Is This Car Actually Better or Just Pretending? | 2025 GWM Haval H6 Hybrid Review
They say it’s more bold, more premium, more modern with new levels of technology. I say this is just a facelift. So, what’s the big deal? Well, to Havl, this the updated H6 is a massive deal. Just think about how important the Rav 4 is to Toyota. You’ll get an idea of just how commercially vital this thing is. So, they really need to make sure that they’ve got the formula right on this one. But, have they? Let’s go for a drive. Naturally, pricing is a big part of that formula. Bargain hunters will be unhappy that the price of entry has gone up by $2,000, but is nevertheless still decent buying at $35990 drive away in 2 L petrol form. Do you want the Lux as a hybrid? Add $5,000. Want more features? Add $3,000 to turn a Lux into an Ultra, regardless of whether it’s a petrol or a regular hybrid. Meanwhile, a plug-in hybrid option joins in September in both two wheel drive and all-wheel drive form. Okay, so this is a facelift. What have they actually changed? Most noticeable is the front bumper and the grill. This is clearly the the biggest point of difference between this model and the pre-update H6. We have headlights that are completely carryover, but they kind of don’t quite look like that because they’ve stuck on these little DRL units down below. The bonnet however is completely carryover. Along the side got new alloy wheel designs. We also have the deletion of chrome trim. Now Havl actually said that applying chrome to a car oddly enough makes the car look a little bit cheap. So they’ve thrown all that stuff in the bin. Instead you just have black trim around the uh the DLO, the the side glass of the car. And if you come around the back, you will see a completely new tailgate design. Gone is the full width LED light bar of before. now replaced with two separate tail light units. Again, because Havl reckoned that this look had a bit more of a premium feel than the old one did. Also, this tailgate is power operated in both the Lux and the Ultra variant. The Ultra variant being what we’ve got here. But to me, the biggest and most meaningful changes as part of this facelift are on the inside. Let’s go have a look. Okay, here we are on the inside of the HL H6. And a lot of this furniture will probably look a bit familiar to you, but there are some key differences that have been brought in as part of this facelift that we can definitely talk about. And key among these is this the centerpiece, the center console. This is completely new for the facelifted model. And what they’ve done is well, they’ve done a couple of uh really good things in my opinion. First is they’ve eliminated piano black trim as a result of the move to this center console design. And that is fantastic in my opinion because I hate piano black. It never looks good. Always shows up. Greasy fingerprints and whatever. So, throw that stuff in the bin. That’s what HL has done. And they’ve replaced it with this pretty nicely upholstered center console that rises up higher so everything’s better in reach. Uh, but also they’ve reconfigured it by moving the shifter from the center console up to a column shift arrangement up here. That means that you now have a more accessible mobile phone charge pad. So, you just plunk that in there. It starts charging. That’s great. Got cup holders right next to it. And for anything that isn’t a phone or a cup or a bottle, you’ve got a nice little storage cubby right behind it for your keys, wallet, whatever. And by moving this up, they’ve also created more space beneath it. That’s another great win. But I will point out that in terms of charging options besides the charge pad, you only have two USBA uh charge points underneath the center console behind these kind of cheap looking um flaps there. And you also have a 12vt if you’re still one of those cavemen who use a 12volt charging option. Also good is growth in the screen. We have a 14.6 in touchscreen infotainment display up here. That’s standard on both the lux grade and the ultra grade. The ultra grade is what we have here by the way. And it’s great. It’s nice having more screen real estate as always, but it it could be better because there’s a lot of control clustering that is still within the screen. We still have some hard buttons down here, but they’re really just, you know, your demyster options on, off, and parking camera. Everything else has to be accessed through the screen, which is a bit of a pain if you’re in something like Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, as I am right now. Let’s say I want to change my uh my climate control temperature. I have to do this, and then I have to do this, and then I have to do this. And now I can manipulate my climate controls, turn on my seat heater and whatever. Um, another thing I’ll point out about this infotainment display, no built-in satnav. I think that’s a bit of a weird thing to give you such a great screen but not give you a built-in satnav option. Next big update for the facelifted H6 is the steering wheel. Well, I