2023 Haval H6 Hybrid v 2023 Haval Jolion Hybrid

This is not your traditional comparison. It will not tell you which one of these two hybrid Haval SUVs is better. Instead, we're going to evaluate the individual strengths and weaknesses of these two brothers from the same mother and tell you which one is better suited to your circumstances.

Haval is very much a newcomer to the Australia new car market, yet this fledgling Chinese brand has come bolting out of the blocks. That shouldn't come as a surprise, because even though we call Haval a 'fledgling' brand in Australia, it is one of the world's bigger SUV makers. In China alone, Haval sold 658,521 H6 mid-size SUVs in 2021 and 2022 combined, making it the fifth most popular vehicle in the world's largest national market.

Haval is a part of the Great Wall Motors group of companies that includes Haval, GWM, Wey, Tank, and Ora. Combined, these brands have topped one million global sales annually over the last seven years.

The Haval H6 mid-sized SUV and the Haval Jolion small SUV have been on sale in Australia for a couple of years now. Hybrid versions of each arrived in 2022 (April and November, respectively), adding fuel efficiency to Haval's usual armada of practicality, technology, safety and value.

The Haval Jolion is the brand's small SUV and comes in four trim levels – Premium, Lux, Ultra and Ultra Hybrid – with prices starting from $30,990 drive-away.

However, if you want the hybrid, you'll need to buy the top-spec model. The 2023 Haval Jolion Ultra Hybrid starts from $39,990 drive-away, some $6000 more than the regular 2023 Haval Jolion Ultra with just an internal combustion engine and no electric motor.

Sadly, the brand does not offer an entry- or mid-grade hybrid model yet. If you want your Jolion hybrid in one of five fancy metallic paints, you'll be billed another $495.

That makes our Azure Blue finished press car worth $41,485 drive-away.

The $45,990 Haval H6 Hybrid sits at the top of the H6 range, which starts at (non-hybrid) Premium spec ($33,990) and progresses through Lux ($36,990) to Ultra ($39,990).

Those prices are all drive-away, by the way. So bear that in mind when cross-shopping against rivals like the RAV4, Mazda CX-5, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson and Mitsubishi Outlander, which may include additional dealer delivery and stamp duty fees on top of advertised prices. 

Of those, the Kia Sportage is our pick – it is the 2022 Drive Car of the Year Best Medium SUV champion. According to full-year 2022 VFACTS sales data, buyers’ favourites are the Toyota RAV4 and the Mazda CX-5.

The Haval H6 Hybrid comes in Ultra specification only at this stage, although the option is there for Haval to offer the hybrid in other specs, presumably if demand warrants. 

The H6 Ultra Hybrid test car is dressed pretty much the same as a petrol-powered Ultra. The only differences are revised front-end visuals, chrome detailing on the side, and at the back the hybrid gets a different high-mounted stop light, and the obligatory hybrid badging. 

It's surprising how much room there is in the back of a 2023 Haval Jolion Hybrid.

Even as a small SUV, I found my 183cm frame able to slot in comfortably behind my own driving position. My knees were miles off the front seat backs, and the flat floor makes the dickie (middle) seat palatable for young adults who drew the short straw.

Some downfalls for comfort include a rather upward-facing back rest that cannot be adjusted, and a shallow seat base that does not chock the underside of your thighs if you're tall. The latter may cause your older kids to fidget a bit on longer road trips.

The glasshouse is tall and generous, though, so those susceptible to motion sickness will find it pleasant. I also took the chance to fit both a rearward-facing Britax Graphene convertible child seat and an Infasecure Rally booster seat for my two children.

The rearward-facing convertible car seat did require the front passenger seat to be adjusted forward for clearance, but it left the front-seat occupant with enough space to relax.

It was only adjusted slightly forward, too, meaning the cabin is bigger than comparable Mazda and Nissan products in the same segment. The Infasecure Rally went in no issue thanks to the Jolion's tall roof height.

The second row is great overall, and amenities include a pair of rear air vents and two USB-A ports. Over in the first row, space isn't as generous. My long-legged and 183cm-tall frame resulted in the driver's seat being set as far back – and as low – as it goes.

Even then I wouldn't mind sitting a pinch further back, so if you're taller than the average six-footer, make sure you can get comfortable before buying.

Storage is good up front, with a large floating centre console offering storage solutions above and below. Above are a pair of cupholders – with one smaller than the other and unable to fit a can of soft drink – and a large armrest storage area, and below a covered pit with USB ports for car connectivity.

Annoyingly, the USB connection for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is on the left (wrong) side and shows there are some ergonomic quirks not yet ironed out.

