Haval H6 2022 review: Hybrid

Regular readers would know that I’ve run a little hot and cold on H6 styling in the past, and especially on their front-end treatments, which are usually dripping with bright bling that doesn't work for everyone.

The solid rear light bar looks mega at night. 

The H6 Hybrid, though, is my favourite treatment to date, with a slightly (but only just) more understated design that includes black-and-white cat-caw swipes at either edge of the bonnet. It rides on fairly simple 19-inch wheels, and I absolutely love the front DRL designs and the solid light bar at the back, which looks mega at night. 

The H6's styling has received mixed reactions.

Inside, that theme of considered understatement continues. Most of the key car stuff is controlled through a big 12.3-inch touchscreen, the instrument cluster is a second big screen in front of the driver, and there’s a head-up display, too, all of which contribute to an undeniably premium feel in the cabin, both in the materials, and in the layered way they've been put to use.

There’s a couple of cool things to point out on the safety front, the first being what Haval calls its Mobile Eye Q4 autonomous driving chip which, along with a barrage of camera and radars, delivers a Level 2+ autonomous driving experience, with adaptive cruise control, intelligent cruise assist and intelligent cornering.

There's also self-parking - which works, albeit slowly - as well as a high-tech safety suite that includes AEB with pedestrian, cyclist and cross-street detection, and rear-cross traffic alert.

The H6 range wears a five-star ANCAP safety rating.

Put it this way, if you're in the market for a Haval H6, then you should be in the market for the Hybrid model.

The combination of a smaller engine, a steadier power delivery, and the dual-speed gearbox makes for much smoother acceleration, mostly erasing the bugbears you find behind the wheel of the other Haval models.

To quickly recap, other H6 models, those powered exclusively by petrol, have an undeniably lumpy power delivery, with a long moment of nothingness when you plant your right foot, followed by a surge of grunt that can get the front tyres screeching.

The Hybrid feels smoother compared to a regular H6.

The H6 Hybrid? Not so much. It feels much smoother, more gentle, but still not slow or underdone on the power front. 

Weirdly, I also prefer the CVT transmission in the Haval, too, which has a smoother delivery of power, with a second gear to help alleviate some of the drone-like tendencies you can find in that other CVTs. 

It's still not dynamically perfect. For one, you somehow feel like you're sitting on the H6, rather than in it, which is a feeling not helped by steering that isn't best in class, either.

The H6 could benefit from some local suspension tuning.

And the front tyres, and especially the front right, still loves to break traction from time to time, which seems to be just a dynamic quirk of the H6, not matter what's powering it. 

And I still think it could benefit from some local suspension tuning, with the rear suspension clanging over bigger bumps, like table-top speed bumps. 

But in this Ultra Hybrid these feel more like quirks over deal-breakers, making it, for mine, the absolute pick of the H6 bunch.