2025 Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV| Hybrid Car Review

On paper, the Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV looks extremely impressive. All-wheel drive? Check. A mighty 321kW of power and 762Nm of torque? Check. Fully kitted out? Check. Undercuts its rivals by a healthy margin? Absolutely.

Almost exactly a year ago, I reviewed the previous model of H6 and found it to be impossible to ignore, with a “why would you not buy this car?” comment thrown in. I was extremely impressed with the H6 and for 2025, we have a facelift, an almost identical interior, and a new (optional) plug-in hybrid powertrain.

We spent a week with the 2025 Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV – read on to find out what we think of it.

What We Like and Dislike About The 2025 Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV

What we like	What we don’t like
Performance Styling Interior Price vs. features Fuel economy Ride quality	Glitches in our test car So many bings No rear window wiper/poor visibility Lane keep assist Some driveability issues

What’s In The 2025 Haval H6 Range?

There are just two models in the H6 GT range:

• Ultra – $48,490
• Ultra PHEV – $58,990

So that’s $10,000 more for the plug-in hybrid version. The Ultra has a 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine mated to a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission (that’s called a ‘dual cluth’ in the brochure). That engine has 150kW of power and 320Nm of torque, and manages a suggested 8.4L/100km for fuel efficiency.

The PHEV version has a 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine, with plug-hybrid capability. It’s joined to a 2-speed ‘DHT’ transmission, and with 321kW of power and 762Nm of torque, this model manages 0.8L/100km of fuel and has a suggested range of up to 180km in EV-only mode. The EV battery is a fairly large (for a PHEV) 35kWh. When you think the first Nissan Leaf had a 30kWh battery, it puts this battery size in perspective.

Both models are all-wheel drive.

2025 Haval H6 Colour Range

While there are just 5 colour options for your H6 GT, there is no extra cost for any of them:

• Hamilton White
• Atlantis Blue
• Crayon Grey
• Burgundy Red
• Golden Black

For a full list of specs and options available for the Haval H6 GT head on over to Haval New Zealand’s website.

How Does The 2025 Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV Compare To Its Competition?

There’s not many options for this higher-performance PHEV SUV – well, not at a reasonable price, at least. So in power and torque output, the Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV stands alone. We’ve included the MG HS PHEV here, although it is a smaller SUV.

Make/ Model	Engine	Power/ Torque kW/Nm	Seats	Fuel L/100km	Towing Capacity	Boot Space, litres	Price
Ford Escape PHEV ST-Line-X (FWD)	2.3-litre, 4-cylinder, petrol plug-in hybrid	167/350	5	1.6	750/2,100	517	$68,990
Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross PHEV VRX	2.4-litre, 4-cylinder, petrol plug-in hybrid	94/199	5	2.1	750/1,600	359	$65,990
HAVAL H6 GT ULTRA PHEV (AWD)	2.0-litre, 4-cylinder-turbocharged  petrol-hbryid	321/762	5	0.8	750/1,500	392	$58,990
MG HS Plus Essence PHEV	1.5-litre, 4-cylinder, petrol plug-in hybrid	189/370	5	1.37	750/1,500	451	$45,990

Please note that DriveLife does its best to ensure the information above is correct at the time of publication; however, prices, specifications and models can change over time. Please bear that in mind when comparing models in the comparison table.

First Impressions Of The 2025 Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV

It’s got a fresh new look for 2025, and it works – especially when painted in the Atlantis Blue of our test car. It looked almost black in some lights, but once the sun hit that paint, it really stood out on the road.

The black rims and roof spoiler scream ‘GT’ a little, but the little aero tips on the rear doors are way over the top, and the fake exhaust tips do not help things at all.

Still, like other newer Chinese-designed cars, this is one more that turns heads. The colour, lines and proportions work so well on the H6 GT, I can see some people seeing it in the showroom and deciding that they’d buy one, regardless of driving it. 

What’s The Interior Like In The 2025 Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV?

The interior is almost identical to the last H6 I reviewed, so if you want detail, head over to our review of that car.