Another is the packaging of the hybrid infrastructure, which sees overall boot volume gobbled up by electronics. The brand claims 390L of cargo space, but it feels like less in reality.

The proportions aren't perfect, with a high load sill meaning heavy items are cumbersome to fit. A regular-sized Redsbaby-brand pram with matching bassinet attachment will take up 75 per cent of the usable space due to the high floor height. Again, if you're a younger parent, make sure you bring your pram, seats and gear to the dealership to try one on for size.

The last gremlin is a tyre repair kit – the minimum we expect in a small SUV is a space-saving spare wheel.

First impressions of the H6’s cabin are overwhelmingly positive. It’s a spacious and classy interior that suggests a price tag on the higher side of $50K, not under it. Leather is the material of choice covering pretty much all surfaces, including comfortable and supportive electrically adjustable driver and passenger seats.

Minimalism is the overriding theme, with very few buttons or dials cluttering the various surfaces. Most of the functionality – beyond actually driving the car – is hidden within the centrally mounted 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen. Some may view this centralisation of controls as a boon; we’d have liked a few features to be more easily accessible. 

We would also like to see more effort to integrate the two screens into the dashboard. Instead, it looks like the 12.3-inch central screen and the smaller screen in front of the driver were plonked on after the dashboard was designed and built.

In terms of interior space, the Haval H6 feels a size above its medium SUV rivals, not just because of the dual-pane panoramic glass roof letting light into both rows (only the front half opens, however). There are plenty of storage options in the front, including a deep central armrest bin and a second shelf under the centre console. There are also two cupholders up front, two USB-C ports, a 12V plug and a big wireless charging mat.

The back seats are extremely spacious in terms of headroom, leg room and under-seat foot room. Class-leading, surely. Back seat occupants also get good airflow from two central vents. Below the vents are two USB charge ports, and the centre fold-down armrest has two cupholders. There are ISOFIX latches in both outer back seats.

Little kids may find the Haval’s belt-line too high in the back, making it harder to see out the window. 

As for boot space, Haval claims the same 600L as non-hybrid H6s despite including a 1.76kWh battery between the boot floor and the rear axle. It does mean you lose the space-saver spare tyre, however, which is replaced by an air compressor and a bottle of puncture-plugging goop.

If you need more boot space, the back seats fold down in a 60/40 split to provide 1485L of stowage, but there are no remote seat releases. The boot door opens and closes electronically, either via a button on the key or the dashboard.

One other nice touch is the red mood lighting that includes racy red streaks on the dashboard leatherette in front of the passenger, invisible by day but glowing through for added ambience at night. 

Infotainment is handled by a 12.3-inch infotainment system powered by Harman technology.

Harman is the brand – owned by Korean company Samsung – that produces Harman Kardon, JBL, Infinity, and other known brands from the audio world.

The system features wired-only Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity; however, not all systems are equal. If your passenger tries to tab between functions on the phone while being plugged into the car and mirrors its screen, the car's Apple CarPlay system can crash.

It's an odd one, as every other system I've tried does allow for dual functionality without issue. It can be easily avoided by your passenger using their own phone, but it's still worth a mention.

The software isn't as polished as others in the class, and changing the air-conditioning controls while using Apple CarPlay is quite annoying. There is no simple function to tab between settings, nor are there temperature or fan-speed controls on the dash.

Another thing worth mentioning is that you'll find the heated seats function buried in the infotainment system under "settings" – there's no button in the cabin to turn them on.

The six-speaker stereo is also okay for the money. Joy Division's Shadowplay sounded equal parts flat and muddy, whereas A Perfect Circle's 3 Libras lacked clarity and came across 'noisy'. Other mainstream car brands – or the Haval H6 medium SUV – offer better audio quality.

Turning off the on-board DTS audio processing did help, so try your best to salvage audio quality by instead using the simple three-way EQ.

All of the Haval’s infotainment and connectivity settings are centralised in the 12.3-inch central screen. There is also a smaller 10.25-inch screen in front of the driver that displays vehicle speed, engine speed, fuel use and other useful information.

The Haval H6 Ultra also has a head-up display projected onto the windscreen ahead of the driver. 

Both internal screens’ graphics are of a commendably high quality, and some of the functionality is refreshingly easy – a clear sign Haval has not blindly followed others when designing its menu systems. 

The downside to this, however, is that some functions are bizarrely placed or have strange needs. One such example is temperature adjustment for the dual-zone climate-control system that requires two taps for every increment change. Another is the media system’s default source setting – USB music that nobody uses, not Bluetooth, or simply defaulting to the last used setting. 

