If you're thinking of going on a long-distance road trip in luxury and comfort, there's now a new car that can take you from Singapore to Penang without needing a pit stop to refuel or recharge.

The GAC E9 is a luxury MPV that's also a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), and GAC claims that it can travel up to 1,032km on a full tank of fuel and a fully charged battery.

What is GAC?

GAC Group, or Guangzhou Automobile Company Group, is the fifth largest automobile manufacturer in China.

While the GAC name itself may not be familiar to Singaporeans yet, they have been making their presence known here over the past few months with their recently launched brands Aion and Hyptec.

The company intends to unify the brands under the GAC banner with its 'One GAC' strategy.

Therefore, the other two brands will be named GAC Aion and GAC Hyptec, and all three brands are represented by the same distributor in Singapore, Vincar EV.

Tell me more about the E9

The E9 is the first car to be sold here under the main GAC name, and takes the form of a luxury MPV.

It goes up against the likes of numerous other large Chinese MPVs that have been released in the market lately, including the Denza D9, Xpeng X9 and Zeekr 009.

Unlike its competitors though, which are all full electric vehicles (EVs), the GAC E9 is a plug-in hybrid. This means it has a regular internal combustion engine (ICE) matched with an electric drivetrain and a battery that can be charged like an EV.

The engine itself is a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol unit, and together with the electric motor, produces a total of 368hp and 630Nm of torque.

On electric power alone, the car can drive up to 106km before the battery is depleted.

However, when combined with the petrol engine, GAC says that the E9 has a range of 1,032km, thanks to its 56-litre fuel tank and claimed fuel consumption figure of 6 litres per 100km.

The battery can also be recharged via fast DC charging, and using a 50kW charger, it can be charged from 0 to 80 per cent in just half an hour.

Like most of the Chinese luxury MPVs that have been launched recently, the GAC E9 comes packed with premium comfort features.

The second row 'Captain's Chair' seats can recline up to 58 degrees and has a four-way adjustable leg rest.

It also has a 10-point massage system, which can be controlled from the LED screen in the armrest.

One innovative feature is the 'draught-free' air conditioning system, which consists of two 1.5-metre vents on either side of the ceiling that's equipped with 840 micro vents, and can distribute cool air more evenly throughout the cabin.

The E9 comes with the usual advanced driver safety systems that are now commonplace in new cars these days, including adaptive cruise control, blind spot warning, forward collision warning and automatic emergency warning.

It also comes with automatic park assist, which is handy for a sizeable car like this.

How much is the GAC E9?

Vincar EV is offering two variants of the E9 for sale in Singapore.

The standard E9 GL trim is retailing for $279,888 with COE, and the price is inclusive of a $10,000 launch discount that is valid until April 9.

The top-spec E9 GX, meanwhile, which adds the second-row massage seat function and park assist feature, is going for $305,888 with COE, including the $10,000 launch discount.

The base model's pricing puts it on par with another similar-sized Chinese MPV, the Maxus Mifa 9.

As mentioned earlier though, there are no shortage of competitors for the E9 in the luxury MPV segment, but GAC hopes that the impressive range of the PHEV drivetrain can give it the upper hand against its rivals.

ben.chia@asiaone.com

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