GAC E9 Plug-in Hybrid GX | Sgcarmart Reviews
In today’s day and age when we have a lot of large MPVs from the Chinese that are fully electrified, today we have another option, another number nine in the series, but this time it’s a plug-in hybrid. This is the GAC E9. And is it enough to win over the competition today? Let’s find out. Now, if you’re thinking about buying a car like this GAC E9 and you want to trade in your car, try selling it with quotes instead. Quot helps you sell your car quickly and easily with the new quotes store set. Get a professional inspection by our certified mechanics at your convenience anywhere on the island. Quot will then auction out your car online to its wide network of dealers to bid on your car. Once bidding is complete, Quotes will update you with their best offer price at no obligation. It’s that easy. To find out more, visit quotes.com.sg. SG. That’s quo tzac.com.sg. Now, starting off by the front, it’s got a very, very large grill up front. Very large everything. Just check out this GAC logo. So, GAC is the larger group that encompasses ION and Hype Tech. And this is one of their cars. So, very huge blue line logo right here to tell you that it’s a electrified model. This is a plug-in hybrid, of course. And this metallic grill up front where I feel today everyone’s going a little bit more subtle with the chrome. This is full on. It’s almost like matte max like a metallic skull up front right here to tell you the size of this car. Over by the side you also see this angel wing motives that we see along in the Y+ from ION. And your daytime running lights are here. You’ve also got LED headlamp cluster right here. Then you start to notice that this kind of spindle shape along with the rest of the car. Everything is a little bit too huge. Your badge here, even your plate carrier. And then you move down, there’s a little splitter down below with a little bit of a weird theme that you’ll start to see throughout the rest of the car. And it says master. Now, let’s move on to the side. Now, over by the side of the GAC E9, you’re going to find 18in rims on both trims, GX and GL. This very interestingly do come with floating center caps. So, no matter how what kind of direction the wheel is in, you’re always going to have a level GAC logo in the middle, and that is a very nice touch. Over by the side, you’re also going to find PF right here to tell you that this is a plug-in hybrid. You’re going to find 360 camera housings to help you navigate this large car throughout tiny little spaces. And speaking of large, this cars measure some 5.2 m long, 1.9 m wide, and 1.8 m tall. You’re going to get a very cute huge door right here with a very satisfying thumb when you close it. These are fully automated doors of course. And down here, you’re going to find a little fuel cap. One side is going to be for your petrol and the other side is going to be for your electric charging. Now, let’s move on to the rear. Now, coming to the rear of the GAC E9, I have to say for a car of this size, typically your designs start to get very monogous. But the design here looks very clean. This kind of one panel rear tail light I think looks very nice. This use of chrome is sparing enough to make it stand out. And I like that your high mount brake light up here also hides your wip fur on the rear. Now you get a GAC logo with the blue line again and E9. And again a comically large plate holder and master because I guess if you buy this car you’re probably the master. And you open up the power tailgate. It opens quite a little bit slowly to a pretty not bad size of 580 L worth of boot space with all three rows of seats standing. So, it will not pass the anti anti trolley length test. Not by a long shot, but it’s enough to keep our luggage and anti trolley both standing up in the rear, even with the third row seats up. Now, underneath here, you’re going to find a little bit of a hiding compartment with a tire inflator kit. Or if you want a little bit of a deeper boot right here. And then you’re going to find a little bit more hooks as well as if you want to knock down the rear seats, you can do so like this. So in case you’re wondering, for the rear of this MPV, you can adjust the seat right here. So if you need a little bit more boot space, you can push it in from one of the three loops right here. This one is to adjust how deep it goes. If you want to lock the seats down, however, unlike certain other MPVs, I believe this is as much as you’re going to get. However, it is it is kind of trade-off because after all, these are really full seats that they just don’t feel like just uh giving up a little bit of bench. These are like whole seats. But the trade-off is you don’t get as much of space as certain other MPVs where you could pull the seats up totally to the sides. Now, let’s check out the inside. Now, over in the third row of the GAC9, you can see that it is like not the tallest in terms of MPVs in the large segment. I do feel a little bit cramped in the top row, but there is a little bit of concave here. So, I’m 1.75 m tall. I am able to get plenty of space over in the third row and very comfortably there is third row air con, third row grab bars, plenty of hooks all around. There isn’t like a privacy sun shade right here. So I think certain bonus