A chassis codenamed AEP 3.0 underpins the V (and its UT hatchback sibling), as well as the Toyota bZ3X – GAC assembles cars in joint ventures with the Japanese giant and Honda.
The V also gets range extender power in China, with a turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder acting as generator to power the battery and electric drive motor: “we’re assessing the market opportunities [for this drivetrain],” experienced head of product Owen Lloyd tells us. Aion also has plug-in hybrids in its pack.
Interior space and practicality
The V is a very spacious car, with lots of headroom beneath the standard glass roof (with retractable sunshade) and space for long legs to stretch out in the rear. As with the Geely EX5, the head restraints detach so the front seats can go flat to make a bed, should M25 congestion become too overwhelming.
The dual-level boot has a large load lip and protruding wheelarches, with a compact torsion beam rear suspension to help free up 510 litres of stowage. That’s about 33 litres down on a Volkswagen ID.4.
Other standard kit is set to include 64-colour ambient lighting, polyurethane ‘vegan’ upholstery and 19-inch diamond-turned alloy wheels. There’s a large central touchscreen with Android and Apple connectivity and logically arranged menus, and that’s before Lloyd racks up 10,000 test miles and feeds back to GAC’s engineers for software revisions. He’ll need to request illuminated steering wheel buttons though.
One circa £1,500 option is set to be an Exec pack, adding massage seats, a cooled/heated centre console box and genuine leather. Hopefully that’ll be less plasticky to touch than the vegan upholstery feels.
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