mode of transport; there’s an appliance-like way it just gets on with its job.

You get disc brakes all round (some EVs use drums on the rear because of powerful regenerative braking), but the pedal feel doesn’t quite match the stopping power under your foot. While the V stops smartly, the pedal feels mushy.

The Aion rides nicely and stays quiet at high speed. Refinement is helped by laminated glass on the windscreen and front windows. On more challenging road surfaces, the V generally copes well but at times the damping doesn’t always manage to keep up. But, compared to an SUV that tries (and fails) to be sporty, the V feels relaxed.

If you’re like us, you’ll probably want to set one of the configurable steering wheel buttons to turn off the lane-keep assist. A lot of the driver assistance tech is quite eager to intervene and hard to turn off (often requiring a deep dive into the touchscreen), with one notable annoyance being the driver attention monitor – which doesn’t take into account that you sometimes need to look at your surroundings or turn your head while driving.