Jolion confirmed for NZ sale

The new generation of Haval’s smallest model is incoming in two trim levels.

HAVAL’s distributor has confirmed it will soon have the Jolion small sports utility on sale here soon, but has yet to say how much it will cost.

GWM, formerly Great Wall Motors, says it intends to have two trim grades, a the mid-level Lux and range-topping Ultra. The details of each car’s content have not been shared.

Identified internationally as a replacement for the long-serving H2 that has been Haval’s cheapest model here, the Jolion – a name that’s a conflation of ‘joy’ and ‘lion’ (and also an Anglicisation of the Chinese word, Chulian, which means ‘first love’) - is a fresh start.

It sits on the company’s new global lightweight modular platform, which the company has branded Lemon. Styling also follows that of the new H6, which is also cited for release here this year.

 Despite the off-roader look, it remains front-only only.

Power is delivered by a re-engineered 1.5 litre turbo petrol engine with 110kW of power and 210Nm of torque mated to a seven-speed Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) with standard, eco, sport and snow drive modes. H2 runs a six-speed manual.

Haval says the Jolion has been benchmarked against best-selling global SUVs, but has not identified any particular barometers.

That process has in the model being larger than the H2. The Jolion has a wheelbase of 2700mm, length of 4472mm and width of 1841mm.

Technology includes a colour LED instrument cluster, heads up display, fatigue monitoring and wireless phone charging.

The driver assist tech runs to autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition and rear cross traffic alert.

GWM has ascribed the Jolion and H6 to Phil Simmons, the former Land Rover designer whose recruitment by Great Wall to direct its Haval and its upmarket Wey sports utility brand lines caused quite a stir when announced several years ago.

An industry veteran with more 30 years experience in automotive design, his Land Rover portfolio includes the current Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, the 2017 Range Rover Velar, the pre-and post-facelift Range Rover Evoque; Land Rover’s Discovery and Discovery Sport and the latest Defender.

In an interview with this writer in 2019, he expressed thought Haval and Wey, which aspires to match Lexus and currently restricts to China, needed to internationalise.

“Going right hand drive is the right way to go. I don’t have the final say on that decision but I’ve certainly put my thoughts across.”

He said them that he didn’t feel sense of Great Wall’s brands having an uphill battle against international preconception about Chinese vehicles.

“We have a strong identity which is very much our own. It’s been developed without the intense reference to other brands that you might see elsewhere in China. Here there is an intent, from the highest level, to compete at equal level with all brands around the world.”