2026 GWM Haval H6 GT PHEV long-term review: Part two

I’ve already established that the GWM Haval H6 GT PHEV is an excellent inner-city commuter, thanks to its stand-out 180km (NEDC claim) of all-electric driving range that essentially lets it run petrol-free during the week.

But what happens when that battery runs out?

Or, more specifically, it dips to around 15 per cent capacity, at which point the petrol engine comes into play.

An extended journey – say, travelling from Melbourne to Sale, a good 215km trip one way – without a decent fast-charger on the other end to recoup the entire 35.4kWh battery can highlight gaps in this plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain.

Firstly, what you should know is that the battery charge should be saved in a PHEV, like this GWM, for inner-city traffic only, where they can be at their most efficient with regenerative braking and constant stop/starts between traffic lights.

Therefore, for my journey out to Sale, I switched out of EV Priority mode and used the Hybrid setting once the road opened up and we were travelling consistently at speeds between 80–110km/h as signposted.

However, for owners who don’t want to dive into the (admittedly painful) infotainment system to switch between modes, there is also an automatic ‘Intelligent Hybrid’ setting that will switch modes at around 80km/h for you.

When running in Hybrid mode, the GWM Haval H6 GT PHEV essentially works like a closed-loop hybrid system, akin to something offered by the Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester, and Honda CR-V.

However, because of the extra weight of a larger battery – and possibly the inefficiency of its 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine – the H6 GT PHEV averaged between 6–7 litres per 100 kilometres of fuel useage during extended freeway driving.

While this is higher than you can expect from those other aforementioned hybrid family SUVs, the GWM has that big 35kWh battery and a sizeable 180km all-electric driving range to fall back on to even things out around town.

And while the switchover between electric and petrol is pretty smooth, the petrol engine presents some refinement issues not present when running the H6 GT PHEV solely from the battery.

Of course, there is more noise as the engine thrums away, but the H6 GT PHEV already throws up quite a bit of tyre noise when travelling at speeds over 80km/h. Added engine noise can make the cabin a tiresome place to be over an extended period.

The advanced safety systems also presented a few problems, especially the adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist, which are used frequently during long drives.

For starters, the adaptive cruise system will brake when approaching a gentle corner – even with the ‘smart cornering’ function turned completely off.

The adaptive cruise would also randomly deactivate throughout the journey, sometimes with minimal warning, which meant we had to be extra diligent lest a car behind us be caught unaware and run into the back of us.

I also found the lane-keep assist to be overly aggressive, tugging at the wheel with enough fervour to induce a forearm workout to keep the H6 GT PHEV pointed where I wanted.

The lane-centring assist function also cannot be turned off when using adaptive cruise control, and it would lead to bouts of wrestling with the wheel.

These systems – at best – are annoying, but – at worst – could be dangerous if drivers are caught off guard.

In addition, the brakes could use another round of refinement too, as the braking pedal feels… off.

Push lightly, and the stoppers will start to grab gradually, but progressively depress that pedal and all of a sudden it feels like the brakes are biting at full force.

A more natural and linear braking feel is what is needed here, especially because the system also has a one-pedal driving option and regenerative braking at play.

Another pain point – as discussed in my first review – is the infotainment system.

Not only is it slow, clunky, and laid out in an unintuitive fashion, but the lack of wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto out of the box is a miss – especially for a tech-forward plug-in hybrid like this.

Newer versions are said to have the feature, and dealers can update the system to enable it. But even when using a wired connection, I experienced dropouts, so I don’t want to imagine what it would be like sans physical connection.

After one rest stop, the Apple CarPlay system decided it didn’t want to play nice at all. This resulted in the next leg of the journey with my phone playing music via Bluetooth through the native infotainment software.

But, getting through these hurdles and finally to my destination also presented another problem with the charger.

DC fast charging of up to 50kW is available, and we saw 49kW, which let us top up a fair bit of range in a short amount of time.

But the problem isn’t to do with the charging speeds, it's the actual charging port itself.

On this occasion (and now a present issue about half the time), the charge port is not releasing the charging cable, even when the car is fully charged and unlocked.

We have now experienced this at public charging stations, at the Drive office’s wall outlet, and even at home.

Trying to troubleshoot the problem, the charging cable seems to release if the battery charging limit is set to 90 per cent, or if the charger is turned off at the outlet, but it is still a puzzling and annoying issue for a PHEV.

It may seem like we are being overly negative about the GWM Haval H6 GT PHEV in this review, but these are just the pitfalls we encountered when taking it out of the city.

All of this is also balanced out by the fact that in town, the H6 GT PHEV works well as an all-electric commuter with space for entire families. But it’s becoming clear after a few months with the car that this GWM feels more suited to one domain rather than the other.

Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.

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