Styling
Give the stylists of the Aion V credit, it might not be exactly what you'd call beautiful (in fact, it's a long way from it), but with its super-snub nose that reminds us vaguely of either the original Ford Sierra XR4i or even the B3-generation Volkswagen Passat of 1988, it's slightly more memorable than umpteen other Chinese SUVs out there right now. The twin-vertical-stripe daytime running lamps further give the V its own flavour, while around the sides are chunky chamfered sills, some possibly egregious chequered-flag motifs, and a set of reasonably attractive 19-inch alloy wheels. Six body colours are available, mostly in the monochromatic spectrum save for £675 Galaxy Blue metallic, so while we would once again stress we are in no way overawed by the aesthetic clout (or otherwise) of the Aion SUV, we do think it's one of the more easily identifiable cars in its class - despite the rather subdued palette of paint finishes available.
Interior
Aion reckons its textured, upmarket-looking interior is a little more welcoming and homely than that found in the affordable cabins of many of its compatriot rivals, and... you know what? We tend to agree. It's even more alluring with the optional French Cream (£195) colourway as seen in the pics and our test car, although bear in mind that lighter trim (along with another £195 choice, Bright Tan) is only available if you option up the £1,495 Premium Pack. If you don't, you're getting a dark passenger compartment that Aion calls 'Noir'.
However, where the V conforms more to what we will call the 'Chinese Standard' of car interiors is that it has one socking great central infotainment touchscreen, a smaller display for the instrument cluster, and then not a lot else to look at. At all. Switchgear is an endangered species in this environment, with practically everything being run through the 14.6-inch display that's powered by GAC's proprietary ADiGO operating system. This is... OK, but still has some of those menu layout foibles and ADAS-related annoyances that, again, are a hallmark of all Chinese cars, no matter which manufacturer they're from.
Still, material quality is generally swish and the airy ambience is nice, and once you've paired your phone to the system and started running either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto wirelessly, you'll soon forget about any infotainment complaints you have. Until, er, you need to change the climate control and you have to try and drop out of the mirrored smartphone screen to get back to the Aion's own display. Harrumph.
Practicality
With a flat floor in the back and a 2,775mm spread between the axles, room in the second row of the Aion V is actually very generous, so seating four taller people in here, or even five for shorter journeys, shouldn't be out of the question. The boot is less astonishing, although 427 litres with all seats in use isn't an appalling figure. Furthermore, the rear seats recline through a fairly sizeable arc, so you can configure the cabin to a useful degree if you need to balance off passenger space with cargo capacity as required. There are also lots of good storage areas and solutions dotted throughout the interior, although there's no glovebox whatsoever. Instead, Aion simply gives you a couple of pop-out 'curry hooks' on either side of the passenger fascia. Make of that what you will.
Undoubtedly, perhaps the star selling points of the Aion V are the CoolHot Box in the front-centre armrest and the fold-out table in the left-hand-rear passenger seat, with this item supposedly modelled on the same thing you'd find in the back of a
Bentley Mulsanne. Both these features are part of the optional Premium Pack, with the daftly named former having a range of temperatures running from anything down to -15 degrees C, right up to 50C (so you can either keep a small pack of ice lollies frozen in there or perhaps slow-bake a jacket potato if you're on a longer journey, it's up to you), while the latter is really satisfying and weighty in its operation. Maybe namechecking no less an automotive luminary than Bentley wasn't such a controversial thing for Aion's reps to do, after all...
Performance
Just the one powertrain has been confirmed for the Aion V so far and it's a 150kW front-mounted electric motor, allied to a 75.3kWh usable capacity lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack. Max power stands at 204hp, which is reasonable, and the on-paper 0-62mph time of 7.9 seconds is acceptable as well, while the claimed range for the V reads 317 miles between charges. A competitive 180kW DC peak of replenishment also means it should take between 18 and 24 minutes to get the battery to 80 per cent SoC, depending on whether you started at 30 or 10 per cent to begin with (respectively).
The issue, however, is that while we fully accept these affordable little crossovers and SUVs, be they hybrids, plug-in hybrids or pure electrics, do not need to be capable of doing the standing quarter in 10.2 seconds or similar, 240Nm is not an awfully great deal of torque to be shifting 1,880kg of metal, plastic, rubber and man-made leather about (NB: or real cow-hide seats, if - yes - you go for the Premium Pack as tested here). So while the Aion V is just about brisk enough to make a fair fist of town driving and accelerating up to 50mph, above that speed it starts to feel a bit reedy and undernourished. Overtakes on two-lane roads, for instance, require a good deal of forward planning if you're going to commit wholeheartedly to them, without them becoming sketchy in the extreme. And getting up to motorway speeds seems to take longer than is strictly necessary, certainly in a rangier EV that you'd normally expect to be comparatively torque-rich.
