Thirty grand. An electric car. A wall charger thrown in for free. GAC has opened pre-orders for the AION UT and I suspect someone at Toyota just spat out their breakfast gin and tonic.
Premium grade is $30,990 drive-away. Luxury is $35,990. Both include a 10A portable charger and a 22kW wall box for home. The legacy brands are still charging extra for rubber mats and GAC is handing out charging infrastructure like party favours. The audacity of them!
This pricing applies to the first 600 buyers who get in before 9 April. After that, who knows. “Introductory” never lasts. Book early or weep later. Either way GAC is another Chinese brand that seems to be reading the room.
Above: Geely Starray and Which Driveline Is Best for You
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ABOVE: 2026 GAC Aion UT exterior and interior images
What You Get
Premium comes with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, an 8.8-inch driver display, a 14.6-inch portrait infotainment screen, Level 2 driver assists including front and rear autonomous emergency braking, seven airbags, and V2L. That last bit means you can power a kettle at a campsite or vacuum your interior in an underground carpark. GAC thinks you’re the sort of person who’d do that. Maybe you are. I’d take a coffee machine on a picnic personally, the bots love that sort of thing.
Luxury adds a powered tailgate, panoramic sunroof with electric shade, power folding mirrors, wireless phone charging, and a ventilated driver’s seat. Five grand more. Reasonable enough.
Seven colours. Two standard. Five premium at $600. Two two-tone at $1,000. Three interiors. Pick and move on.
Again, an all-up price in the mid 30’s for a city car that Fiat’s 500 wants to be, but even at almost 20k more, can’t match.
Bijou body and a capacious cabin
This thing is small but perfectly formed. Perfect for the CBD, perfect for underground carparks, perfect for that spot between that portly pillar and random Ranger. The footprint is one of the smallest in the segment.
And yet the 2,750mm wheelbase delivers 905mm of rear legroom. Taller chaps would fit back there without folding themselves like origami swan napkin art. Boot is 321 litres with seats up, 689 with them flat. Load lip is 685mm, which means you’re not performing deadlifts every time you load shopping.
The party trick is the walkthrough cabin. Park next to a wall on the driver’s side, sidle across to the passenger seat, and exit like a smug film star. You’ll appreciate it the first time you’d otherwise have to grease up and squeeze through a gap, or nip out the sunshine roof.
Range
The 60kWh LFP battery claims 430km on WLTP at 16.4kWh per 100km. In the real world, with summer, air con, and perky acceleration, expect 350 to 380. Maybe 400 on a cool day with a light foot. Fine for a city car. Not remarkable, but fine.
DC charging hits 30% to 80% in under 24 minutes at a maximum of a very modest 87kW. AC charging tops at 11kW. The battery is fireproof and puncture resistant, apparently installed in over a million GAC vehicles worldwide without incident. Whether Australian conditions maintain that record remains to be seen.
Performance
Front motor. 150kW. 210Nm. Zero to 100 in 7.3 seconds. This is not a sports car. This is a city runabout that won’t embarrass you merging onto a freeway or overtaking a caravan.
Three modes: Comfort, Sport, Eco. GAC has tuned the transitions between acceleration and regen braking to reduce the jerky EV behaviour that gives passengers motion sickness. Thoughtful. I’ve been in EVs that drive like a moody learner discovering the clutch. This isn’t that.
Safety
Level 2 ADAS standard. Adaptive cruise, lane keeping, stop and go, blind spot monitoring. The rear AEB is a segment first, which means if you’re about to back into a bollard, the car will toss out an anchor.
Body is 39% high-strength steel and 28% hot-formed. Roof takes seven tonnes. Seven airbags including a 2.1-metre side curtain from A to C pillar. A crash automatically cuts the powertrain and unlocks all doors. Reassuring, and another answer haters will inevitably want. They self combust when their conspiracies are negated, so a win all round.
Warranty
Eight years unlimited kilometres, eight years or 200,000km on the battery, and five years roadside assist. GAC is being a bit cocky, but there is no doubt it is trying.
The Competition
At $30,990 drive-away, the AION UT undercuts the BYD Dolphin, MG4, and GWM Ora. The wall charger alone saves you $1,500 to $2,000. The interior space embarrasses everything in its class.
The only question is whether buyers trust the badge. GAC is not a household name. But the product speaks, and it speaks in a language the legacy brands forgot years ago, or never understood in the first place. As the taxi industry learnt the hard way, taking punters for granted ends up in tears before bedtime.
Pre-orders close 9 April. Test drives at 19 dealers now, 30 shortly. Test drive any GAC during the promo and you go into the draw for one of two AION UTs. Take the test drive.
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Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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