Any time you have a burning smell in a car, you have a potential fire. If something is hot enough that you can smell it, it’s possibly hot enough to burst into flames, especially if it contacts a fuel or oil leak somewhere on the car.

The fact that the smell occurs when going uphill suggests that it’s something in the driveline (engine or transmission) that’s getting hot because it’s working hard. It could also be a cable or hose that’s incorrectly routed too close to something that’s getting hot (like the exhaust) and causing the smell. In any case, the answer to your question is no, it’s not normal and it needs investigating.

Sometimes, a new exhaust system will create the odd strange smell as it heats up the first couple of times this shouldn’t be happening after 9000km. You need to take the car back to where you bought it from and have the dealership fix this before a real fire takes hold, or something important melts and stops working.

The Haval product has only been on sale in Australia since 2015, so it’s a bit hard to gauge its long-term reliability prospects. Even more so when it’s a model like the Jolion which hasn’t been on local roads for anything like seven years (it was launched here in 2021).

Based on the experiences of CarsGuide readers, the Jolion has been responsible for some electronic woes and the odd build-quality issue. These, however, could be isolated problems rather than a general assessment of the model. At least with a 2024 model, you’ll have at least six years of warranty, so you could use that time to assess the car’s reliability and quality for yourself before making a decision to hold on to it beyond the warranty period.

There could be any number of reasons for this from an electrical or a mechanical point of view. Since the car is under warranty, why not tackle your Haval dealership with the problem as, legally, it’s their responsibility to put right.

But on another level, are you sure the vehicle is not using its electric motor to help power the vehicle? The transition between petrol, electric and a combination of the two can be pretty hard to pick sometimes, especially in newer vehicles with smoother engines and better sound-proofing. In fact, the Jolion Hybrid has been praised in road tests for the seamless way it transitions between petrol and electric power, so maybe because you’re not feeling or hearing this transition, it appears to be not happening, even when it is.