One more that's not a software quirk so much as a hangover of the Haval's left-hand-drive origins: the smartphone mirroring USB port is on the passenger side of the centre console.

The driver’s instrument screen has basic functionality and can cycle between five menus prioritising hybrid powertrain schematics, stats, individual tyre pressures and other rudimentary settings. One of the menus contains a real-world fuel use graph that looks uncannily like a hospital heart monitor, and even has a spike like a heartbeat every second – even when you’re on a constant throttle, which is disconcerting.  

Two features missing from the Haval multimedia system that its opponents usually offer at this price range are satellite navigation and digital radio. Haval probably assumes the former is redundant in this age of smartphone mirroring, and maybe it is for some, but not all. The latter is an oversight that needs addressing.

The 2023 Haval Jolion Ultra Hybrid has not been tested by ANCAP; however, petrol-only versions of the Jolion are covered by a five-star ANCAP safety rating.

Those petrol-powered cars scored well for occupant and child seat protection with a 90 and 84 per cent score respectively; however, they fell down in terms of vulnerable road user score (pedestrian strikes) at 64 per cent.

Our top-of-the-range Jolion Ultra Hybrid model has more tech than the wider range – meaning it should be as safe in theory – but we must reserve judgment until the local subsidiary decides to work with ANCAP to extend the five-star rating across newly released hybrid models.

The Haval H6 was independently crash-tested by ANCAP in 2022, and the subsequent five-star rating has been applied to all H6 variants sold in Australia since March 2021, including the H6 Hybrid. 

The H6 scored 90 per cent for adult occupant protection, 88 per cent for child occupant protection, 73 per cent for vulnerable road user, and 81 per cent for its safety assist systems. 

The 2023 Haval Jolion Ultra Hybrid is fitted with heaps of advanced driver assist systems (ADAS).

Standard gear includes autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian, cyclist and crossing detection, lane-keeping assist, blind-spot monitoring, traffic sign recognition, and even a driver fatigue monitor – like you find in Subaru products.

What this clever device does (mounted on the interior A-pillar of the car) is keep tabs on your eyes and general head position. If you begin to face away from the front window, say due to drowsiness, the system will 'bing' and 'bong' at you furiously until you come good.

Speaking of which, the driver assist systems in the Haval Jolion are probably 90 per cent of what's found in more established competitors. The lane-keeping assist system is overzealous with its corrections and also has the tendency to make the steering feel oddly light and vague when it intervenes.

The system is calibrated too sensitively, and it reminds me of previous-generation Hyundai/Kia lane-keeping systems that suffered from the same problem.

The other advanced driver assists will also needlessly bing and bong at you without explaining why either. Although safe and conservative, it's akin to the nagging nature of my ethnic father – always trying too hard to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Sometimes, mollycoddling can get annoying.

Haval has not stinted on safety equipment with the H6 range. Everything from the base model to the Ultra comes with front, side, curtain and even a front-centre airbag. 

All models receive autonomous emergency braking, lane-departure warning, blind-spot detection and lane-change assist, whereas the Ultra adds adaptive cruise control, rear cross-traffic assist and a 360-degree camera.

The H6 Ultra comes equipped with Full Auto Parking along with front and rear parking sensors.

One impressive feature of the H6 Ultra is the representation of other traffic shown as part of the adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assistant system. The 'Outrun style' graphics appear in the instrument cluster as well as the head-up display.

It’s what we’ve seen in Tesla, BMW and Mercedes-Benz models, so it's great to see at such an affordable price point.

The annual maintenance bill for a 2023 Haval Jolion costs $210, $250 and $350 in years one, two and three respectively. That means the first three years of ownership costs $810 – about average for the segment.

Haval also expects you service it every 12 months or 10,000/15,000km. The first service is due at 10,000km, but the second at 25,000km, third 40,000km, and the rest at 15,000km intervals.

Years four and five are worth $450 and $290, with five years or 60 months/70,000km worth of maintenance costing $1550. It's over a longer period that the Jolion begins to claw back value for money, as its five-year bill is sharply priced versus its competitors.

Insurance prices are fair for the segment, with the NRMA offering cover to a 35-year-old male with a clean driving record for $1390 a year, or $127 a month. Some in the segment are $100-or-so cheaper, but most vehicles of this size and class have a similar cost to insure.

Compared to the official combined claim of 5.0L/100km, our test car used 5.8L/100km.

Over the first 377km precisely, we saw 4.8L/100km. This driving was mainly conducted on free-flowing freeways and during light traffic only. Extended use in terrible traffic conditions caused by equally terrible weather – and another 200km later – saw the figure rise to 5.9L/100km.