mean, it’s not really a big update, but it’s the key touch point for a car. So, they’ve reshaped the rim to be more comfortable to hold. It’s a little bit chunkier, a little bit more uh suitable for Australian hands to grip and it does actually feel quite nice upholstered in reasonably decent pleather. Uh but I do want to point out that there is some further annoyance to the the control logic of the steering wheel buttons. For example, if I want to change the the audio volume, I can either go through the screen in a similar u method to what I showed you for changing like climate control temperature. Pretty laborious way to do it, or I can use the steering wheel controls, provided they’re in the right mode. So, you have to hit a button here to switch between uh this rocker switch changing your trip computer settings. And if you hit that, then suddenly becomes an audio control. That’s really, really strange. And it requires a certain level of attention from the driver to see which mode they’re in. There is an indicator, but it’s very small. And if you’re just driving along and you want to keep your eye on the road, as it should be doing, that becomes a little bit there’s a little bit of friction there that really shouldn’t be there. So, I don’t understand why they’ve done the steering wheel controls that way. Anyway, other things about the the cabin. Well, in terms of quality, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. We’ve got nice things. I mean, this is obviously carryover dash furniture. Uh, but there is a nice little stitch that runs through this padded vinyl surface, which is good. It’s not actually molded into plastic. That’s a real stitch. But then further down the dash, we see a pretty heinous uh trim gap in the glove box lid. So, you know, have all gives and it takes. The seat comfort is decent, although it could be better. On the driver’s side, you have a sixway adjustable power seat. I wish it was eightway because then I’d actually have a way to adjust the angle of the seat base because as it is, it’s sort of at a setting where um I’m I’m kind of losing out on a bit of under thigh support. And I think if you’re any bigger or taller than I am, I’m only 5’8. I think that might be a comfort consideration that you may want to keep in mind. Uh but elsewhere, it’s reasonably good. the the driving position is is decent. The steering wheel could come out a little bit further, but that’s a a smaller complaint and vision outside is is not bad. Okay, so in the back seat, as far as the facelift is concerned, there’s not too much to report on back here. But I think that is actually a good thing because one of the best things about the H6 is that it has one of the roomiest cabins, or at least roomiest feeling cabins in the midsize SUV segment. Look at all this leg room. I could grow a much longer thigh and still not touch the the back of the uh the front seat in front of me. That’s great. There’s also heaps of uh toe room or foot room there. There is no back rest recline, but to be honest, I think it’s set at a pretty agreeable angle to begin with. And other than that, yeah, you get good sort of sight as well. It doesn’t feel claustrophobic. It It certainly doesn’t feel claustrophobic with this cream leather, which I don’t know how you feel about it. I probably wouldn’t uh speck it, but it it is fairly attractive for a budgetoriented midsize SUV. It’s nice to have these color options. Although, I I do need to point out that you can’t have this this color on the inside of every H6. If you want the I think it’s white exterior color, you can’t have the cream interior color. So, your dream of having a white-on-white H6, I’m I’m sorry, it’s not going to happen. But material quality is also decent. There’s nice pleather abound. Uh even on the door cards, although the door card upper is rock hard plastic, but below it is some nice vinyl. I will say though, if you do choose the cream, it it does seem to mark up a bit easily. I’m already seeing a few kind of grubby marks here and there. Uh so either keep yourself meticulously clean or maybe just go for the black. Uh, but other than that, yeah, it’s not a bad place to be. Like the front seats, the seat squabs are a little bit short, a little bit lacking on under thigh support. Maybe less concerning for a passenger than it is for the driver, but other than that, this is not a bad place to be. And hey, you even got a fold down armrest with some cup holders in there as well. You also have two USB charge points down here. And one of the great consequences of having so much rear leg room to play with is that it actually makes the H6 a pretty good option as far as a family vehicle is concerned. You have so much distance between the rear seat and the back of the front seat that it doesn’t matter whether you have a rear-facing baby capsule or a front-facing child seat. It’s going to be pretty easy to fit either of them in the back of this thing. You also have ISOIX anchorages on both outboard seats which is also great. But further helping the family car argument is the fact that the