Aion V Review: Value and Quality Play

What we like:

Lots of features and luxury for the price

Superbly spacious

Great comfort and decent power

What we dislike:

Little foibles to the user experience

Leading the value proposition game, BYD has been a tough act to follow, if not for its products, then for its sheer economies of scale and reach.

In my humble opinion, one of the forerunners most able to beat BYD at its own game in the Singapore market is Aion, whose Y Plus as a first salvo showed just how much value and space it can provide at an entry-level price point.

Now, the Aion V as a mid-sized SUV takes things up a notch, going head-to-head with the BYD Atto 3 and to some extent, the BYD Sealion 7 as well. It sure looks the part, with an outdoorsy theme that draws inspiration from the T-Rex (this is not a joke). It is a more serious car than the funky Atto 3, while being more conventional looking than the Sealion 7. It treads a safe middle ground.

The Aion V is as spacious as the Sealion 7, but undercuts it with a sub-$180k price tag. Just check out its rear legroom and you’d understand – it’s simply commodious. The rear doors also open to almost 90-degrees, offering excellent ease of ingress and egress.

But it’s not just in real estate where the Aion V shines. It offers a usually long list of standard features for its segment, like a refrigerator, a rear seat table, front massage and ventilated seats as well as Rest Mode. The material mix in the interior also hints of a luxury car, rather than mere point A to B transport.

On the move, the Aion V is seriously impressive. Despite qualifying for Cat A COE, the V is adequately perky, allowing decent progress for overtaking and highway cruising. Its suspension setup is worth highlighting as well, offering a cossetting and refined ride that might just be segment topping. The sound insulation is also top notch. You could drive the Aion V all day, every day and not be too worse for wear.

On top of this, the Aion V boasts some serious stats too. It is claimed to be the fastest charging car in Cat A (with DC at 180 kW, we believe it) as well as the Cat A EV car with the longest range at 485 km. During our test, the claimed range is achievable, which is remarkable given the V’s size.

Foibles? The infotainment system is pleasant enough to use, but I am slightly annoyed that there is no manual trip computer. It boggles my mind that I cannot monitor the electric consumption to my own desire and instead have to rely only on a long-term average or an automatically resetted figure. Some menus are also translated in a garbled manner to English from Mandarin, although this is common for cars its price point (easily fixable, though).

I’m not overstating myself when I say the Aion V is one of the most impressive EVs to come out in recent memory. It offers a lot of car at its price point, something that Aion in general has a knack for doing. But the V might be the most desirable one yet.

Photos by James Wong

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