Considering the situations thrown at it, the Haval Jolion Ultra Hybrid is fuel-efficient. However, if you primarily run it around town, you will see the fuel rise slightly, as we witnessed on the launch review.

This is one area where the Haval beats most of its rivals. The H6 Ultra carries an impressive level of features and equipment, which when combined with the vehicle’s spaciousness and real-world performance make it hard to beat in terms of value.

There are holes in the Haval’s armor, as we’ve mentioned above. Equipment such as sat-nav and digital radio really should be included, and hard plastics on the back door upper smacks of cost-saving. 

All Haval models come with a seven-year warranty and require servicing every 12 months or 15,000km, except for the first service which is required at 10,000km.  

Servicing costs for petrol-powered Haval H6 variants are $800 over three years or $1490 for five years. The Hybrid variant costs a touch more: $875 for the first three years or $1650 for five years.

We tried to get an indicative comprehensive insurance quote for a 35yo male with a clean record living in Chatswood, NSW, but NRMA's car database doesn't list the H6 Hybrid yet. The quote for a H6 Ultra (non-hybrid) is $1269 per year, which is ballpark for this type of vehicle.

Now, the big question when it comes to a hybrid’s value for money equation is: how much fuel does it save? The answer is 20–30 per cent. 

When we road-tested the petrol-powered H6 Ultra it consumed an average of 8.8L/100km. For the week we had the H6 Hybrid on test, it consumed an average of 6.8L/100km, although we did see one journey in the low 6s and another in the mid-7s.

To be honest, we were hoping for better. We expected a figure closer to Haval’s claim of 5.2L/100km, if not a RAV4-matching 4.8L/100km. But still, saving 25 per cent of your fuel bill is worth something, especially when petrol prices are above $2/L.

Series-parallel hybrid drivelines – the same found in both Haval and Toyota hybrids – are such a good thing for regular passenger vehicles.

They not only reduce your fuel bill, but they also provide plenty of performance. The Jolion's hybrid system works in the same way, in that it has the capability to work solely and briefly as an EV, in tandem for efficiency, or even together in the name of power.

Which it has no shortage of, especially if you're coming from a regular petrol car that's over five years old. Initial acceleration is great, and there's enough performance to make light work of overtakes in 110km/h zones.

The key is a solid serving of torque – 375Nm combined – and the first 175Nm-or-so provided instantly by an electric motor. There's more grunt in this driveline than most hot hatches from the last decade or so, which speaks volumes about how it feels when it gets the power down.

The crossover between petrol and electric is discernible but mostly audible. It's smooth and doesn't interfere with the engine's ability, and generally turns on from about 25km/h on a regular gradient.

I absolutely love the one-pedal driving mode, and I'm glad to see that Haval offers a combination of regular two- and one-pedal drive modes.

You can either set the brake retardation to soft or medium – which still requires the use of the brake pedal – or one-pedal mode that brakes the car quite suddenly when you lift and negating the need for the other pedal.

It feels natural and you quickly become used to driving in a way that scavenges as much lost energy as possible to reduce your fuel bill. How well it's calibrated is also evident by how easy it is to switch between one- and two-pedal drive modes.

The ride quality is good considering the price point. The suspension feels measured and controlled over decent-sized bumps, and its ride quality is good on both motorway surfaces at speed and around town in 50km/h zones.

Bumps are tackled with some solidity, too, meaning it feels confident to drive and most importantly consistent. The cabin is quieter than the more expensive Haval H6 interestingly, and they both ride on the same Kumho Solus tyre.

Speaking of which, it's also probably the biggest letdown of the package. On a damp surface and on the incline, moderate acceleration efforts will trigger the traction-control system. If you put your foot down harder, you'll literally wheel-spin up the road in intervals as the car kills power.

A better tyre would go a long way with how the Haval Jolion Ultra Hybrid feels in all conditions, especially given the newton-metres and instantaneous nature of its power delivery.

This is where the major differences are between the ‘standard’ Haval H6 and the Hybrid. For starters, whereas the standard H6 has a 2.0-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine with 150kW and 320Nm on tap, the hybrid version replaces all that with a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine, electric motor and 1.76kWh battery. 

The smaller petrol engine only puts out 110kW and 230Nm, but it is supported by a 130kW/300Nm electric motor that endows the H6 Ultra Hybrid with some real pep. 

This means there is some torque steer (the front wheels fight the steering wheel) if you're aggressive with the throttle. Also, you can chirp the front Hankooks if you accelerate too quickly – say, pulling out of a side street onto a busy road – but the rest of the time this drivetrain is quite refined and seamless. In fact, it’s one of the smoother units we’ve experienced when it comes to stop-start and shifting between electric drive, petrol drive and combined drive. 