rear doors are kind of wide. Like this aperture reaches pretty far. So it means that you don’t have to shoehorn a seat through this tiny opening like you do in some SUVs. This actually gives you a fair bit of space to work with, which is great. Okay, here we are at the back end of the H6. And to be honest, this is one of the biggest aspects of this car’s interior that HAL really needs to try a lot harder at because although you get 600 L of cubic seats up capacity, well, and that’s a good number. Let don’t get me wrong, there’s just nothing in the way of cargo carrying innovation here. There’s no bag hooks. And to me, that’s that’s a big fail for a family car. You’re going to be using this thing to go to the shops all the time. So, why not just provide you with a few bag hooks to carry your stuff home? Also under the boot floor there’s there’s not much. There’s certainly no underfloor storage. There is a battery and there’s also a tire inflator kit in lie of a spare tire. But they could provide you with a little bit more in the way of boot management solutions. There is a cargo blind which is nice to see. However, there is no place to store it when you don’t want it or need it. You do get a light and a 12vt outlet and some little storage cubbies on either side. But that’s really all there is to a report about this boot. There’s a lot of other manufacturers that make boots that are more useful than this. I think HL could definitely win some points back if they just try a little bit harder in the back end. Okay, enough talking about cabin plastics. Let’s see how this thing drives because I mean that kind of stuff is pretty important too. Well, there’s good stuff to talk about and there’s not so good stuff to talk about. Let’s talk about the good stuff. So HL actually took another look at the suspension tune on the H6 when they were putting together this facelift. And what they came up with was a slightly different suspension tune that should hopefully handle the criticism that was leveled against it for having too cushy of a ride, too soft a ride, which generally translates to feels pretty uncontrolled when the road gets a little bit less than perfect. I can happily report it does actually feel pretty good. There’s a little bit more torness to the damper tune. uh a little bit more reband dampening, stronger reband dampening, and that makes it feel a little bit more well controlled when it comes to roads that are undulating and also doing a any sort of fast cornering or anything like that. It just helps the body recover a little bit more naturally, a little less uh uncontained body movement when you start getting a little bit uh busy behind the wheel. But when it comes to performance, we really should talk about that because there’s actually a surprising amount in this. This is the hybrid with in the regular conventional petrol electric hybrid. This is actually a carryover powertrain. Uh so there’s nothing really new to report. So the numbers haven’t changed. It’s 179 kW of power, which is a decent amount. And also 530 new m of torque, if you can believe it. Uh and it’s all going through the front wheels. And here is where the problems start to begin. So, say for example, I’m coming up to a U-turn here. I’m going to turn around. Got a little bit of lock on the steering and I’m going to accelerate. That’s more wheel spin than I’d kind of like. And I wasn’t really hooning just then. So, sometimes having too much torque is definitely too much of a good thing. And that’s certainly the case here. And the first clue that I had that there might be some traction issues with this car was when I was walking up to it and I saw the kind of tire that Havl had speced for it. It’s on a tire that you’d probably be more more likely to see on like a something like a hot hatch or at least a warm hatch. It’s a tire compound that’s got a decent amount of grip. And when you see those kind of tires on cars that aren’t performance cars, the natural reaction is to ask why. Why might that be? Perhaps there is a traction problem here, and there certainly is. I think there are two ways of solving it. Either D-tune the engine. People really don’t need 530 Newton meters. I think you can get away with a fair bit less than that. Or give it a bit more smarts when it comes to the traction control calibration. That might be the better way to go. control it with the electronics because I tell you what, the electronic intervention is quite primitive when it comes to controlling wheel spin. And it gets worse the wetter it gets. And it is getting wetter right now. Uh yesterday I actually had a bit of a bit of a problem. I was facing uphill at a stoplight. Light was red, light went green. I went to move away at, you know, a moderate rate of acceleration. Nothing egregious or anything like that. But as soon as the front tires crossed that thick white strip across the road that tells you where to stop, they just spun up. And they they actually kept spinning. And me being a journalist, I’m like, what is actually going to happen here if I just stay on the power