points for other MPVs. One thing about the GAC E9 is they boast this kind of micro air con through this panel right here. So, the entire air con is dispersed not just through these vents, but also these micro vents that they say are supposed to be better for your system overall. But I’m not too sure about that, but it is a nice touch. In any case, if you do want your regular airon, you still have these right here. There is even a third row armrest for you to pull down and even cup holders as well as USBC, USBA charging ports in the rear. So, it is going to be a very comfortable space for short distances or long trips. Now, let’s check out the middle row. Now, over in the second row of the GAC E9, you’re going to find plenty of amenities. Going to get pullout tray table right here, privacy sunscreen for the second row. You’re going to get dedicated air con in addition to that micro air con all around and a kind of plane style uh light right here. All your controls for the doors opening and closing are also at the top right here. In addition to air conditioning controls. Now over here you’re going to get a little tablet that isn’t detachable. So it’s not like certain other MPVs. You’re going to get seat controls for your angle and your position as well as seat massage and seat ventilation and heating controls. Now this is probably one of the biggest differences between the LX and the GX trim right here. Now, for the rest of the cabin is going to feature that kind of leatherish material with these ambient lights running through. You’re going to get your window controls right here. Very, very intuitive and pretty much like most other MPVs. The space inside here is plenty. Again, 1.75 m tall. This is probably the best space to be in between the front and the rear. You’re going to get plenty of headroom, plenty of leg room. Now, in terms of other amenities, you’re going to get uh cup holders right here with a very unique feature. It’s not exactly a fridge, but you get to toggle whether you want heating or cooling for the drinks that you place here. So, you can actually see through this cup holder, this color light. Does it tell you whether it’s heating or it’s cooling through the ambient lighting that runs through the inside. You’re going to get a little USBA and USBC charger right here and a little cubby space with a three pin plug so you can work on the go. Other than that, the space inside here is plenty. And you’re going to get more USB charging right here, USBA and USBC. And going to get a little bit of a cup holder pull out right here. So, there are plenty of storage options inside here. Now, let’s check out the front. Now, over in the cockpit of the GAC E9, things feel pretty much like a regular car. So, it’s very conventional in the sense that you got your steering wheel with your media controls here. You got your uh cruise control here. You got your wiper stock and your light stock. And things feel very much like a regular car. After all, it is more of a hybrid than it is a full EV vehicle. And I like that about the car. Then further here, you’ve kind of got a little bit cutesy, a little bit kind of felt up interior, and the top is kind of this Alcantara material. So, it does make the car feel more comfortable and more conventional. Now, where I don’t like it is inside the instrument cluster as well as inside the infotainment screen. It’s got this kind of design where it feels a lot more functional than it feels designed. It tells you the information that you need, especially on your instrument cluster. I can see tire pressure. I can see my charge eco power meter, my uh sport mode, drive mode, but it is done in a very no frrills kind of way. And that’s my probably my biggest gripe with the car. It it takes me out of the feel of this car where I want to feel like I’m driving around a very luxurious space. And it is a treat to be inside this space, but that kind of shatters the illusion. Now, it is in terms of function, it is very functional. You’re going to get all of your standard controls right here. Inside your display, you’re going to get radio, Bluetooth. You’re going to get wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, 360 camera to see all around this car. So, it’s very easy to navigate. You’re going to get your uh active cruise control. You’re going to get things like your ventilated seats. And I especially like that you have your one-touch bit control for your air con and your volume. So although they aren’t physical controls, they are always here. But again, they are designed to be there, but they’re not the best to look at. And I think it makes it worse because I’ve seen cars like the Hightech HD and the ION V where it’s a lot more refined and I’m sort of expecting that of their cars nowadays per but this car kind of brings down that image that I have of them. But make no mistake, it is functional. For the rest of the car, the material here, it does feel very Chinese in the sense that it kind of looks like that premium leather, but it is rather hard to the touch. Down here, it does feel like this kind of gloss material. It’s nice. You’ve got that press here. 50 watt wireless charger. You’ve got your physical air con controls. Got your hazard light as well as a one-touch autoclimate control, which is a very nice thing to