Haval Jolion Hybrid 2022 Review

GWM Australia’s 2022 Haval Jolion Hybrid arrives at a time when petrol-electric hybrid small-medium SUVs are a popular choice.

But while the top-selling Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is available in multiple equipment levels and prices, a single hybrid model sits atop the Jolion range priced at $40,990 drive-away.

In the Jolion Hybrid, a 1.5-litre naturally-aspirated petrol four-cylinder engine is mated to a single electric motor. This combo provides more power and torque and a claimed lower fuel consumption rate than the orthodox 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine that powers other, cheaper Jolion models.

Some people may be surprised the Jolion is being mentioned in connection with the hot-selling RAV, but the reality is the new Chinese entrant isn’t that much smaller (in fact it’s almost as big as a Mazda CX-5) and its pricing places it up against the GX and GXL front-wheel drive RAVs.

The Jolion Hybrid can be picked from the rest of the Jolion range by a new ‘Star Matrix’ grille, its own LED headlights and fog lights with blue accents, redesigned front and rear bumpers and a new rear spoiler with a couple of cool-looking vents – dunno if they do much for downforce, though.

There are also new 18-inch alloy wheels shared with the previous flagship of the range, the $32,990 (drive-away) Jolion Ultra. A panoramic sunroof is also a standard feature shared with Ultra. Roof rails and keyless entry are standard with the entire Jolion range.

In the cabin, key features include Comfort-Tek (synthetic leather) seat trim, heated front seats, a six-way powered driver’s seat, a leather-trimmed steering wheel, dual-zone climate control, six-speaker audio, push-button start and an electric park brake.

A 12.3-inch infotainment touch-screen is stretched out across the dashboard. It provides plenty of info and adapts great to a split screen. But its width makes it hard for the driver to activate functions on its left side.

The system caters for cabled Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Smartphones can be wirelessly charged, but be warned, the pad is very shallow and phones go flying during only moderate cornering.

The instrument cluster is a 7.0-inch colour digital display with a speedo and power meter.

There are two USB points up front and two more in the rear. The front plugs are on the far side of the flying bridge centre console, making them difficult to reach from the driver’s seat.

What’s missing? There’s no embedded satellite navigation, steering wheel reach adjust or driver’s seat lumbar adjust. Nor is there a spare tyre as the high-voltage battery eats into storage space.

Like all GWM models, the Jolion Hybrid comes with a seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. The battery in the HEV is covered for eight years/unlimited.

Servicing intervals are 12 months/10,000km for the first year and then 12 months/15,000km after that. The capped-price service structure is still to be announced, but GWM advises it will cost a little more than the $1550 charged for regular Jolion models over the first five years.

While the 2022 Haval Jolion Hybrid comes with a significant amount of safety equipment, it is not yet endowed with an ANCAP safety rating.

We expect an announcement regarding the petrol-engined Jolion models sometime soon, but it’s unknown if the Jolion Hybrid will be included in that rating.

The driver assist package starts with vitally important autonomous emergency braking (AEB). It detects pedestrians and cyclists, operates at junctions and crossroads and in reverse.

AEB supports adaptive cruise control with a stop-and-go function, while another linked feature is intelligent cornering that makes a judgement on the maximum speed the car should be negotiating a turn.

Also in the package is a variety of systems designed to keep you centred in your lane, prevent you from departing it and warning you if you do. It has an impressive ability to cruise down the freeway hands-free, where permitted in other countries.

Other safety assists include blind spot detection and lane change assist, rear cross traffic alert, traffic sign recognition and driver attention monitoring that works via a rather ominous-looking pod sitting on the front A-pillar.

Be aware that there’s plenty of warning bongs accompanying perceived threats and indiscretions such as exceeding the speed limit.

The Jolion Hybrid has seven airbags including a centre airbag to prevent front passenger head clashes.

A head-up display helps ensure the driver spends more time looking straight ahead. There is a 360-degree and reversing camera and rear parking sensors. Headlights are LED.

Children’s seats are secured by both top tethers and ISOFIX mounts.

GWM is a gigantic auto business with immense resources, so no surprise the 2022 Haval Jolion Hybrid is right up to date.

The core of the car is a new GWM-developed monocoque platform with a long-winded name that boils down to the unfortunate acronym L.E.M.O.N. I kid you not.

The drivetrain comprises a 70kW/125Nm internal combustion engine and 110kW/250Nm electric motor that combine to produce 139kW and 375Nm.

The engine is fed by a 55-litre fuel tank, the motor by a high-voltage CATL lithium-ion battery of about 1.6kWh. A two-speed transmission drives the front wheels.

GWM Haval claims an average fuel consumption rate of 5.0L/100km and a 0-100km/h time of 8.2 seconds. Both numbers are pretty respectable.

The Jolion Hybrid can run as a pure EV or a pure ICE. It can use the ICE to recharge the battery and use both battery and ICE to power the wheels at the same time.

The battery can be recharged when decelerating and rolling downhill. There are three recharge levels selectable by the driver and a single-pedal function as well.

The powertrain can be tuned through four modes: Eco, Normal, Sport and Snow.

Beyond the drivetrain, the Jolion Hybrid specs out pretty orthodox. It has a MacPherson strut/multi-link (front/rear) suspension combo, electric-assist power steering (tuneable through three modes) and a combination of ventilated front and solid rear disc brakes.