For the GT model, the seats are finished in a leather/alcantara mix, and they look excellent – especially when each seat has a ‘GT’ embroidered into it. I know, I know, it’s hard to call a Chinese SUV a GT, but it is what it is, and the seats do look pretty cool.

I’m still stunned that at under $60K, that the H6 GT Ultra has so much equipment. Three-stage heated and ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel, electric sunroof, heads-up display, auto parking, electric tailgate, Qi wireless charging, and more. The H6 GT Ultra does not want for much.

The fake carbon fibre on the doors, console and dash is a bit too much for me – it’s all a bit try-hard. Not a deal breaker, but a bit garish.

One issue I had with our test vehicle was that the button on the remote to open the electric tailgate worked barely half the time I used it.

What’s The 2025 Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV Like To Drive?

On picking up our test car, the range was showing as 900km for petrol, and 160km for EV-only mode. Promising! 

Apart from the PHEV hybrid system, you get seven drive modes in this model; Normal, Eco, Sport, Snow, AWD, Mud, and Sand. Each has their place, and as usual, I left the car in Normal drive mode most of the time. With 430 horsepower on tap, a jab of the right-hand pedal will get you moving quickly in any drive mode.

The performance is very accessible in the H6 GT Ultra, although it doesn’t feel like a 321kW SUV. Regardless, it can haul away from the lights quickly, surprising other road users, this mid-size and 2,075kg heavy SUV gets off the mark and on to 100km/h in a sprightly 4.9 seconds.

The on-tap power does mean that just slightly heavier use of the gas pedal will see the H6 GT Ultra spin its front wheels, before electronics kick in. This happens in EV-only mode as well, as the front wheels struggle to cope with the car’s 762Nm of torque. But it’s all drama-free and easily managed. The car’s systems soon manage any wheelspin.

In my week with the H6, I did try running the car in EV mode all the time, just as I did with the Toyota Prius PHEV we recently tested. With a suggested 180km of EV-only range, it wasn’t hard to drive the car for 3 days or so, and then charge it up. That 180km was fairly accurate, and I managed to get around 160km of EV range on Wellington’s hilly streets. 

Still on the plug-in hybrid side of the car, you can’t adjust the car’s brake regeneration (regen) settings at all, but it does have a type of adaptive regen, where the car will apply regen depending on the circumstances; for example, a car in front will see more regen, no car will see no regen being applied. It works just fine, although I do prefer to have some sort of control over an EV or PHEV’s regen.

So – what about fuel economy? Haval claims the car will do 0.8L/100km. Due to my efforts to charge the car whenever I could, I managed to achieve 0.7L/100km – bettering even the Prius, that did 1.5L/100km. Still, with up to 180km of EV-only range, most people should be able to achieve excellent fuel economy in this car. We dropped the car off with 845km of petrol range left, so for our 500km of driving, we used just over 50km of petrol. The petrol gauge didn’t even move off full during our test. A seemingly unnecessary feature is the loud bing that startles you, every time you turn the car off. It’s to bring your attention to the dashboard where it displays the fuel you’ve just used (if any) but the bing is more like BING! I never got used to it.

Energy consumption for our test worked out at 19.7kWh; a little on the high side, but we need to keep in mind the weight of this SUV is not going to help in this department.

The 2025 Haval H6 Ultrs GT PHEV is fitted with the more common Type 2 plug, and will accept DC charging – so you can charge it at a public charging point. Many PHEVs won’t accept fast DC charging, so that’s great that this model does.

It might be because of the PHEV’s 400kg extra weight, but the H6 GT Ultra rides very well, smoothing out most irregularities in the road. Speed bumps – and oh how many there are now! – are dispensed with pretty easily.

I had felt that the extra weight of the PHEV model would mean it would bomb in any sort of cornering, but surprisingly, it remains relatively chuckable up to certain speeds. Push it a bit too hard, and it starts to roll a bit too much, and understeer kicks in. But, that’s not what the H6 Ultra GT is about, regardless of the ‘GT’ badge. Steering feel is pretty lacking overall, and although you can pull down on the centre screen and adjust the steering’s weight, only Sport has any sort of weight to it.