This grousing wouldn't even matter so much to end users, though, were it not for the fact that the Aion V didn't prove to be a paragon of electrical efficiency during our test drive, achieving a middling 3.1 miles/kWh across 33 miles of mainly gentle motoring. True, the ambient conditions were cool at around 11-12 degrees, and yes, we did have the in-car climate control running permanently while our driving colleague also whacked the CoolHot Box down to its most frigid temperature as he attempted to turn two personal-sized 500ml bottles of Buxton into lumps of ice (purely for rigorous testing purposes, you understand). But Aion says the fridge-freezer-oven will only consume 0.5kWh, even if it's running for 24 hours straight, while the test route itself was hardly hilly or challenging. We'd therefore expect better economy from such a conservatively powered EV in such circumstances, instead of a rate of consumption that would empty the V's completely topped-up battery in around 235 miles.
Ride & Handling
We're not going to be long here. The Aion V delivers an utterly forgettable driving experience. There's not one area where it stands out in the slightest. Now, there are good connotations to this, because it means the ride comfort is of a standard where you won't particularly notice the car crashing or fidgeting about, the grip levels are commendable, the steering is inoffensive and there's not much noise filtering into the passenger compartment (the V has double-glazed windows in the front of its glasshouse to aid with this). Put simply, if you never extend its chassis nor demand anything involving from its kinematics at all, you'll get on just swell with it. This is the epitome of a totally fuss-free A-to-B merchant, and we've certainly driven a lot, lot worse vehicles emanating from China than this newcomer.
Not least this abomination of a vehicle.
On the other hand, the Aion excels at absolutely nothing. The body control and handling will dissuade any sort of enthusiastic corner-entry speed. We've already said the powertrain is relatively weak for a 1.9-tonne conveyance. The way it covers off lumps and bumps in the road is, granted, largely amenable, given the underpinnings have been specifically tuned for the UK-market cars ahead of them going on sale here, but by no means is this the smoothest-riding nor most refined car in this class, not by a long chalk. And the brake pedal feel is odd at times, meaning bleeding on stopping power isn't always the most seamless of tasks.
If you imagine setting a car up for all the dynamic disciplines is like sitting at one huge graphic equaliser in a studio, with those 0-10 sliding scales for each parameter such as steering, throttle response, braking strength, engine power, cornering grip, drivetrain traction, damper comfort and so on, it's as if every single grader on the Aion V has been set at six-out-of-ten and then just left well alone. There's been no attempt to push towards a seven or even an eight in any department; it's a safe and, ultimately, very boring car to drive.
Value
With Aion selling the V in just one specification, in effect, for a price of £36,450, the value of this SUV seems neither outrageously overpriced for what it is, nor a conspicuous bargain either. And we might as well once again outline precisely what the £1,495 Premium Pack brings in, which is the following: genuine leather seating; a massage function for the front seats; the second-row tray table inspired by the Bentley Mulsanne; front sun visors with large vanity mirrors incorporating LED lighting; the signature CoolHot Box with heating, freezing and refrigeration functions; a Pm2.5 air-quality sensor; and access to the further cost options of Holographic Silver metallic exterior paint (at another £675), or the French Cream or Bright Tan interiors (at an additional £195), none of which are available on non-PP Aion Vs.
Which means that everything else - every scrap of ADAS kit, the heated and ventilated front seats, the heated outer seats in the rear, the heated steering wheel, the two-metre-long panoramic sunroof, the nine-speaker, 360-watt premium sound system, the cooled and wireless 50-watt smartphone charging pad, the four-zone voice control, the heat pump, the powered tailgate, and so much more - is standard fit on an Aion V. That, in and of itself, might just be enough for some brave folks to take the plunge on this Chinese EV upstart, but bear in mind it's not just cars from the same country it must compete against; there's a whole wealth of talented European, Japanese, Korean and American vehicles out there for the V to overcome as well.
Verdict
There's nothing inherently wrong with the Aion V, on this first showing. But, for some reason, we're reminded of the later
Red Dwarf episode
Stoke Me A Clipper. In it, the weedy hologram Arnold Rimmer we've all come to know and despise over the series is supposed to become a James Bond-esque super-version of himself called Ace Rimmer. And after an episode full of self-doubt, incompetence and bonkers training rituals, eventually he is persuaded to do the job when he follows the coffin of the original Ace we see at the start of the episode (a man who's so cool that he can skydive while surfing on the back of a crocodile, for instance) to its final resting place.
Here, the little gold object, containing the remains of someone we initially thought was special and outstanding, bumps into a field of similar objects. And we pan back to reveal that millions and millions of Rimmers from multiple dimensions have previously become Ace, with their coffins in fact forming a ring around an entire planet because there are so many of them. The specific Ace we and the crew were following is simply one of a massive crowd.
Well, that's the Aion V. Not, you understand, that we're inferring it's an automotive superhero. But five or six years ago, this sort of superbly well-equipped, affordable, long-legged and decent-to-drive EV from an unknown manufacturer would have been positively gamechanging. Now, though? In the wake of what feels like millions of interchangeable rivals that have arrived before it? Sadly, the unexceptional Aion V is just another tiny pinprick of light, lost in a dense field of pre-existing stars.
