2026 GAC M8 (plug-in hybrid) review: 0-100 & POV test drive
We’ll do a quick N to 100. I’m not going to time it, but just to give you an idea of its performance. [Music] This is a very interesting new vehicle. It’s called the GAC M8 or what I like to call Gakmate. It’s a uh people large people mover plug-in hybrid. So, it’s the first plug-in hybrid people mover in this style to hit Australia. That’s a a good feat alone, but lots of interesting features and technology in here as well. Power comes from a 2 L turbo petrol 4-cylinder engine paired with an electric motor and dual speed uh two uh two-speed gearbox with frontwheel drive producing a combined 274 kW. So, that’s a serious amount of power for a big people mover. Obviously, this is quite heavy, so it does need a little bit of power, but 274, it’s pretty impressive. It goes up against the likes of a Lexus LM500h, which produces similar power. Now, being frontwheel drive, it does tend to chirp the front wheels a little bit. It does have decent tires on it, Michelin 255s. Um, but yeah, just all that power going through the front wheels is not ideal in scenarios like this. Driving up steep hills around curvy curvy bends and so on where the the front end is becomes quite unweighted and yeah, the traction control is working very hard to keep it under control. I mean, it’s still quite balanced and stable, but just yeah, you get those tires chirping pretty easily with only mild throttle. It doesn’t feel too heavy. Although you do kind of sense that this is a large vehicle, but I have driven some MPVs that feel sort of more uncomfortable in this sort of scenario than this. It doesn’t feel totally cumbersome. It’s just that uh the traction and the power delivery at the front axle is the weakest link. It does feature adaptive suspension as standard, but I can’t find if it changes when you change the uh the modes to the sport mode. It does feel a little bit firmer actually just as I’ve flicked that there. It’s picking up the finer details. The powertrain obviously relax, you know, it goes into a relaxed setting. It’s not as sensitive on the throttle and straight away, yeah, hit the sport mode and gives you that surge with the same throttle application, but I think the suspension is changing as well. Like I can feel the details in the road more so in the sport mode. Either way though, it is fully adaptive. So when you’re in comfort mode or whatever, you’re driving around corners, you hit some bumps midc corner, it will try to stabilize the car and, you know, proactively change the settings for better stability and dynamics. You’ve got a 25 kWh battery providing a range of around 106 km. Again, very impressive for the MPV class. It means you could, you know, use this to take customers to the airport or something like that and not use any petrol at all. And on the weekend, you can take your family for a nice road trip. So, it’s kind of mixing the best of both worlds. At the moment, with nothing else like this on the market, I think it is going to be quite attractive. Prices start from just over $76,000. That’s awesome value for money when you start to factor in all the features, which I’ll go over in a second. The It’s actually good quality as well. Like, you’ve got leather trim all around the doors and this the seats feel really soft. They’re almost like Lexus level of uh of softness and quality. It feels well made as well. There’s no major creeks or rattles going on. Good technology in here as well. You got dual screens. You do have a home button, which I always like. So, you can just go straight back to the uh the main menu. But there aren’t many physical controls. Just three, in fact, just the hazard lights, some air conditioning auto button, and the the window uh demyister on the top there. But that’s it. So everything is pretty much everything is housed within that touchcreen which can be a little bit well I find a little bit distracting along the road when you’re just trying to fiddle around adjusting temperatures and so on. But the graphics present really well especially this instrument cluster it looks quite sporty when you’re in the sport mode. But even when you put it in eco mode yeah very clear symbols and displays. We’ll do a quick naugh to 100. I’m not going to time it but just to give you an idea of its performance. The battery level is at 5% as well. So, as you can kind of see, the speed is climbing, but the petrol engine hasn’t engaged yet or hasn’t started up. So, it’s not completely consistent in terms of the sound, but you’re still getting that surge from behind. So, that’s kind of how plug-in hybrids usually operate where they give you that electric surge straight off the mark. Gives you that sudden, you know, sudden power, but then the petrol engine kicks in when it needs to. Overall, decent performance. So, it’ll be interesting to do the full performance test with this with a full battery later on. Well, that’s definitely very interesting. On first impressions, the driving experience is nice. The engine is maybe a little bit loud, but I don’t mind the sound of