You can pull down on that centre screen and adjust other settings, such as the drive modes, turn the heads-up display off, adjust the car’s EV modes, and select auto-parking and reverse tracking. EV modes include simple ‘EV’, where the car will stay in EV mode until the battery runs out, and then the engine will start. There’s also EV Priority, and Intelligent Hybrid. I expect most owners will always leave the car in EV mode to make the most of that range available.

The H6 GT’s auto parking will control the brakes, speed, and transmission for automatic parking – so it will change itself from Drive to Reverse, and if needed. Just sit back and let it happen. Weirdly, when you select auto-parking, you get a message to “Loosen the steering wheel”, which I assume means let it go.

Reverse tracking is similar to BMW’s system, where the car will reverse up to 50 metres, following the lines you took to get to where you are. It will control the brakes and accelerator for you. Some drivers who are not confident at reversing out of a tight spot might find this quite handy.

The dashboard is nicely clear and crisp. There is no customisation of it, but that’s not a big deal for most people. The heads-up display is excellent, and like many Chinese cars with this feature, has a Snow Mode that changes the text to blue, making it easier to read. 

Sadly, one item that’s been removed for 2025 is the rear window wiper. I’m unsure of the reasoning for this, other than it seems to be a popular trend, but we wish it’d just go away. A lack of rear window wiper, a big C pillar and a small rear window means visibility in the 2025 Haval H6 is poor.

We’ve come to expect a few weird things happening with Chinese-built cars, and the H6 GT Ultra had its quirks as well. If I put the headlights to ‘on’, and then turned them to Auto, the hazard lights would run for a few seconds. This also happened when flicking the car into Sport mode, or back. To open the charge port, I had to lock the car, but perhaps that’s by design. When running the heater, I could have it on 25 degrees and Auto, but barely warm air would blow out the vents. 

The traffic sign recognition was not reliable at all, and lane keep assist felt dangerous at times; we’ve had this before in some Chinese cars, where you put your indicator on to turn right, and move into a turn bay, and then the steering wheel jerks left to get you back in your lane – the car’s lane keep assist seems to stay on, even if you have your indicator on. I could see this one thing freaking some people out. 

The adaptive cruise in the H6 GT Utlra works well enough but if you come to a corner, it will slow down for the corner. That’s generally fine and becoming quite a common safety feature, but the car slows far too much, and it starts slowing down halfway around the corner – and that’s the worst time for a car to lose speed, as far as safely going around a corner goes. The brakes are a bit soft too, and there’s not a lot of feel to the pedal. 

READ ON TO CHECK OUT OUR SUMMARY OF THE 2025 HAVAL H6 GT ULTRA PHEV.

2025 Haval H6 GT Ultra PHEV – Specifications

Vehicle Type	AWD Medium SUV
Starting Price	$58,990
Price as Tested	$58,990
Engine	1.5-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol with plug-in hybrid capability
Power, Torque kW/Nm	321/762
Transmission	2-speed DHT
Spare Wheel	Tyre pump
Kerb Weight, Kg	2,075
Length x Width x Height mm	4727x1729x1940
Boot Space / Cargo Capacity, Litres (seats up/seats down)	392/1,390
Fuel tank capacity, litres	55
Fuel Economy, L/100km	Advertised Spec – Combined – 0.8 Real-World Test – Combined – 0.7 Low Usage: 0-6 / Medium Usage 6-12 / High Usage 12+
Towing Capacity Kg, unbraked/braked	750/1,500
Turning circle metres	12.0 Small: 6-10m / Medium 10-12m / Large 12m+
Warranty	8 Year Unlimited KM Warranty 5 Year Battery Pack Warranty 5 Year Roadside Assist
Safety information	ANCAP Rating – 5 stars – Link Rightcar.govt.nz – 5 Stars – RBH715

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