Video – GAC Aion V Luxe: the $50K EV that has us rethinking the segment

Our full video review of the GAC Aion V Luxe is now live, and the short version is this: GAC has set a new benchmark for what a sub-$50,000 electric SUV can deliver in New Zealand.

The Aion V is the first car from GAC’s local launch, a long-time joint venture partner of Toyota and Honda in China. It arrives with serious credentials: 510km of WLTP range from a 75.26kWh CATL LFP battery, 180kW DC fast charging, a five-star Euro NCAP rating, and a level of standard equipment that genuinely surprised us.

Pricing starts at $49,990 for the Premium and $51,990 for the Luxe tested here, with a free 7kW home charger now included with every car.

In the video, we run the Aion V through a real-world charging test at ChargeNet Kaiwaka, where it peaked at 157kW (GAC claims 180kW, and a colder battery may explain the gap). We also test the efficiency claims on the roads around Mangawhai, where the trip computer sat stubbornly at 16kWh/100km even with an enthusiastic right foot. Run the maths on that, and you are looking at a reliable 450km of real-world range from a car priced under $50,000.

The Luxe adds genuine leather (a rarity at this price), 8-point massage seats, a fold-down rear tray table, and a 6.6-litre in-car fridge that we expected to be a gimmick and ended up using every single day.

It is not perfect. The ADAS calibration needs a New Zealand tune, the navigation tried to route us through a restaurant, and the 19-inch performance tyres generate more road noise than they should on coarse chip. But these are small things against the fundamentals: the space, the efficiency, the charging speed, and a maturity of feel that ties back to GAC’s two decades of building cars alongside Toyota in Guangzhou.

GAC is an unknown name in New Zealand right now. On this evidence, it will not stay that way for long.

Watch the full review on the EVs and Beyond YouTube channel.