EASY DRINKING: GWM HAVAL JOLION

IS THE HYBRID'S PRICE PREMIUM WORTH IT FOR LOWER CONSUMPTION ALONE?

- ASH WESTERMAN

Price as tested $41,485 drive away

This month 634km @ 6.7L/100km

Overall 1034km @ 7.0L/100km

IF YOU'RE one of those people who loves doing the household budget, who crunches the numbers meticulously prior to any new purchase, and may have once put a few avocados through the supermarket self-serve checkout as brown onions - yes, you know who you are - then you may initially blanch at the Jolion hybrid's value equation compared to the regular petrol model.

Consider that Toyota charges a premium of $2500 for the addition of a hybrid powertrain to its Corolla Cross small SUV. For the Jolion in our top-spec Ultra trim, the difference between hybrid and conventional ICE powertrains is $7000. With fuel at around $2.00 per litre, that's 3500 litres, so even if you do 15,000km per year saving a couple of litres per 100km, it's going to take... er ... a very long time before you approach a break-even position.

That's not to say that the Jolion Hybrid's value case is weakened - it's comfortably the largest, most generously equipped SUV in its segment for the money - and remember that its price is driveaway, so it needs to be compared to rivals at around $35,000 for a valid cross-shop.