and I don’t lift? And the wheel spin just kept going. It was actually very surprising. And to be honest with you, the wheel spin went on for an uncomfortable length of time. So I think yeah, HL could really rein that in. And sometimes when it does try to re in the wheel spin, it’s a very abrupt power cut and that can be a bit of a dangerous thing depending on what other traffic is doing around you because it suddenly means that you’re going quite slow when you thought you might actually be speeding up uh at a good rate. So yeah, too much torque, uh too few driven wheels. That’s my summary of the powertrain. And uh you know, it’s probably going to be even worse for the plug-in hybrid when that gets here because that has even more torque on its front-wheel drive variant. The smarter thing to do might be to go with the the all-wheel drive version of that powertrain. But don’t get me wrong, this is one of those 90% cars. It’s pretty good 90% of the time. It’s just that 10% where you where it might kind of let you down. And that 10% for this car is when you’re accelerating in the wet. And there are some other minor niggles as well. It’s I’m not just going to complain about the powertrain. It’s the steering when you are just a few degrees off center. It’s kind of it just feels slack. It doesn’t really want to return to its actual center most of the time. Part of that has to do with the general lightness of the power steering tune. I actually prefer to put it in the sport mode for steering. Weirdly enough, it doesn’t feel sporty to be honest. just brings a agreeable level of weight to the wheel. Again, you know, going back to that 90% thing, 90% of the time you’re not really going to notice it because you’ll be on a road like this, you’ll fairly slow speed and you’ll be using a fair amount of steering wheel input. So, you’re never really going to find it to be a huge issue. It’s when you’re on the freeway, say, for example, and you’re doing a lot of sort of driving in a straight line where you actually sort of feel that that steering become a problem. And it really just manifests in a kind of wandery feel. It kind of doesn’t really want to stay centered up uh in your lane for a long period of time. You’re always nibbling away at the steering wheel trying to keep it in the center. Small complaint, but I should mention it. I think what will be interesting though is seeing what HAL does when it finally brings out its first localized uh suspension tune or chassis tune more correctly with this car because I know that they are working on it. have hired some pretty clever Australianbased buffins to work on this car at the Lang Lang Proving Ground uh here in Victoria. And seeing what they come up with will be quite interesting because it could definitely use a bit of work on the laptop for the steering calibration and the traction control uh electronics for sure. Uh but also in terms of the general sort of suspension tune, yeah, it could be better than it is. But I do have to admit that in terms of the driving experience, this car is definitely a fair bit better than it used to be. That’s great to see. It’s not just a facelift that focuses on the cosmetics, you know, the exterior and the interior stuff. That is all great, but also they have paid attention to the actual drive of it. And according to Havl, a lot of that that uh attention that that that revisiting of things like suspension and whatnot has been driven by feedback from not only people like myself, but people like yourself as well. It’s good to see car companies, whether they’re Chinese or otherwise, actually listening to feedback and integrating that feedback into the car itself. So, you know, the car is not perfect, but I think the direction that they’re heading with it is encouraging, and I think we’re probably going to see the a fuller effect of that when we get to a new generation product. Just bear in mind, this is a life cycle change. It’s midlife update. Um, and fairly late in the life cycle of this particular car, the next generation should be fairly good if this is what they’re doing for a midlife refresh. So, in terms of the hybrid side of this, we should talk about that because that’s probably a big reason why you’re looking at the H6 in the first place, the fact that it is a hybrid. It does actually pretty well. I took this car on my efficiency loop. It’s 100 km of urban and highway driving and I got an average consumption of 5.2 L per 100. And that is, funnily enough, bang on the factory claim. So, that’s a decent result. And when you combine that with the fuel capacity of this car, you end up with a total range in excess of 1,100 km. Those are long legs, so you shouldn’t really need to be visiting the fuel station too often with this. Now, if you want to bypass the petrol station entirely, then HAL does have an option coming up for you in the form of the H6 plug-in hybrid variant that is coming in September. We’ll have to get some time with that to see how good it is. But what we can confidently say about this, the conventional petrol electric H6 hybrid, is