Aion UT Premium Review: An Easy Way Into EV Life

Buying your first electric car can feel unnecessarily complicated.

There are batteries to understand, charging speeds to compare, ranges to calculate and enough acronyms to make you wonder whether buying a petrol car was easier simply because nobody ever asked you about its charging curve.

The Aion UT Premium, thankfully, doesn't demand much homework.

It's a compact electric hatchback that concentrates on things first-time buyers are more likely to care about: Space, comfort, equipment, usable range and being easy to drive.

And in Singapore, that might be precisely the point.

Exterior

There's something pleasantly cheerful about the UT.

It avoids the increasingly common EV obsession with looking like it arrived from the year 2046, instead adopting softer proportions, rounded surfaces and a generally friendly face.

At 4,270 mm long and 1,850 mm wide, however, calling it “small” requires some perspective. More telling is its 2,750 mm wheelbase, which helps explain why the UT feels considerably larger inside than its hatchback shape suggests.

The Premium variant seen here gets 17-inch wheels, and visually the whole thing works rather well - it has personality, without trying desperately to become your personality. That matters when alternatives such as the firefly, Proton e.MAS 5 and MG4 Urban are also fighting for your attention.

The Inside Story

This is where the UT starts making a particularly convincing argument.

There is genuinely useful passenger space here - four adults fit comfortably, and carrying five isn't some theoretical exercise performed only for the brochure. The long wheelbase pays dividends particularly at the rear, making this viable as an only car rather than merely something for commuting.

The cabin itself is modern and suitably airy, while the Premium specification adds enough equipment to prevent you from feeling like you've bought the “budget EV”.

More importantly, it doesn't overwhelm you. For someone moving from a conventional car into their first EV, that's important; you see, technology should make a car easier to use, not turn adjusting something simple into a treasure hunt through three touchscreen menus…

Practicality is similarly impressive. You get 440-litres of boot space, which is properly useful for something wearing a hatchback body.

For perspective, the firefly offers 335-litres at the rear, although it counters with its clever 92-litre frunk. On the other hand, Proton’s e.MAS 5 provides 375-litres plus a 70-litre frunk, while the MG4 Urban is another particularly practical alternative with 480-litres, sans frunk.

So if this is your first car, rather than simply your first EV, the UT has enough space to survive supermarket runs, airport trips and the inevitable IKEA purchases that looked considerably smaller inside the showroom.

Driving It

Here, things become interesting. It gets a 60 kWh LFP battery powering a single front motor producing 134 bhp and 210 Nm. Standstill to 100 km/h takes 10 seconds.

Those numbers aren't going to win you any traffic-light bragging rights, and that's perfectly fine. Nobody buying an Aion UT needs to launch from every red light like they're qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.

What matters more is how usable that performance is. The UT delivers its power smoothly and progressively - there's enough immediate response to make joining expressways and overtaking straightforward, without the unnecessarily aggressive acceleration some EVs serve up the moment you lean too heavily on the accelerator.

That's particularly reassuring for newer drivers. EVs deliver their torque immediately, and in something excessively powerful, a clumsy prod of the accelerator can produce far more acceleration than you expected. The UT doesn't have that problem; it's quick enough for everyday Singapore driving without ever feeling intimidating.

Ride comfort is one of its stronger qualities. Around Singapore, the softer suspension deals nicely with patched surfaces and the assorted imperfections our otherwise excellent roads occasionally provide.

Personally, though, I'd sacrifice a little of that comfort for tighter body control.

Push the UT through a series of bends and you become aware that comfort was clearly higher on the engineering priority list than enthusiasm. I'd prefer a slightly stiffer suspension setting and, more importantly, better steering feel.

That's precisely why the firefly remains my personal favourite among these compact EVs. Its steering and chassis possess a greater sense of connection, giving you something back when you're driving purely because you want to.

The Aion is less interested in entertaining you. But here's the important distinction: Many buyers won't care.

For someone buying their first car, the UT's light controls, easy-going responses and comfortable ride may actually be preferable. It's approachable from the first kilometre, and there is considerable value in that.

This may ultimately be the Premium's strongest argument: Its 60 kWh battery provides a claimed 410 km range, with official consumption of 5.7 km/kWh.

Which is a useful buffer for an EV newcomer.

The firefly's smaller 42 kWh battery officially offers 320 km, while the Proton e.MAS 5 Premium uses a 40.16 kWh battery for 325 km WLTP. The MG4 Urban goes further still, pairing its 54 kWh battery with a 405 km WLTP combined figure.

In other words, the UT isn't the outright range champion, but approximately 400 km puts it comfortably beyond the psychological threshold where charging starts dominating your thoughts.

Charging is less remarkable. AC charging peaks at 7 kW, while DC charging tops out at 80 kW; perfectly workable rather than cutting-edge.

And that's worth understanding as a first-time EV buyer: Don't look only at battery capacity and claimed range. Think about where you're actually going to charge the thing.

If you have dependable charging at home, work or somewhere you regularly spend time, 410 km is plenty. If you rely entirely on public charging, having a convenient charger near home or work is arguably more useful than choosing another EV simply because it promises an extra 30 or 40 km on paper.

After all, an EV with 450 km of range isn't particularly convenient if charging it requires a special expedition every week.

In A Nutshell

The increasingly crowded compact EV segment now offers buyers several genuinely different flavours.

The firefly is the one I'd choose if driving enjoyment and chassis polish mattered most to me. The Proton e.MAS 5 makes a compelling case through packaging and value, while the MG4 Urban counters with excellent space and an impressive 405 km WLTP combined range.

The Aion UT Premium sits somewhere comfortably between them.

It isn't the sharpest to drive, and I'd happily exchange some suspension softness for better body control and more communicative steering. But judged as an everyday car - particularly someone's first EV or even first car - those criticisms become less important.

The UT is spacious, comfortable, practical and easy to understand. Its 440-litre boot means you aren't making an obvious practicality sacrifice, while the 60 kWh battery and 410 km claimed range provide enough breathing room that charging shouldn't become a daily obsession.

The UT's easy visibility, manageable dimensions and generally unintimidating driving manners arguably matter just as much day-to-day. This is the sort of car you can hand to a less experienced driver without first delivering a 20-minute briefing.

And perhaps that's the Aion UT's greatest strength.

It doesn't try to convince you that going electric will transform your life; it simply makes owning an EV feel remarkably normal.

For someone buying their first one, that's probably a bigger compliment than it sounds.

Technical Specification - Aion UT Premium

Power/Torque: 134 bhp/210 Nm
Battery type/Capacity: Lithium Iron Phosphate/60 kWh
Charging time: 8 hours (AC), 24 minutes (DC) - 30 to 80%
Range: 410 km (WLTP)
0-100 km/h: 10 seconds
Top speed: 160 km/h
Efficiency: 17.4 kWh/100 km
Agent: EV Hub Pte Ltd

Photos by Azfar Hashim (@azfar.talks)

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