have as a physical control. So, it’s not all bad, but I feel like it could easily be a lot better. Now, down here, it does start to get a little bit gimmicky. You get your gear shift right here. Uh, you get your down for drive, up for reverse, a button for park, and it’s a little bit of a crystal spinner that doesn’t really do anything. So, it does kind of feel like certain Genesis models, they have that crystal or right here. You get a full-on start stop button that you nowadays see less and less of in more Chinese electric vehicles. Your drive mode selector right here. Electronic park brake uh brake auto hole as well as which this one I really like. Onetouch camera to your 360 view. And one other button for automatic parking which this car can do not just automatic parking but a very useful feature is to let you select which lot you want it to park in. So whether it’s the vertical ones on off to the side or a par parallel one in front over here you get a deep cubby space and and you also get a little bit of a sun shade up here with an openable sunroof and door controls right here. Now, I would say that the rest of this cabin really does feel very nice to the touch, especially all these buttons right here. But again, this kind of really just breaks that illusion of the niceness of this car. But after all that said and done, does this car drive as well as it looks? Only one way to find out. The GAC E9 is powered by a 2 L turbocharged engine that produces 180 brake horsepower and electric motor that produces 188 brake horsepower for a combined 367 brake horsepower and 320 Newton m of torque. The two-speed transmission brings the car from 0 to 100 km/h in 8.8 seconds. The GAC E9 has a WLTP driving range of 1,32 km. For more details on the GAC E9 or any other car, head on to sgarmat.com to help you make the smart choice on your next car. So, driving the GAC E9, what does it feel like? Well, it has that plug-in hybrid power. So, it feels powerful. It feels sturdy. There’s a lot of kick. And I like the way the power is delivered for a heavy vehicle like this, right? MPV of this size, let alone a plug-in hybrid, it has plenty of power, like foot to the pedal with that hybrid assistance, it feels good. And then just when the motor is running out of juice to give you, the engine kicks in and you get that good old engine performance room. That feels good. It feels like back to basics. Nowadays when there are so many Chinese MPVs on the market, all the 9ines, GAC E9, Denza D9, Neifa MGM9, Zika 009, Xpoon X9, they’re all in the Chinese market 9. So it feels good to for some reason come back to a petrol engine or at least a petrol electrified petrol engine variant. And that’s what the GAC E9 brings. At first glance, the power comes on three 367 brake horsepower from this engine, it feels enough. It feels good. And it you come with three drive mode. You get it in normal, eco, and sport. I love to drive it in sport. The power comes on so eagerly. And for a car of this size, it really makes you glide through the roads. It almost cuts through butter like a hot knife. The amount of power that’s packed inside this gigantic E9 body that’s over that’s what 5 m long. It feels like a much smaller sports gear car than it is. But on the inside, make no doubt it is geared for comfort. It is a little bit soft, but not to the extent of the rolling and yawing all about. It is in a very good sweet spot. So, I’m feeling a little bit of a curve of the road, but yet I’m also getting good control and good feedback, and it’s not something to throw about. You know, 0 to 100 is still something in 8.8 seconds, but for a MPV of this size, 38.8 seconds is nothing to scoff, scoff at about. It is very comfortable amount of power, very comfortable drive. The interior, it’s quiet. Right now, air con is on low. You’re filming. You’re on the highway at about 90 and you don’t hear a thing. The insulation is pretty well done. And let’s not forget that this is meant to be I would say meant to be a budget car, but it is pricing it very very competitively. This car for what it delivers is quite a good package. There are some drawbacks, some things that I really don’t like about this car, especially coming from its other group cars like the Ion V, the Hite-Tech HD, which are under the kind of same mother group. But number one, the UIUX within the menus, it is a very weird thing where the hardware that they’ve installed here at first glance, you’ll be you’ll be mistake you wouldn’t be penalized for mistaking that this is kind of a lower grade display system that has a lower refresh rate because sometimes when the Chinese brands come in and they want to undercut on the prices so that they have to make make up for the cost somewhere and Sometimes that’s what they do. They they it looks good, but it doesn’t feel good. And one of the things about this UIUX is this kind of design. It looks like it’s a low refresh rate. But then, weirdly, drive on with the car long enough, you’ll notice that, hey, it’s actually not about the hardware. Some of the design, the the things that they’ve drawn inside, it can move really quickly. It flows really well at a high refresh rate. But it’s just the rest of the design on this sometimes it just feels like it’s really choppy. So that takes you out of that illusion of of