GWM adds Haval Jolion S to growing SUV range

GWM has announced the addition of a sportier ‘S’ variant of its Haval Jolion small SUV, the newly revealed model expected in the country within “the coming days” and priced from $36,990 drive-away.

The latest addition to the Haval Jolion range receives a performance boost courtesy of a new 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine that GWM claims delivers 130kW of power and 270Nm of torque, representing a 20kW and 50Nm increase over the remainder of the Jolion range.

Matching the displacement of engines used across the rest of the current Jolion range, the new unit is paired exclusively to GWM’s seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and consumes a claimed 7.5 litre per 100km on the ADR combined cycle, an improvement of 0.6L/100km over other non-hybrid Jolion variants.

Other enhancements to the Jolion S include a sportier suspension tune with a multilink rear-end fitted in lieu of the torsion beam setup found on other Jolion models.

Visually, the Jolion S features several styling cues that are familiar to the Jolion Vanta including black alloy wheels, black wing mirrors, black side garnishing, and blackened lower front and rear bumper sections.

Additionally, and in response to customer feedback, the Jolion S has now adopted hard buttons for the HVAC controls to make it easier to adjust cabin temperature while on the move.

The rest of the equipment levels and features are identical to those offered in the highly specified Jolion Ultra on which the Jolion S is based.

Safety and driver assistance technologies also match the Jolion Ultra, including autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian, cyclist and crossroads detection, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, blind spot detection and lane change assist, forward collision warning and traffic sign recognition.

The new GWM Haval Jolion S is offered in a choice of five exterior colours: Hamilton White, Golden Black, Mars Red, Azure Blue, Smoke Grey and the new Tropical Green which is exclusive to the Jolion S.

Like all GWM products, the Jolion S is backed by a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, five-year roadside assistance plan and five-year capped-price servicing scheme.

Year-to-date sales figures issued by the FCAI show GWM has sold 6158 examples of the Haval Jolion in Australia, giving it a 6.2 segment share and an eighth-place ranking.

The sub-$40K small SUV segment in which the Haval Jolion competes is led by the MG ZS (with 16,359 unit sales to the end of October 2022) ahead of the Mazda CX-30 (12,252), Mitsubishi ASX (10,939), Hyundai Kona (10,274), Kia Seltos (7803), Subaru XV (7251), Toyota C-HR (6686).

The segment top 10 is rounded out by the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (5294) and Honda HR-V (4139).

2023 GWM Haval Jolion pricing*:

*National drive-away price.