The entry-level EV price war is in full swing, with BYD and Chery either dropping the price of or offering a massive Raya discount on the Atto 3 Ultra and Omoda E5 respectively. Now, GAC is joining in the fun with a Raya promo of its own for the Aion Y Plus, all to better compete with the Proton eMas 7.
From now until April 30, the electric MPV can be had from RM103,800 for the base Elite model and RM119,800 for the Premium, both figures being RM16,000 less than they would otherwise be. This means the top-spec model is around the same price as the equivalent Atto 3 Ultra, Omoda E5 and eMas 7 Premium after their respective discounts, with the entry-level version actually being a useful RM2,000 cheaper than the eMas 7 Prime.
But this is not a straightforward rebate – rather, GAC is offering free instalments for 15 months for the Elite and 13 months for the Premium. Essentially, the cars are still priced at their usual RM119,800 for the Elite and RM135,800 for the Premium, but you won’t have to pay any instalments for more than a year.
As yet, it is unclear how long the hire purchase loan tenure, how much the downpayment and how high the interest rate would need to be to arrive at the quoted RM16,000 of free instalments. Aside from the savings, Aion is also offering buyers a free portable three-pin charger with the car.
To recap, the Aion Y Plus is powered by a single front motor producing 204 PS (150 kW) and 225 Nm of torque, enabling the Aion Y Plus to get from zero to 100 km/h in 8.5 seconds. Also standard is GAC’s 63.2 kWh Magazine Battery 2.0, a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) pack that delivers a range of 430 km on the WLTP cycle.
Charging speeds are fairly modest, the Aion Y Plus only supporting up to 80 kW of DC fast charging and 6.6 kW of AC charging; no charge times have been released. With the mechanicals being identical between the two variants, the differences are in the specs, including in terms of driver assists whereby the Premium is the only model to get autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and lane centring assist.
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