you’re getting this whole luxurious product. The rest of the car I really like the outside, the grandness, the the so much chrome in its looks. It kind of goes against the norm where every day nowadays everyone’s going against all the all chrome or rather they go to a more subtle chrome like that smoke chrome like the new alpha it’s less chromy more refined but this thing that’s like back to full chrome and it gives a really grand road presence and I like that but certain other things inside here inside this cabin just kind of take you out of that illusion and you juxtapose you compare that with the fact that the IO V the H high-tech HD has done some of these really well. So it really makes me question why this kind of design is still kind of lacking behind inside here. So, one of the very clear examples that you will notice about this choppy UIUX is when you first press it into active cruise control and the entire instrument cluster just kind of moss into this new display and it’s not the most sophisticated. It’s not the most in-depth in terms of the design. There is a very big lag time in the first kind of transformation and then you start to wonder is is it pushing the limits of the hardware but once it goes into that when it’s displaying your speed as well as your power then you see that the numbers are actually refreshing very very quickly. So it’s not a matter of hardware limitation and then it really just boggles the mind as to why they’ve decided to go with this direction. Otherwise, if they did clean it up in terms of the design, it I mean, of course, it doesn’t come from nowhere. All this design costs money and I’m sure it costs manh hours and priorities had to be made. But if that was done well, or rather done better, I think that this car will really clean it up in all aspects. In terms of safety systems, it has active cruise control, lane, keeping assist. I think a lot of the Chinese cars currently, they come with pretty much the whole suite. So, even right here when I’m going into cruise control mode, you can see very largely on the screen. It can read the lane display. However, it isn’t as comprehensive as the IMVs where it’s reading the the curve of the lane. So, I’m seeing cars, I’m seeing my speed, but I’m just not seeing that full information that would otherwise make it just that bit more refined. So, if you ask me about the GAC E9, is it a will buy, won’t buy, or go try? If you ask me, I think that this is a go try. This is a car that comes for its segment. Very competitive price range. It does feel and drive pretty well, but there are certain things inside the cabin that kind of take you out of that illusion of everything being totally well done. So, there are a few certain things that makes it feel like it could be done better. certain things like the UIUX of the instrument cluster as well as the infotainment screen right here. But yet at the same time, it’s also a car that delivers a lot of bang for its buck. And it is the only plug-in hybrid of this size. So if you don’t want a full electric MPV like the Denza D9, like the Enifi M9 in this price range, then you’re going to get this the plug-in hybrid with a full 100 km of full electric range, which is pretty sizable in itself, especially a car of this size. And talking about running cost, this car would set you back in terms of road tax only about 1.2K a year. So if you compare that to something like the Denza D9, it is going to amount to sizable savings, especially over the 10 years of the cost of this car’s life. But overall, while it does bring a lot of value and a lot of practicality, if you’re looking for a car that can deliver this amount of comfort for a full large family, I think this car does the job pretty well. But there are just a few slight things that I think it could be done a lot better. And that’s why for me, this GAC E9 is a go try. So that’s it for our review of this GAC E9. What do you think? Do you agree with us? Do you disagree with us? Let us know down in the comments below. As well as any other car that you’d like to see us try out, do leave it in the comments and I’ll read every single one of these down. If you’ve made it this far, don’t forget to like, share, subscribe, hit that bell notification icon so you don’t miss any of our future uploads. And lastly, do follow us on Tik Tok for the fun stuff. We are at Ashikat. Thanks for watching. I’ll see you on the next one. Hey guys, welcome back to Ashama Review. Today we asked in intern to shoot to see. Yeah, this gym. Gym. It’s time. It’s time for gym to do, right? He told me this morning. He say like three month already. Yeah. Then now he’s guiding
Singapore is currently awash with MPVs at different price points, so the GAC E9 has no shortage of competition in the segment. Will its blend of affordability and equipment be enough to sway buyers?
Read our review: https://www.sgcarmart.com/articles/car-reviews/gac-e9-plug-in-hybrid-gx-20-review-37219
Get the latest prices for the GAC E9: https://www.sgcarmart.com/new-cars/info/22005/gac-e9-plug-in-hybrid
0:00 – Opening
0:26 – Sgcarmart Quotz
1:00 – Front
2:03 – Side
3:00 – Rear/Boot
5:00 – Rear Seats
8:04 – Driver’s Seat
12:13 – Specifications
12:45 – Driving Impressions
19:30 – Verdict
21:10 – Outro
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