Ford Tourneo Custom vs Gac Aion Ut

What's the difference?

This idea hasn’t always worked out too well. Take a parcel-van (in this case the Ford Transit Custom) strip out the rubber matting and cargo barrier and bolt six or seven seats into what was the load area. Sure, the original vehicle to use this concept, the Volkswagen Kombi way back in the 1950s, got away with it, possibly because there wasn’t anything better around.

Ford has plenty of history with this notion, too. The first Transit of 1965 was also available as a mini-bus, but worked okay because the Transit itself was such a car-like departure from the commercial-vehicle norm.

Things didn’t go so well for Ford in the early 1980s, however, when the Econovan-badged parcel van it shared with Mazda (the E2200) was fitted with eight seats, given some fuzzy velour trim and dubbed the Spectron. And it was dreadful. In fact, so bad, that it made the contemporaneous Mitsubishi Nimbus and the even more forgettable Nissan Prairie seem like vastly superior alternatives to the job of moving people. Only because they were.

Early versions of the Spectron retained the Econovan’s crude suspension, wheezy (and fragile) little engines and even the tiny dual rear wheels that entirely deprived the vehicle of any traction. In fact, dreadful doesn’t even cover it.

So you can see why Ford might be a bit antsy about me referring to the new Tourneo (a badge that has been around in Europe for decades) as a Transit Custom with extra seats and windows. Yet that kind of sums it up (up to a point, anyway). Luckily, the Transit Custom itself is a pretty sorted thing these days, so maybe Ford has nothing to worry about. Maybe…

Chinese newcomer GAC couldn’t have timed the arrival of its Aion UT in Australia any better.

At the time of writing, we were in the midst of another Middle East-related fuel crisis, and more buyers than ever before were considering switching to their first electric car.

It’s a good thing there hasn’t ever been a better time to buy one, especially with price tags getting lower and lower thanks to keen new players like GAC.

The Aion UT, which is a vaguely Corolla-sized hatchback is now one of the most affordable new EVs on the market, and aims to outfox its primary rivals, like the BYD Dolphin and GWM Ora.

But, as you may have figured out by now, newcomer brands can come with their fair share of quirks. So, is the Aion UT the affordable hatchback it needs to be? We went to its Australian launch to find out.