Aion UT Review

​Introduction 

In case you’re unfamiliar with Aion as a brand, let me give you a short history. Aion is owned by GAC, which is a massive manufacturer that's owned by the Chinese state. They haven’t been involved in the European market for long, but GAC already sells roughly 2m cars each year worldwide. Fun fact: GAC also worked on a car that will be familiar to many British drivers... It built the first generation Honda Jazz for the UK market between 2005 and 2009.

Back to Aion though, the UT is its new B-segment hatchback and has its sights set on the likes of the Renault 5, BYD Dolphin, Citroen e-C3 and Geely EX2. It doesn’t aim to be the cheapest option on sale, with no grant or subsidies on offer, but it does hope to provide a more luxurious and spacious experience than its competitors.

Despite its small car aspirations, the UT shares a platform with its big brother, the V. So the question is: Will its big bones bring the benefits of a larger car to a smaller body, or limit its potential as a city runabout? Let's find out.

Range, battery and charging 

The UT draws power from a 60kWh LFP battery which is the more durable of the common battery chemistries. Some other markets in Europe will get a smaller battery option, but in the UK the Aion UT only gets the one battery option with a WLTP range of 268 miles (431km), for a theoretical maximum efficiency rating of 4.6m/kWh. That’s not class leading, a Renault 5 will get 4.8m/kWh, but the UT’s range is impressive for a car of its size, outstripping the long range Renault 5 by 13 miles and making it one of the longest range B-segment EVs on sale.

Charging speeds aren’t quite as impressive as claimed range figures though, a peak charging speed of 87kW means you can charge from 10-80% in 32 minutes, which is decidedly average for its class. You also get 11kW of AC charging as standard, enough for a full charge from dead in 6h 50m, plenty fast enough to charge overnight. Vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability is also included as standard and can deliver up to 3.3kW of peak power. However, should you want to use it, the V2L adaptor is sold separately and is available to purchase through a dealer or when you buy the car. The adaptor is the type that offers four sockets attached to a cable, rather than a single socket that hangs off the side of the car, so that’s a bonus!

A heat pump is also included as standard on the Aion UT, which should help to improve efficiency in both cold and hot weather. However, in practice, the UT didn’t quite reach the heady heights of its claimed 4.6m/kWh on a combination of village streets, country roads, and a short spate of motorway driving. In mild weather, I saw a reported efficiency of 3.3m/kWh which translates to a real world range of 198 miles. That was during filming and with quite a few starts and stops though, so I’ll update you when we’ve had one in for a longer test.

Practicality and boot space

Here is where the Aion UT starts to shine. Owing to its platform, the UT is surprisingly spacious! It’s a tad larger than the average B-segment vehicle at 4.27m long, but its 2.75m wheelbase means there is a lot of space between the axles. At 6’3” tall, I fit behind my driving position comfortably, with both ample legroom and decent headroom. I wouldn’t be able to wear a bowler hat back there, but the top of my head didn’t touch the ceiling at all and there was enough space under the front seat to fit my size 12s.

Speaking of back seats, there are two sets of ISOFIX mounts on offer, and the rear doors open very close to 90 degrees from the body so ingress and egress are easy for adults, and especially so for those carrying sleeping babies. 

Behind the rear seats, the boot space is on par with others in its class. The premium pack grants you a power tailgate which gradually whirs open to reveal what Aion cheekily quotes as a boot capacity of 440 litres. That requires measuring from the floor all the way to the ceiling but the more commonly quoted VDA figure comes in at 321 litres, quite a bit less but still enough for 3-4 creatively stacked carry-on suitcases. The boot floor itself can also be adjusted to prioritise either a flat load floor, or maximum storage, depending on what you’re hauling.

Back to the interior, there are a total of 24 storage compartments and cubbies dotted around the cabin, including a surprisingly deep centre console bin. Though, in a massive hit to Greggs delivery drivers across the country, the UT’s centre console isn’t heated or cooled like the V’s.

Interior, design and technology 

From the outside, the shape of the UT is best described as pebble-like. It’s rounded at every corner and looks more like it would rather leave the air undisturbed than cut through it. It’s not a bad looking car though, its four-pixel front and rear indicator lamps are recognisable and the optional Jade Green paint is rather fetching as it shifts between shades of green and blue. The standard colour choices are white and red with black, Seine Silver and the aforementioned green costing an extra £595 and silver being exclusive to the premium pack.

Stepping inside the UT, the interior feels well put together and the main touch points are finished in either soft faux-leather, or aluminium trim. Nothing shakes or rattles, which sadly isn’t a given on all new cars, and there aren’t any undue creaks. There are, of course, a few parts that are finished in hard plastics. Most noticeably, the tops of the door cards are finished in a hard and rather hollow feeling with embossed plastic stitches that help complete the look, if not the feel of the rest of the interior.