The Jolion Hybrid measures up at 4472mm long, 1841mm wide, 1574mm high and rolls on a long 2700mm wheelbase (RAV4 is 2690mm). It weighs in at 1530kg and has a 1500kg braked towing capacity.

Stowage space is claimed to be 390 litres with the rear seats in place (down 40 litres on the petrol Jolion) and 1069 litres (-64L) with them split-folded.

Get in the 2022 Haval Jolion Hybrid and the first thing you’ll notice is a great deal of nothing. As in, there are hardly any traditional push-buttons and dials.

One of them is an ostentatious jewelled dial that sits on the centre console and selects the gear position.

Overall, it’s a very clean, neat and modern look.

The only frustration is so many functions must be accessed through the infotainment screen by drilling down through menus and sub-menus. Even some air-con settings are operated only through the screen.

Some stuff, it turns out, is just plain missing, like a battery charge gauge.

Nor could I find a clear indicator showing whether the car was running as an ICE, in series or parallel hybrid modes or as an EV.

Plenty of times, what the engine and motor were doing was discernible via the seat of the pants, but still it would be nice to know for sure.

Nor is there an EV button as per Toyota hybrids, where the car can be instructed to run on electricity alone – admittedly a placebo much of the time. Instead, the Jolion Hybrid makes all the decisions.

If you want to assess how economical the powertrain is, want to change the recharge level or try out single-pedal driving, it requires multi-step drilling into the menus.

Even more perplexing are the tabs in the instrument cluster that provide access to the trip computer, phone settings and so on. Operated via buttons on the steering wheel, they only worked for us randomly and occasionally. Hey, operator error is entirely possible, but if so it’s the most unintuitive system I’ve ever encountered.

The good news is while all that stuff proved frustrating and annoying, the actual core driving experience is decent.

Someone with some knowledge of chassis tuning has had a go at the steering and suspension, making this a safe and comfortable vehicle to drive about in.

Sure, the steering has a remoteness that’s become familiar as electric assist has become more common, but it’s also suitably light in its efforts for urban twirling. There’s little torque steer or wheelspin transmitted when accelerating hard.

The ride deals pretty well with big inputs but is less settled over constant smaller inputs.

Look, it’s not up there with the likes of the CX-5 as a ride and handler, but it is cohesive.

The big proviso is the intelligent cornering function, which proved to be conservative in its speed estimates. The software algorithm is more Grandad than Max Verstappen. It can only be switched off with the cruise control, which is a bit awkward.

More positively, most lane keeping and warning functions can be switched off, but again this requires lots of dialling into sub-menus.

Which leaves us with the powertrain. When it’s all working together this is an energetic vehicle that has plenty of zip both in town and on the open road.

The electric motor accelerates the car briskly from a standing start, albeit accompanied by a disconcerting if momentary shudder.

It usually gets up to speed quietly, although the ICE can be a bit intrusive when revving hard in a recharging role. This can also be weird because the engine speed has no connection to road speed.

The transmission, which is effectively two CVTs bolted together to provide a low and high gear, is surreptitious by comparison.

You can adjust the feel of the powertrain through the different modes – again, you’ll have to go through the screen and dig down through sub-menus. Sport is pretty lively, Eco not too dull. The single-pedal mode is a bit more of a killjoy.

And once the battery drains, things dampen too. It happens quite quickly given its small capacity.

Memorably, the motor stopped assisting halfway up a steep climb during our test drive. All of sudden the Jolion went from energetic to ennui.

Thankfully, the battery does seem to recharge quickly and the motor starts contributing again.

According to the energy monitor the Jolion Hybrid was averaging 7.1L/100km and 6.9kWh/100km after completing our test loop. So clearly the hills were having an impact and the ICE was being worked.

A less stressed freeway run returned fuel economy of just 0.6L/100km and 4.3kWh/100km.

The Jolion Hybrid package is completed by decent space in which to load adults up front and impressively generous space in the rear. There are plenty of storage spaces in the cabin and a reasonably-sized boot for luggage.

However, the Comfort-Tek trim is a little bit vinyl, the seats don’t have much in the way of support and the steering really should have reach adjust to help the driver get comfortable.

The rate of improvement of Chinese cars arriving for sale in Australia is startling. The 2022 Haval Jolion Hybrid is yet more evidence of that.

The big-picture stuff is convincing: the drivetrain is mostly impressive, the dynamic package is decently resolved, the equipment level is good for the money, the cabin space and presentation gets a thumbs up and the pricing and warranty is cutting-edge.

But the Jolion Hybrid does fall short in several important ways. Living with the infotainment system would drive some of us (me included) a bit batty, the cruise control system’s insistence on dictating conservative corner speeds is too Big Brother and the drop-off in performance when the battery depletes is obvious.

So some clear plusses and minuses here. But at this money it would be easy to park the latter and embrace the former.

How much does the 2022 Haval Jolion Hybrid cost?
Price: $40,990 (drive-away)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol-electric
Output: 70kW/125Nm (electric motor: 110kW/250Nm)
Combined output: 139kW/375Nm
Transmission: Two-speed automatic
Fuel: 5.0L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 116g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested