• last year
Hybrid SUVs are all the rage at the moment! Paul Maric gets behind the wheel of the hybrid version of the 2023 Haval Jolion Ultra. Is it any good? Only one way to find out!

Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE

More Haval content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/haval
More Haval Jolion content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/haval/jolion

Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 0:52
Interior 3:31
Infotainment 4:43
Safety tech 6:03
Practicality 6:59
On the road 10:19
0-100 16:11
Driver aids 17:01
Verdict 19:24

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#haval #jolion #hybrid #review
Transcript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:02 Look at this, another hybrid SUV.
00:05 Hybrids are interesting because they're kind of bridging
00:07 the gap at the moment between internal combustion cars
00:10 or straight internal combustion cars and electric cars.
00:13 And they're kind of a bit of a comfort zone for people
00:15 before they fully invest in an electric car.
00:17 And most of them are pretty affordable as well.
00:19 This is one of the most affordable hybrid SUVs
00:22 on the market.
00:23 It's called the Haval Jolion or Jolion hybrid.
00:26 This is priced at just under $41,000.
00:29 It competes with things like the Mazda CX-30,
00:32 the Toyota Corolla Cross, and also the new Nissan Qashqai.
00:35 So we're gonna do a detailed review of this car.
00:37 So if you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of the review,
00:40 you can use the time cards on the screen.
00:42 If you're on YouTube, you can scroll down
00:43 and use the chapters below.
00:44 And if you haven't done so already,
00:45 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon
00:48 so you can find out every single time
00:49 we review a new hybrid SUV.
00:51 So let's talk about design.
00:54 So you've got six external colors to pick from.
00:56 All but white is gonna set you back just under $500.
01:00 So I said this previously when we reviewed
01:02 the original Jolion, Jolion, however you pronounce it.
01:06 I actually quite like the design.
01:07 I think it is quite sort of inoffensive,
01:10 simple looking, but quite stylish at the same time.
01:13 Not a huge fan of this enormous logo up the front here.
01:16 I think that can probably be a little more condensed,
01:19 but I do love this sort of waterfall grill,
01:21 little chrome elements in there as well.
01:23 And then the chrome lashings around the outside.
01:26 Apologies for how dirty the car is.
01:27 It has been absolutely bucketing down here at the moment.
01:30 It is just impossible to keep a car clean.
01:33 You have a little bit of cooling
01:34 down the bottom section there,
01:35 a camera down the front here.
01:37 And over here you have a set of full LED headlights
01:40 with that LED daytime running light
01:42 and indicator built into there.
01:44 Quite like the sequence as well when this unlocks.
01:46 It looks pretty cool when that all sort of tapers down there.
01:49 Now, around the side here, 18 inch alloy wheels,
01:53 quite a nice sort of design.
01:55 Machined finish on the outside, piano black on the inside.
01:58 No wheel arch cladding.
01:59 This is just a front wheel drive.
02:01 There is no all wheel drive version
02:03 of the hybrid available.
02:04 HEV up here for hybrid electric vehicle.
02:07 This actually has quite an interesting
02:09 and I guess somewhat complex hybrid drive train
02:14 that I'll run you through and we do go for a drive.
02:16 So I'll be keen to see how that actually performs
02:18 in person as well.
02:19 Terms of dimensions, this is slightly longer than a Kona.
02:22 So if that kind of gives you a better idea
02:24 of how big it is, it is actually quite a decent sized SUV.
02:28 Up the top here, you have body color on the wing mirror,
02:30 indicator built into there, little camera there as well.
02:34 You have roof rails, big panoramic glass roof there,
02:37 privacy glass and then whip around to the back with me.
02:41 Now around the back here, LED tail lights.
02:43 You can actually spot this from a mile away at nighttime
02:46 as well, that sort of all lights up really nicely.
02:48 GWM badge down here, which stands for Great Wall Motors.
02:52 Havell along the top there, Jolion, Jolion, HEV.
02:56 Now, just so you're aware, GWM is the parent brand,
03:00 Great Wall Motors and then Havell is the subsidiary
03:03 that makes these SUVs.
03:05 That is how that sort of naming structure works.
03:07 Sorry about this, it was delivered to us like that.
03:10 I didn't do that, definitely.
03:12 Shark fin aerial at the top there,
03:14 brake light integrated into there
03:16 and then down the bottom you have lashings
03:18 of chrome as well.
03:20 So let me know what you reckon about the design.
03:22 Do you think it looks good?
03:24 Do you think it cuts a fine line through the night sky?
03:26 I don't know what that means.
03:30 Let me know in the comment section below.
03:32 So we are inside the Jolion.
03:34 Here is the key.
03:35 You've got panic, lock, boot, unlock
03:40 and then on the back it says Havell.
03:42 It's a proximity sensing case.
03:43 You can leave that in your pocket.
03:45 Then once you're inside,
03:45 you have a push button start just here.
03:48 I really like this layout.
03:49 So you've got this big screen up the top of the cabin.
03:52 You have this soft touch material along here
03:54 and then also like a fake leather on the doors.
03:58 This really does look and feel quite premium,
04:01 especially compared to some of the other cars
04:03 in this segment that go down the path of those harsh
04:06 and scratchy plastics and that sort of stuff.
04:08 This actually looks and feels quite nice
04:10 and I love how high resolution this screen is.
04:13 We'll get into a bit more detail in that in just a second.
04:16 In terms of your touch points though,
04:18 so yeah, all this stuff is sort of fairly soft there
04:22 on the door as well.
04:23 How soft is it?
04:24 Well, we've tested the main surfaces in this cabin
04:27 with our durometer.
04:28 If you wanna see how this car compares to others
04:30 that we've tested before,
04:31 have a look at the link in the description below.
04:33 Now, build quality.
04:34 Actually, all feels fairly nice and solid
04:38 and a door slam test.
04:40 Sounds great.
04:42 So moving on to infotainment.
04:46 This is, I guess, mission control.
04:48 You have the main infotainment screen
04:50 and a couple of shortcut buttons down the bottom here.
04:53 I love the resolution on this.
04:55 It is so high resolution
04:56 and just pretty straightforward to use as well.
05:00 There's nothing sort of too out of the ordinary.
05:02 It doesn't come with any satellite navigation built in.
05:04 That's where they kind of save money with these things,
05:06 but you do get satellite navigation
05:08 through smartphone mirroring.
05:09 So I'll run you through that in a second.
05:11 But on the radio front,
05:12 you have AM and FM radio.
05:15 There's no digital radio here,
05:17 which is a little bit disappointing.
05:18 I just wish it had some form of digital radio,
05:21 given BYD has it,
05:23 so it's not something that all Chinese brands
05:25 can't have in Australia for whatever reason.
05:28 But you do have the ability to do
05:30 some interesting things here,
05:31 like putting video and images on the screen
05:34 to play them while the car's stationary.
05:36 On the smartphone mirroring front,
05:37 you have both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
05:39 Both of those are wired,
05:41 so this is what Apple CarPlay looks like.
05:43 So full screen integration, nice and sharp,
05:46 and very fast as well, which is great.
05:48 And this is what Android Auto looks like.
05:51 There's also a screen ahead of the driver here.
05:56 Nothing too crazy there in terms of what you can configure,
05:58 but you can move between these different menus
06:00 to show you radio, phone calls,
06:01 and also the car's settings as well.
06:03 Now, what about your safety tech?
06:04 You've got autonomous emergency braking
06:06 with pedestrian and cyclist detection.
06:09 You have an auto-dimming rear vision mirror.
06:11 Blind spot monitors are built into your wing mirror.
06:13 Lane departure warning with a lane centering assistant.
06:17 You also have radar cruise control,
06:20 rear cross-traffic alert.
06:21 On the parking front, you have rear parking sensors
06:24 and a 360 camera.
06:25 I'll show you what that looks like.
06:27 There it is.
06:27 So that is a fantastic camera.
06:29 It is such high resolution that is really impressive.
06:32 You can also then change between the different views.
06:34 So that's looking out the back.
06:35 You can clearly see our suitcase there.
06:38 Down the sides of the car.
06:39 It's actually quite cool.
06:41 You have some pretty impressive camera angles here.
06:44 Over onto the side here as well,
06:46 you have a car wash view.
06:47 So when you're driving into the car wash there,
06:49 you can go super wide angle.
06:51 And in addition to that,
06:52 you can also then modify some of the other stuff
06:54 that appears on the screen there.
06:55 So you can see those lines come and go as required as well.
06:59 Now, in terms of practicality,
07:00 we'll start off with your connectivity.
07:01 So you've got two USB-A ports down there,
07:04 a 12-volt outlet on this side.
07:06 Up the top here, you've got a USB outlet for dash camera.
07:11 You have a wireless phone charger just there.
07:13 In terms of storing your phone,
07:14 you can work it down here if you want.
07:16 There's a few little nooks for your phone.
07:19 What about your coffee cup?
07:21 So that can live in here.
07:23 You have little rubber teeth there to hold it in place.
07:26 It is quite a deep slot.
07:28 So you might de-lid your coffee cup
07:30 if it is a small one like that.
07:32 Your bottle can live in there as well without any dramas.
07:35 Small bottle goes inside the door.
07:37 We'll try our big bottle as well.
07:40 Excellent, that fits in too, very good.
07:43 Other storage, you have a little sort of storage slot
07:46 down near the driver's knee.
07:47 You have a fairly deep center console there.
07:50 You also have a reasonably sized glove box.
07:54 You also have this storage section down here
07:56 and a sunglasses holder up the top.
07:58 Now, comfort, you have dual-zone automatic climate control.
08:02 You also have heated seats.
08:04 You access that by swiping across here
08:06 for the driver and front passenger.
08:08 In addition to that, your seats,
08:09 they are electrically adjustable for the driver.
08:12 The seats themselves, look, they're not very comfortable.
08:15 And like, it's not the material,
08:17 it's like a leatherette material.
08:18 I quite like the design as well.
08:20 It's more that the base can't be lifted up.
08:22 So you constantly feel like you're sliding out of the seat
08:24 and that follows onto the steering wheel,
08:26 which really only offers tilt adjustment.
08:29 There is no reach adjustment.
08:30 So it is very difficult to get
08:32 a comfortable driving position here.
08:34 But on our reach test,
08:35 all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.
08:38 Okay, second row of the Vajoleon.
08:41 So, stacks of room here.
08:43 Look at that, knee room is excellent.
08:44 Toe room is fantastic.
08:46 Headroom is not too bad.
08:48 Look at that flat floor as well.
08:50 I love that when they adapt this platform
08:52 to the fact that this is just front-wheel drive.
08:55 It's just so much better.
08:56 You have storage down here.
08:58 You have two USB-A outlets.
09:00 You have air vents, little mat pockets just there.
09:04 Also fixed points on the two outboard seats
09:06 with three top tether points.
09:08 You have center armrest here
09:09 with two cup holders and rubber teeth.
09:11 So bottle fits in there without any dramas.
09:14 Bottle also goes in the door without any problems at all.
09:17 Now, our window test.
09:20 So it's auto down,
09:22 almost all the way down and auto up as well.
09:25 So what's your cargo space like?
09:29 There is no power tailgate.
09:30 It is manual, so you release it there.
09:33 Gives you just over 400 liters of cargo space.
09:36 It's actually not a very big boot.
09:38 That is a super high floor
09:40 and that's thanks to the batteries underneath there.
09:42 If you look under this section here,
09:44 you have a tire repair kit,
09:46 which means you don't have a spare tire.
09:48 It's sort of not amazing in terms of storage space,
09:51 but I'll show you what it looks like with our bags in there.
09:54 There's that one and suitcase in there,
09:57 which won't close, I don't think.
09:59 We'll have a look.
10:00 Oh, it does close.
10:02 There you go.
10:03 Excellent.
10:03 Now, if you do want to expand that space a little bit,
10:06 you can actually drop the second row
10:09 and that gives you just over 1,100 liters of cargo space,
10:14 which is a far better setup.
10:15 And it's an almost flat floor.
10:16 You can see there where that little peak is just there.
10:19 So I've just hit the road in the Jollyon Hybrid.
10:23 I mentioned earlier,
10:23 there's a really fascinating system at play under the bonnet
10:27 and it's not like a conventional hybrid.
10:30 It is sort of quite different in that sense.
10:32 So it uses an internal combustion engine.
10:35 It's a one and a half liter four cylinder petrol engine.
10:38 That petrol engine makes just 70 kilowatts of power
10:41 and a little over 120 Newton meters of torque.
10:44 So it is very much a small internal combustion engine,
10:47 but it's then mated to an electric motor
10:49 that makes 110 kilowatts of power
10:51 and 250 Newton meters of torque.
10:54 And that gives you a combined system output
10:56 of 139 kilowatts of power and 375 Newton meters of torque.
11:00 And the reason it's interesting
11:02 is because it actually uses a two speed transmission.
11:05 So typically in these cars,
11:06 they'll use a continuously variable transmission
11:09 or a regular sort of six speed automatic,
11:11 seven speed, eight speed, whatever transmission.
11:14 And the disadvantage with using a regular transmission
11:17 in a hybrid is that you can feel the gear changes
11:19 when it's moving along on electric power alone.
11:21 So as an example, right now,
11:23 you can see as I roll out of the throttle,
11:24 we're charging the battery.
11:25 As I roll onto the throttle, it's on EV mode.
11:28 So it's not running the internal combustion engine.
11:30 Everything is really nice and smooth.
11:32 It is imperceptible when it's moving along
11:35 and you don't feel any of those gear shifts until later on.
11:38 So that is a big tick.
11:39 Where it is interesting is depending on the speed
11:42 that it's going, the internal combustion engine
11:44 can either directly drive the front wheels
11:46 or it can run in series mode or it can run in parallel mode.
11:50 And difference between those modes are
11:52 you're getting a parallel
11:53 where the internal combustion engine
11:55 and the battery is running the electric motor
11:57 or alternatively in series mode,
11:59 you have the internal combustion engine,
12:01 which is running the battery,
12:02 which then runs your electric motor.
12:04 So depending on what speed you're doing,
12:06 it is doing exactly that, which I find really interesting.
12:09 Now that all results in a combined fuel economy claim
12:14 of five litres per 100 Ks.
12:16 It's actually a really good number.
12:17 And if we flick through our fuel consumption here,
12:20 we're currently at 6.3.
12:21 So near enough to that number.
12:23 And I think that is sort of bang on where it needs to be.
12:26 If you look at Nissan's system in the Qashqai, for example,
12:29 that e-power system,
12:30 it's always driving the electric motor
12:32 and the internal combustion engine
12:34 is never actually involved in mechanically,
12:37 physically and directly driving the front wheels of that car.
12:40 So this gives you the best of both worlds.
12:42 You have the efficiency of being able
12:44 to drive the wheels directly when you need to,
12:46 or alternatively, if it is more efficient
12:48 to run the front wheels through the electric motor,
12:50 it will then do that instead.
12:52 Now the battery system in this car,
12:53 a little under two kilowatt hours,
12:54 which is about where you want to be.
12:56 Anything bigger than that,
12:57 and it becomes a bit too heavy and cumbersome
12:59 to include in a body like this.
13:01 Anything smaller than that,
13:02 and you don't really get the effects of the hybrid system.
13:04 You have three hybrid regen modes
13:06 that you access through the screen here.
13:08 Currently, this is in the most aggressive setting.
13:10 And to be honest,
13:11 I think it could be a little more aggressive
13:12 because as I roll out of the throttle now,
13:14 it takes a while to slow down.
13:15 It really sort of doesn't do anything
13:17 with a great deal of pace.
13:19 So I think they could probably go
13:20 a little bit more aggressive
13:21 with those regen driving modes.
13:23 Now what's the ride like in and around the city?
13:28 It is pretty soft.
13:29 And I suspect when we go for a faster drive later on,
13:32 it's going to affect what the body control feels like.
13:34 But in and around the city,
13:36 it soaks up bumps nicely,
13:37 and it's quite a comfortable place to be seated.
13:39 Yeah, the seat's quite firm,
13:42 so it's not entirely comfortable,
13:43 but from a ride point of view,
13:44 it's actually not too bad.
13:46 Okay, so we're spiking about the ride
13:47 in and around the city.
13:48 What's it like if we pop it up to 130
13:52 and hit our sine waves?
13:54 Well, there is not really a great deal
13:56 of body control there at all.
13:58 But it is quite sort of all over the place.
14:00 And look, to be honest,
14:01 we've found this is the case
14:03 in a lot of Chinese market cars.
14:05 They haven't been tuned for Australian road conditions.
14:08 And I've said this in a number of other reviews,
14:09 but I'll say it again now anyway.
14:11 130 k's an hour, you might think,
14:13 oh, I'm never going to do that speed in Australia.
14:15 If you're overtaking on a country road, for example,
14:17 you might hit 130.
14:19 If you're driving in Northern Territory,
14:20 you'll hit 130, where that's the legal speed limit.
14:23 The point is that if you do hit a road like that,
14:25 which you can do in and around the country,
14:27 even at lower speeds,
14:29 it is really going to unsettle the car as it drives.
14:32 And you really don't like that feeling.
14:33 You don't feel like you have full control over the car.
14:36 Now let's talk about drive modes.
14:37 So we flick this over.
14:39 You've got normal, economy, sport, and snow field.
14:43 Pop it onto sport.
14:44 Hazard lights flash to warn everyone.
14:46 Go for a punt around our track and see how this feels.
14:49 So...
14:50 A fair degree of body roll there.
14:55 It's not terrible.
14:56 Okay, so, and I can also feel that gear shift happening
14:59 as well, so I mentioned earlier
15:01 that it's got a two-speed transmission.
15:03 You get to this point here, about 120,
15:05 where you feel it start fluctuating a little bit
15:07 as it's sort of moving between those different modes.
15:11 It's actually surprising.
15:13 It's moving along quite nicely in terms of the pace.
15:16 The only thing I'm not a fan of,
15:18 which I mentioned earlier, is the driving position.
15:21 Really hard to grab a hold of this wheel
15:23 and get into a comfy driving position,
15:24 especially as the pace picks up.
15:26 Obviously, this car isn't intended
15:29 to be driven all that quickly, but...
15:31 Do test all of our cars just to be on the safe side.
15:38 And yeah, this has a fair degree of body roll,
15:41 and it's not all that sort of sporty through the corners.
15:45 Let's roll it onto the back straight here.
15:47 We'll see how it fares as the speed picks up.
15:50 There's that gear shift again as it drops off power,
15:53 and then it comes back on.
15:54 Look, it's actually doing a commendable job there
15:58 as we sort of round up 150.
16:01 Yeah, it's not terrible.
16:02 It's better than I thought it was gonna be,
16:04 but ultimately, yeah, this isn't really built
16:06 for sporty driving, which is fine.
16:08 It is more a SUV for the city.
16:11 Okay, zero to 100.
16:15 So, somebody forgot to bring our V-Box,
16:19 so we're just gonna have to put this up against
16:21 the stopwatch, pop it into sport as the lights flash,
16:24 and then I'll just mash the throttle,
16:27 and we'll see how it goes.
16:28 Looks not too bad.
16:41 Feels sprightly enough for a car this size.
16:43 And importantly, our reverse test.
16:45 Let's give this a shot.
16:47 Come to a stop.
16:47 I've left it in sport mode.
16:50 Pop it into reverse.
16:52 Here we go.
16:52 All right, there we go.
16:57 36 kilometers an hour is the peak at reverse.
17:01 Okay, time to test out some of these lane support systems.
17:04 I've enabled center assist,
17:05 which is designed to keep this car
17:06 in the center of the lane.
17:07 It's like a semi-autonomous function
17:09 if you have to keep your hands on the wheel.
17:11 I'm gonna test it out on the three outer lanes here,
17:13 and it will progressively get steeper with the steepest,
17:16 the hardest for the car to actually hold onto.
17:19 So we'll jack it up to 70 k's an hour,
17:21 which is the speed we test at.
17:22 And there it is.
17:27 There.
17:28 So let's have a look at how that feels.
17:32 It feels pretty good here.
17:33 It's holding that lane nice and easily without any dramas.
17:38 It's giving me a warning there.
17:39 It wasn't holding the wheel,
17:39 so we'll jump over to the next lane.
17:43 See how this goes.
17:45 So wait for those arrows to come up.
17:48 There we go.
17:49 So it is now holding its position here.
17:51 I'm only lightly holding the wheel
17:52 just to see how well this system works.
17:54 That's actually really good.
17:57 So it's holding the center of that lane beautifully.
18:00 We'll jump up to our outermost lane.
18:02 This is the one that pretty much every car struggles with,
18:04 so I'd be surprised if this works,
18:06 but happy to be surprised.
18:08 It has got its arrows there.
18:11 They've disappeared now.
18:13 They're coming and going.
18:15 I'll try that.
18:17 The arrows are gone.
18:19 They're back.
18:20 No, it's not liking that.
18:22 It kind of dived us back into the lane
18:24 'cause it has like a lane-keeping emergency mode,
18:28 but yeah, it's not holding the lane there.
18:29 Every time the arrows pop up to say that it is holding lane,
18:32 they disappear, so yeah, that's not working.
18:34 So yeah, pass in lane one and two, but fail in lane three.
18:38 Now, if you wanna see how this car compares
18:39 to others that we've tested before,
18:41 you can have a look at the link
18:42 down in the description below.
18:47 Now, let's talk road noise.
18:48 There is a fair bit of just a whole bunch of road noise.
18:52 It's like coming from the tyres.
18:53 There's wind around the car as well,
18:55 so yeah, it isn't quite as refined
18:57 as I'd like it to be on highways,
18:59 especially when you find yourself on a coarse-chip surface.
19:02 On the visibility front,
19:03 I can see clearly down the front of the car there,
19:05 big wing mirrors too with blind spot monitors
19:08 built into those.
19:09 Visibility out the back is pretty narrow
19:11 thanks to that tiny little envelope.
19:13 If you do wanna do any towing,
19:15 you can do that with a 1,500-kilo brake to towing capacity
19:19 and a turning circle of just over 11 metres.
19:21 So the Jolion Hybrid, what do we think?
19:30 Look, it's seven grand more expensive
19:32 than the non-hybrid version,
19:33 so that is a lot of driving you need to do
19:35 to actually reap the fuel savings.
19:37 And the thing is that the standard Jolion is lighter.
19:40 It's also pretty punchy as it is.
19:42 So look, you can go the hybrid if you want.
19:44 It's fine, it's pretty fuel-efficient for what it is,
19:47 but if you do wanna save your seven grand,
19:49 I'd probably just get the normal Jolion.
19:50 So yeah, let me know what you think
19:52 in the comments section below.
19:53 Have you bought one of these?
19:54 How efficient has it been for you?
19:56 And are you seeing a big enough fuel economy gain
19:59 to actually offset the seven grand you've spent
20:02 in addition to the standard one?
20:03 So let me know.
20:04 Now, if you did enjoy this video,
20:05 please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates
20:08 and if you haven't done so already,
20:09 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
20:11 But until next time, happy motoring.

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