Aion Y Plus Premium 63.2kWh Review: The Value & Space Champion

What we like:

Acres of interior room

Generous standard features on the Premium trim

Comfortable

Sufficiently powerful

What we dislike:

Air-conditioning needs a bit of tuning - too cold!

The value proposition of EVs keeps increasing year-by-year. What was deemed as good value just a year ago seems to be usurped by something else rather quickly.

The AION Y Plus just about rounds up the bookend when it comes to offering a massive amount of space, while being one of the most affordable entry points to an EV.

It seems to permeate the whole AION brand, which to the uninitiated, is actually the third-largest carmaker in terms of EV sales globally. It has an even more affordable product, the ES, but it has a less popular sedan shape.

The Y Plus, on the other hand, has a super practical MPV form factor. At just 4.535m long, the Y Plus manages to have more rear legroom than a long wheelbase Mercedes-Benz S-Class. It’s so spacious there, a few kids could probably play Monopoly on the floor. Yes, the rear floor is completely flat too. The rear doors also open almost 90-degrees, allowing easy ingress and egress.

Or, you could also choose to fold down the front seats completely to create some sort of a flat-bed when combined with the rear seats. Perfect for camping trips or for gazing at the stars through the enormous panoramic roof. Boot space isn’t compromised as well. There’s 405 litres, or up to 1,200 litres with the rear seats folded down. I even moved a King-sized mattress with it.

For the driver, there’s a surprising amount of features for the price point. There’s a genuinely accurate voice command system, but comically it only responds to ‘Hey baby’, at least for now. You could ask it to turn up the air-conditioning temperature, for example, which is something you would do often as for some inexplicable reason the A/C in the car is simply ice-cold even at 27 degrees Celsius. The lowest fan speed is also more than what you expect a light breeze to be. As a result, the windows keep fogging up.

There’s a large 14.6-inch infotainment screen with Apple CarPlay, leatherette-trimmed steering wheel and seats, a 6-speaker Bongiovi sound system, electrically powered driver and front passenger seats (latter only for the Premium trim as tested here), driver ventilated seat and a 540-degree camera system (also Premium trim features). If you value safety then you should definitely opt for the Premium trim, as you get the full-suite of safety systems such as Forward Collision Warning (FCW) and Automatic Emergency Brake (AEB).

On the move, the Y Plus is surprisingly perky despite being a Cat A COE car. It has 134 bhp and 225 Nm from its front electric motor, but its real-world pace outstrips the 9.8 seconds it takes to go from 0-100 km/h. There’s ample power here to make even the most hurried family man satisfied.

Ride comfort is also wonderful, despite having a torsion beam at the rear. The Y Plus is geared towards a plush and comfy ride, and so it soaks up the bumps really well, especially for front passengers. Very rarely, the rear suspension gets upset when asked for too much of it, but it’s not a deal-breaker.

With a 63.2 kWh battery, AION claims a combined WLTP range of 430 km, which is entirely believable. The Y Plus can take 90 kW of DC charging or 6.6 kW of AC charging. At its fastest, it can juice up from 20% to 80% in just 40 minutes.

I think the key takeaway here is that affordability doesn’t mean AION has compromised on innovation. It claims to have the ‘world’s safest’ magazine battery that has withstood damage from bullets. Each battery cell has its own compartment, making it flame-retardant and heat-insulated. There's even an accompanying AION app that's slick and useful, allowing you to pre-cool the car remotely, for example.

The interior feels appropriately appointed, while the on-road manners of the car doesn’t feel low-rent at all. In fact, this is one of the better EV MPVs we’ve tested. We can’t wait to see what other models AION has in store in 2025.

Photos by James Wong

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