Haval ‘Jolion Max’ coming to Australia

GWM will introduce a new ‘Jolion Max’ to the Australian Haval family in 2026, offering an electrified larger sibling to the existing Jolion small SUV.

The newcomer to the local line-up was confirmed by GWM Australia and New Zealand chief operating officer John Kett during the GWM Tech Day even this week in Melbourne.

“We’re going to introduce what's called a ‘Jolion Max’ next year, which will have two different fuels,” he said.

As to which specific powertrains those ‘two different fuels’ are is yet to be confirmed, but Kett did reveal that one would be a plug-in hybrid and the other a pure battery powered EV.

“We’re certainly bringing an EV and a plug-in hybrid to that (Jolion Max).”

The Chinese market may offer more clues, where the model arriving in 2026 is already sold as the Haval Xiaolong.

However, the overseas model is only available at this stage with a single 1.5-litre plug-in hybrid drivetrain, so the electric offering is yet to make its global debut under the Xialong bonnet.

The Xiaolong is a small-medium SUV that splits the current Jolion and H6 on size: at 4600mm long, it’s 130mm longer than the Jolion and 103mm shorter than the H6.

Despite the nomenclature similarities, the Jolion Max is not to be confused with the GWM Xiaolong Max which is larger again and, according to GWM, has less DNA in common.

And speaking of names, the Jolion Max is for now a working title, with the company still juggling the official boot badge options for Australian showrooms.

The updated Haval H6 has just arrived and an update is already in the pipeline for the oddball Haval H7, including a PHEV drivetrain.

With the arrival of the Jolion Max, there will be no holes to plug in Haval’s small-to-medium SUV range.

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