that it will do what Havl says it will do out in real world driving. And take it from me, not every hybrid will do that. As for the hybrid setup, well, it actually performs pretty nicely. Not only does it preference electric propulsion much more than some other petrol electric hybrids, thus keeping the combustion engine quiet, but the handover between electric only power and combined petelectric power is generally pretty smooth. The regenerative brakes work all right too, though the changeover between regen and mechanical braking could be a smidge smoother. Havl also gives you the option of a one pedal drive mode if you prefer that kind of thing. I don’t personally. I find it just results in a jerkier experience for passengers, but it’s there if you want it. In terms of driver aids, you’ve got quite a lot of stuff. You’ve got the uh lane keep assist, you’ve got blind spot monitoring, you’ve got rear cross traffic alert, as well as active cruise control. All of them work reasonably well. Chinese SUVs or Chinese cars in general do have a a poor reputation for overzealous driver assist systems in this car. I haven’t really come into any sort of huge problems. Sometimes the lane centering uh function on highway can be a little bit sensitive to uh your position within your lane and it tries to correct you a little bit too aggressively. But it’s not as bad as some other cars that I’ve experienced in terms of the active cruise control. Generally operates all right. But there is a mode for it that actually takes into account the curvature of the road and slows you down if it thinks your uh your set speed is a little bit too fast for it. I find that super annoying because it’s very very conservative and it starts pulling power when you’re in a what I would consider to be a very gentle turn. Certainly nothing dangerous. And uh I just turn that off. It’s at least you can deactivate that particular function. Other than that, it’s not too bad. So, I think manufacturers like HAL are learning lessons and dialing back the intrusiveness of those driver rates and putting a bit more control back in the hands of the driver and more crucially giving drivers less reason to deactivate these uh these electronic safety systems, which let’s face it, if you’re going to be compelled to turn it off, then why even include the system in the first place? Okay, at the start of this video I asked the question, has H have got the formula right on this one? Well, it’s a bit of a mixed report card. When it comes to value for money and pricing, it’s pretty hard to dispute that this is great value. You’re getting a lot of car for your money. HL has priced it well. It’s actually lower in price than it was before, which is great for a consumer. But when it comes to the stuff that separates a car that’s merely good from being a segment leader, that’s where the H6 kind of falls down a bit. And it largely revolves around that overabundance of torque. It seems like such a crazy thing to complain about. The car has too much power or too much torque. But that’s where we’re at with this thing. I think if you drive it, you’ll probably come to the same conclusion I did. It’s simply got too much muscle. But I think that’s kind of where I want to leave it with this. We’re going to have to revisit the H6 once we get the plug-in hybrid variant. I think that might be the the real gamecher for for this model. But for now, thanks for watching. Like and subscribe if you haven’t already, and I’ll see you in the next
GWM’s mid-size SUV gets more tech, more power and a plug-in hybrid boost for 2025. 👉 Full Review: https://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/
Fast Forward
00:00 Intro
00:32 Pricing and specs
01:02 Exterior changes
02:12 Interior review
07:19 Passenger space
10:14 Boot space
11:23 What its like to drive
22:50 Verdict
The 2025 GWM Haval H6 has arrived in Australia with sharper looks, stronger engines and more electrified options than ever before. Kicking off at $35,990 drive-away, the range now includes petrol, hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants – topping out at $50,990 for the AWD Ultra PHEV.
And it’s that PHEV that will attract the most attention – and possibly convince a few RAV4 buyers to take a gander.
Performance has taken a leap, with the base 2.0-litre turbo now making 170kW/380Nm and paired to a new nine-speed DCT or dual-clutch transmission.
The front-drive hybrid keeps its 170kW/530Nm output, while the AWD PHEV flagship delivers a muscular 268kW/760Nm and a 0-100km/h sprint of just 4.8 seconds. Fuel use? As low as 1.0L/100km… on paper.
Inside, the cabin has been completely overhauled with a minimalist design complete with a 14.6-inch infotainment screen, new steering wheel, and thoughtful touches like a wireless phone charger, column shifter and electric park brake.
A seven-year warranty (eight for the battery) rounds out the compelling value story. But the proof is in the pudding – is the new GWM Haval H6 better value than before and a better vehicle overall?
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