AION V (2026 - ) Electric review

It’s not the cheapest five-seat SUV you can buy, but it’s one of the best-value, when you consider what’s included as standard: everything but the kitchen sink, including 32 ambient colours that pulse in heartbeat or dance mode. What else do you need? If you have a home charger, the V will be super cheap to run, and you’ll never pay for an MOT or roadside assistance (see above), unlike owning any of the competition. Also cheap as a second-hand car, because the “Great 8” offer stays with the car, not the owner. Furthermore, the V should hold its value better than many other SUVs: Autotrader data predicts residual values higher than those of the Volkswagen ID.4, BYD Atto 3, Nissan Ariya and Skoda Elroq, though the Kia EV5 is expected to hold more of its original value than the V over a six-year period.

Aion is owned by Chinese mega car giant, GAC, which has decades of experienced partnering with Honda and Toyota. It has thousands of engineers in China, so we wouldn’t expect any major mechanical issues. There have been some software glitches with other Chinese manufacturers coming into the UK around entertainment functions, in particular DAB, but Aion seemed to have radio and Apple CarPlay sussed when we drove the cars. The company is keeping its sales volume quite low in the first year, which should help with a more personalised customer relationship: it expects 100 sites controlled by 25 dealers over the next five years round the UK. It has also partnered with Jumptech to provide a human on the other end of a phone for support in setting up home charging with any number of providers.

Half a point docked for too much safety… while it didn’t audibly bing and bong at us too much, the incessant reminder to “Please pay attention” which appears on the driver display every time you check your mirrors does start to grate. Some of the systems you can turn off immediately, some take a little longer. And another half point docked for having almost the same graphics and digital layout that every other Chinese car company displays – way too small and fiddly with no common sense applied to the layout, which leaves you distracted as you stab at the screen for what you want. They could all learn some very quick lessons from Renault on that score. Apart from that, of course it has everything as standard that you could ever want including a 360-degree parking camera and all the interventions and warnings.

There are heated and cooled seats front and rear, plus the front seats can recline fully flat once you remove the headrest, so you can sleep over at festivals without having to bother with a tent. That’s comfort right there. Adding the Premium pack gains real leather upholstery and massage front seats which are a welcome addition on long motorway journeys. In the back there’s loads of space for up to three passengers but while the boot is a decent total size, but the large wheel arches encroach on the space and make it an awkward shape. It’s smooth and quiet at low speeds and it doesn’t wobble around as much as most other Chinese cars. However, motorways show where cost has been cut, with road and wind noise cutting across conversations and music.

A heated storage space to keep your takeaway warm on the way home? Yes please. It comes in the higher-trim version and does heating or cooling. The more expensive version also gives you the option of holographic paint, cream or bright-tan leather and a Bentley-style fold-out mini desk from the passenger seat back, complete with chrome edging. It’s super smart, as is the design on the seats and doors: the feel definitely appears more premium than most alternatives. Every car gets a heat pump which helps preserve the range in the winter, a fully glass roof, and very fast phone charging, alongside an integrated little fan to keep the phone cool.

It won’t set your heart on fire, but few sub-£40,000 SUVs do. It feels weedy as you accelerate onto motorways or up hills where the boxy bulk of the car is evidently apparent – power certainly is not its forte. However, the V is capable of very fast charging. We drove our test car over 400 miles on a round trip from Manchester to Heathrow and it was managing a respectable real-world 270 miles on the motorway between charges. Just one 20-minute stop at an ultra-rapid public charger was all we needed during our journey. The only frustration was the driver display shows an estimated range and a graphic of the battery, but it doesn’t show the charge left as a percentage which makes it tricky to work out how far you can ACTUALLY go before you need to top-up.