New Aion V 2026 review: smart Chinese EV is packed with kit

Verdict

As the first car to bring the Aion brand to the UK, the V really needs to impress - especially considering the rapidly growing market that it’s aiming for. We really like the amount of kit you get as standard and while the Premium Pack is fun, its use-case for families seems limited. The EV numbers from the Aion V are in the right ballpark and it’ll drive well enough for most people, although the screen-orientated approach and poor safety assist spoils the experience somewhat. Yet the aftersales support from Aion should garner plenty of confidence. 

Looking to make in-roads into the UK car market, Chinese firm Aion is bringing over the V - which will target the hugely competitive family electric SUV segment. 

Before we dive into the V, let's first take a look at Aion, because this is a name that’ll be new to most people. Aion is the electrified sub-brand of GAC – or Guangzhou Automobile Company – which is the fifth-largest car manufacturer in China. Here in the UK, Aion will be established as part of a joint venture with Saudi-owned autos company Jameel Motors – the people distributing the Farizon SV electric van. They will do the same for the Aion V out of 15 sites by the end of June, and 25 by the end of the year. 

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Aion is hoping to reassure and tempt new customers and turn them into ‘brand advocates’ with its ‘Great 8’ strategy. Referencing Kia’s seven-year warranty, which helped secure the Korean company’s popularity in the UK, Aion’s ‘Great 8’ will provide a warranty, servicing, MOT and roadside-assistance package lasting eight years. 

Being a 4.6-metre long electric SUV sitting around the £35k mark, the Aion V isn’t short of competition. There’s our reigning Car of the Year, the Skoda Elroq, the excellent Kia EV3 and fellow Chinese offerings such as the recently facelifted BYD Atto 3 Evo, Geely EX5 and the Stellantis-backed Leapmotor B10. 

As with its Chinese counterparts, the Aion V comes with just one battery offering, with the 75.3kWh pack providing up to 317 miles of range under the WLTP testing regime. That places the newcomer almost exactly in between the ranges of the small and large-battery versions of the Elroq and EV3. It’s also comfortably more than the Leapmotor’s 270 miles, although just one more mile than the Atto 3 Evo. Charging for the V is at the upper end of the spectrum compared with its rivals, with 180kW ensuring a 10 to 80 per cent charge takes 24 minutes.

After a few hours of driving on a mix of roads, our car (which started with the battery charged to 95 per cent and 303 miles of range), returned an average efficiency of 3.6 miles per kWh – which would’ve resulted in 270 miles of range. 

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As part of Aion’s parent company GAC and its joint ventures with Toyota in China, the Chinese-market Toyota bZ3X actually uses the same AEP 3.0 platform as the Aion V and the firm’s upcoming second model, the UT electric hatchback. The bZ3X and the UT come with smaller batteries and while Aion is focused on offering the V with all the bells and whistles from launch, the company said it’s looking into bringing a small battery (and supposedly cheaper) variant to the UK. 

As part of our introduction to the brand, Aion’s managing director Jon Wakefield told us that GAC’s Toyota and Honda joint ventures in China have helped ensure the V will be “imbued with the same quality”. On first inspection, it appears the Aion V can hold its own with established brands here for quality. 

The exterior is pretty plain-looking, the boxy and upright profile and contrasting roof rails give the Aion V something of an off-road character, which makes the chequered flag motif on the rear pillar all the more odd, but in terms of interesting details you’re left a bit short-changed. 

Open the flush-fitting door handles (Aion is keen to point out these are mechanical rather than electrical, presumably as a consequence of the bad press electric door handles have received in China) and you’ll find a cabin clearly targeting a premium experience. 

It largely pulls it off, too. There’s only one trim level offered, with heated and cooled front seats, a powered bootlid, wireless smartphone charger, 360-degree camera and a panoramic glass roof with built-in sunshade all fitted. The materials are all soft to the touch but feel durable, too, and there were no trim pieces rattling around, either. 

The mirrored metal trim extends to the interior door handles, which are superbly damped – another nice touch. As a whole, despite the manual air vent controls being a little flimsy, we think most people getting into the Aion V will be pretty impressed by overall quality levels.

Elsewhere, there’s a nine-speaker sound system which doesn’t sound particularly excellent, although it's no worse than Sony’s system in the Geely EX5. 

The Aion also gets a 14.6-inch touchscreen that dominates the dashboard. Aside from the Tesla-inspired toggles on the steering wheel (which don’t respond particularly well to inputs and are awkward to use while driving), there are very few physical buttons inside. This puts you at the mercy of the infotainment, which is confusing and distracting to use on the move. For instance, the positioning of the main sub-menu list is on the passenger side, meaning you have to reach over too often to make selections. 

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Despite its size, the touchscreen’s fonts are small so until you’ve memorised the many sub-menus, the display takes your attention away from the road far too much. At that point the overzealous driver-monitoring camera will start beeping at you. On the subject of safety assists, the speed-limit sign recognition defaults to also beeping when you enter a new speed zone. 

Upgrading to the Premium Pack is something more than 50 per cent of V buyers will do, according to Aion. For £1,495 you get massaging front seats, real leather, a 6.6-litre fridge in the centre console and a tray table in the rear – but only on the passenger side. The table is leather-topped, too, and the damping of the hinges was benchmarked against the table in the back of a Bentley Mulsanne, apparently. While the fridge is a nice addition, as a family-oriented SUV, we’re not sure of the day-to-day use case of the Premium Pack, although it certainly adds some grandeur. 

As for space, there’s loads of it. Tall adults can stretch out easily and there’s even a tilt function for the rear-seat backrests. Boot space stands at 427 litres, which is more than the Geely EX5’s but less than both the Skoda and Kia, despite the Aion being longer than both of those cars. There are several levels of adjustment for the boot floor, but something we didn’t like was the parcel shelf. This is difficult to remove and has a few exposed screwheads, which brings the otherwise decent air of quality down a touch. 

To go with the single trim level and battery, there’s one electric motor: a 204bhp unit mounted on the front axle. The 240Nm of torque is quite low for an EV, but on the move the Aion never feels underpowered and actually feels pretty nippy. You get the quickest throttle response in Sport mode, but the pedal itself still feels nice and firm, too. Changing to the Comfort or Power Save settings introduces a bit more of a delay, with the latter providing some additional brake-regeneration force – a little more than you’d get from a traditional combustion engine. 

The Aion V has already been on sale in China and some other markets, such as Australia, for a few months. Early criticisms of the driving experience have included a crashy ride with ‘bottoming out’ on bump stops, under-damped rear suspension and lifeless steering. Aion has fettled the chassis and the lifeless steering for the UK market and the results have been positive, although it’s worth pointing out early on that this is no sports SUV.

On the standard-fit 19-inch wheels the Aion feels mostly composed at low speeds, however, big bumps and potholes will still deliver a thud into the cabin, which is surprising given the tall stance and expected depth of compression in the suspension. At higher speeds we experienced a very slight but constant vibration akin to a wheel being out of balance, we suspect this could’ve been down to fairly high tyre pressures (above 40psi). In the future Aion is considering larger wheels for the V, but all we can say is smaller wheels with more tyre profile would be welcome. 

As for the steering changes, you can artificially change the weight, but in Sport the calibration felt spot on to us. There’s not much in terms of feedback and if you’re too eager with your inputs it’s very easy to overload the front wheels, but overall it feels well judged. The slightly firm suspension doesn’t really equate to any cornering engagement, although the Aion certainly doesn’t roll as much as you’d think. This is possibly as a result of its 1,880kg kerbweight, which is far from what we’d call ‘light’, but is less than most rivals of a similar size. 

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