it. It’s got like a 2 L turbo soundtrack to it, so when it does start up, you do notice it, but at least it’s kind of a bassy burly soundtrack. The handling is not too bad. Uh, it could do with better tires. as I think 225s are a little bit too narrow, although they are pretty decent tires. It chirps the wheels way too easily. You’ve got that electric motor just providing that instant torque. Uh and sometimes you just put it down just a little bit, put push the throttle just a little bit, starts spinning the wheels, starts chirping the wheels. So yeah, I think if they had an all-wheel drive version that would be much more dynamic and yeah, more composed on country roads. If you’re spending a lot of time in the city and in the suburbs going to the airport run, doing all that sort of thing, then it’s going to be fine. The design takes some getting used to. I think that is kind of borrowing from Lexus’s spindle grill design. It’s got the little kink there, then it comes back out. Very big, hard to miss, but it’s got its own unique style. I like these wheels. It’s got a floating center cap, so that’s always upright. And around at the back, check how low that rear skirt is. It just It does look pretty cool. Oh, it’s got that kind of Japanese VIP style about it, but obviously the star attraction is the interior. This presents very, very well for its price tag. It’s even got this kind of suede section up above there on the top half of the seat, matching color all the way around the dash, cascading touchscreen, and even a crystal disc for the gear shifter. And yeah, an overall elegant layout for the dashboard and digital instrument cluster. And up the back, check out this. This is very luxurious, a little bit exotic with the ambient lighting around the doors. And the build quality is really good as well. Like this flip out table. It’s got these massive brackets. It just feels like a sturdy item. It’s wrapped in kind of a leather leatherrett finish as well. And then obviously super comfortable in the back. You’ve got captain chairs in the middle row. your own little touchcreen for the chair adjustment and a separate climate panel up the top here. A sunroof and then massive pull-up blinds. These are power windows as well. So, you can actually drop down this window which is quite unique for the large MPV class. It’s got double glazed windows as well, laminated glass. But yeah, very cool package. Like I could sit here for a nice long road trip easily. It’s got plenty of leg room. The only problem is accessing the third row is a bit tricky. Well, not tricky, but it’s just not as uh open as you might think. The chair only sort of slides forward, or you can walk through the skinny uh gap in between the two chairs. If they had like a tilt and and push system that just sort of flipped up like quick release or spring loaded just so you can access the back a bit easier, that would be nice. You’ve got decent room in the back as well. It’s just that the boot space, even though this is a long vehicle, you don’t have much boot space left for this style of vehicle. I mean, the battery and so on might take up a little bit of space, so you’ve got that as a bit of an excuse. But yeah, if you’re after absolute space, just check some of the other MPVs as well as this, and you might find that, yeah, some of them have a bit more. That’s not a huge amount of space for a vehicle like this. I mean, you can pop down the rear seat or the third row to access a bit more room, but chances are if you’ve got one of these, then you’re carrying people and you’re going to need uh all of their luggage in the back. You do have some extra space under the floor and you’ve got a tire inflation and fixing machine. I’ll have more details in the written review linked in the description of this video and I’m keen to do a full performance test later on uh with a full battery to see what it really goes like.
2026 GAC M8 (PHEV) review: 0-100 & POV test drive. For more info and specs, our written review will be up on the website very soon. In the meantime you can check out our news report here: https://drivingenthusiast.com.au/2025/11/2026-gac-emzoom-aion-v-m8-debut-in-australia-prices-confirmed/
2026 GAC M8 Premium specifications:
274kW (373PS) / 630Nm, 2.0-litre turbo 4-cylinder plug-in hybrid (PHEV)
2-speed CVT auto transmission with front-wheel drive
Claimed 0-100km/h: 8.8 seconds
Official average fuel consumption: 1.3L/100km
Tare weight: 2420kg
Power-to-weight ratio: 113.22kW:1000kg
Boot space: 280L/1500L
Price: AU$76,590 (not including on-road costs, at time of upload)
For all of our Vbox performance test results, see the full data table here: https://drivingenthusiast.com.au/performance-data/
For all of our latest car reviews: https://drivingenthusiast.com.au/category/car-review/
And our latest car news: https://drivingenthusiast.com.au/category/car-news/
Follow us on social media for extra insights and updates.
DE on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drivingenthusiast
DE on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drivingenthusiastaustralia/