Interestingly, during our testing the Haval demonstrated an ability to rely on electric-only propulsion off the mark longer than the RAV4. The Haval's petrol engine stays off for longer, and the electric motor can take bigger throttle inputs than the Toyota before finally calling on the petrol engine for assistance.

That should contribute to better fuel economy, but it doesn't, as we detailed in the Value for Money section above. This suggests that the rest of the drivetrain's mapping needs some more development work to really deliver the kind of economy a hybrid SUV should. Or maybe the 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine is not as fundamentally efficient as the RAV4's non-turbocharged 2.5-litre unit.

Now, whereas the petrol-powered H6 Ultra has a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and available all-wheel drive, the hybrid has a two-speed transmission operating with the electric motor and a Dedicated Hybrid Transmission sending the powertrain’s combined outputs to the front wheels only. Although, Haval gives no detail on how the two power sources are combined to deliver drive.

On the go, this drivetrain works well, adjusting its generosity to match your needs. In fact, the least impressive part of the process is interacting with the PRND rotary knob, because its lighting system that tells you what setting you’re in is impossible to see on a bright day – and that can make three-point turns laborious. 

On that note, the H6 Hybrid’s turning circle is a greedy 12m compared to 11m for something like the RAV4, and you notice it in carparks and doing those aforementioned three-point turns. The steering itself is nice and light, so you don’t mind having to turn it a bit more than usual.

My only other gripe with the Haval is the front suspension tune. In general it’s a comfortable suspension tune that rides good surfaces beautifully. But it doesn’t deal well with rude bumps, sharp cuts and surface joins. It also feels like a boat riding the swell when the road undulates. 

We're not saying the Haval's suspension tune is poor; it just lacks that final layer of finesse. The average driver may not find the suspension's shortcomings an issue, but anyone who’s driven a RAV4, CX-5 or Sportage will know how a well-sorted suspension tune feels. 

Let’s get the financials out of the way before diving into the mechanical differences. 

The Haval Jolion and Haval H6 share the same seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, but the Jolion’s servicing costs bring a $20 annual saving for each of the first five years.  

The Jolion’s claimed fuel consumption advantage of 0.2L/100km widened to 1.0L/100km on test with Drive, which equates to 150 litres per year (assuming 15,000km annually), or a $300 yearly saving at $2/L. 

Surprisingly, the more expensive H6 returned a more affordable comprehensive insurance quote ($1269 vs $1390). 

Tally all that up, and the Jolion is $199 a year cheaper to own, which is less than $4 a week. 

So, financially, the biggest factor by far is the $6000 difference in the drive-away purchase price.

To weigh this possible disadvantage fairly, we need to understand what the Haval H6 offers over the Jolion. For this we’re not just talking features and equipment; interior space needs to be taken into account, as does any dynamic advantages. 

Mechanically, the two vehicles use Haval’s 1.5-litre petrol-based hybrid powertrain, but the power and torque outputs are different. The H6’s powertrain tune produces 28 per cent more power and 40 per cent more torque with the aid of a turbocharger. Despite a bigger body weighing 160kg more, the H6 has a better power-to-weight ratio meaning it has stronger real-world performance. 

But it also has a 50cm bigger turning circle, which means it is not as nimble in carparks or doing U-turns.  

The bigger Haval H6 also offers more interior space – no surprise there. Its body is 181mm longer, 45mm wider and 150mm taller, so there is more legroom, shoulder width and headroom for occupants in both rows. 

The H6’s boot is also bigger, offering 35 per cent more space with all seats in position and 39 per cent more space with the second row folded away.

Okay, now for the forensic investigation into features and equipment. Here’s what the H6 Ultra Hybrid offers that the Jolion Ultra Hybrid does not:

Does that sound like $6000 more value when combined with the H6’s more spacious interior and more powerful powertrain? 

We think Haval has been very clever in ensuring the H6 has the value to welcome buyers with bigger budgets, while not making the Jolion look cheap and cheerless.

Ultimately, the decision on whether to step up rests with you, the customer, because only you can decide if the extra space, extra performance, power tailgate, extra speakers and the like are of value to your lifestyle. 

At least now you have all the information you need. Happy shopping!

A note about Drive's Ratings below:
1) These scores are awarded based on how each vehicle stacks up against its immediate competitor set. Cross-segment comparisons like this one do not lend themselves to ratings comparisons. 2) Haval H6 rating on this comparison is different to our original April 2022 review. It has been adjusted to reflect a site-wide Q4 2022 scoring realignment.