Materials aside, the interior is dominated by a large, 14.6-inch central touch screen. It’s bright, sharp and responsive which is good, but the dash is completely devoid of physical buttons. Mercifully, we can still adjust the direction of the air vents via some admittedly satisfying knobs but everything else has to be done through the screen. Why?! Even controls for headlights, mirrors, and drive modes are on the screen and of course, those controls disappear as soon as you open Android Auto or Apple Carplay. There’s also an 8.9-inch driver’s display behind the steering wheel which gives you a readout of some essential figures like speed as well as efficiency and trip data.

Further to the physical controls frustration, the stalks behind the steering wheel control your gears, cruise control, indicators, and wipers. All well and good on paper, but the indicator stalk, in particular, is infuriating. It’s akin to something out of a late ‘00s BMW insofar as when you flick it one way, it immediately returns to centre. That makes it frustrating to cancel, requiring a half-flick in the other direction which all too often results in indicating the other direction. Atop that, the indicator sound itself is rather subtle so I regularly drove some distance unaware that I was indicating the whole time.

Springing for the £1,200 premium pack gets you a large panoramic glass roof with electronic cover, a ventilated driver’s seat, and an actively cooled wireless charging pad which moves a good amount of air but whirrs noticeably whenever a phone is in place.

A redeeming feature of the UT is that it gets a five-star Euro NCAP rating under the more stringent September 2025 regulations, an accolade that even the likes of the Cupra Raval has fallen short of.

Motors, performance and handling 

• Power: 204hp 
• 0-62mph: 7.4sec
• Powertrain: FWD

The Aion UT sends 204hp to a single motor driving the front wheels. That’s the same power as the bigger Aion V but in a car that weighs roughly 200kg less at 1,670kg. That means a 0-62mph dash of 7.4 seconds. Not blistering, but quick for its class and more than enough to overtake the odd tractor and merge with motorway traffic comfortably. 

There is a choice of three driving modes, Comfort is the middle of the road option, offering a balance between efficiency and acceleration. Sport sharpens throttle response and offers all 210Nm of torque. Meanwhile, Power Save reduces throttle response and limits the climate control to eke out as many miles as possible. There are also two levels of regenerative braking on offer, allowing a choice between coasting and significant, but not jarring, regen. There isn't, however, any one pedal driving option! If you do a lot of city driving, that could well be a deal breaker.

Where the Aion UT shines is in terms of its road manners. The team at Aion’s UK branch have worked closely with engineers in China to tune the UT for British roads and their efforts show marvellously. A host of UK-specific suspension components contribute to a ride that feels well-connected without compromising on comfort. At no point did the UT feel out-of-sorts, despite barreling down some particularly challenging Buckinghamshire backroads.

The standard 17-inch alloy wheels and their chunky sidewalls definitely contribute to that plush ride, but the Chao Yang items on the car I tested were far from the grippiest. It’s common for the tyres to squeal when pulling out of a T-junction at anything over 50% throttle. I didn’t experience any significant loss of traction beyond those instances, but the noise could prove rather embarrassing around town.

At motorway speeds, the Aion UT is very well behaved, its relatively long wheelbase makes it stable at speed and while there is noticeable wind noise, it’s uniform and quiet enough to be easily hidden with some music at a moderate volume.

Running costs and pricing 

Prices for the Aion UT start at £28,950 and rise to £30,150 for a car with the premium pack. In the context of the Renault 5 at £22,995 and the MG4 EV Urban at £23,495, that doesn’t sound too competitive. However, the UT is bigger and more spacious than those rivals, plus the standard range, and strong offering of standard equipment mean it’s still pretty good value.

Lease options on the Aion UT will obviously change all the time, but at the moment they come in around £400 per month with a £2,199 initial rental at a 4-year lease term with a mileage allowance of 6,000 miles per year. With those figures, an MG4 (non-urban) premium extended range can be had for £370.48 oper month, which is a much more compelling proposition considering the extra range and performance on offer. Or you can get cars like the Vauxhall Frontera - which is also a rival for the UT - for close to £200! 

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Aion’s impressive “Great 8” program. Included in the purchase price, you get eight years warranty, servicing, roadside assistance, and MOTs covered by Aion. Furthermore, that guarantee is transferable between owners for its entire duration and Aion has partnered with the AA to offer at-home servicing for owners too far away from an Aion dealer.

Verdict

The Aion UT is a promising option on paper, offering excellent range for its class, a premium-feeling, spacious interior and good quality-of-life features for family buyers. However, despite its lovely driving dynamics, there are numerous small annoyances that culminate in what could be a frustrating ownership experience.

Combine that with a price point that pushes it into competition with larger and further-reaching cars and while it competes well with b-segment hatches, the lack of eligibility for the electric car grant or any subsidies from Aion themselves makes the UT much harder to justify. 

The Great 8 guarantee does go some way towards making the UT a more attractive offering as the servicing alone could be worth a few thousand pounds over the course of its eight year duration alone. Though many owners are unlikely to keep a new car for that long. 

The UT is a spacious and well equipped offering with strong range and a very comfortable ride. However, whether that’s enough to sway would-be buyers to spring for it over a more established competitor remains to be seen.

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