You’ve hit the nail on the head when you confirm that the vehicle is still within its warranty period (provided the vehicle has been serviced correctly). That means you need to make this Haval’s problem and not yours.

There are many, many things that can cause a transmission to behave like this, starting with low fluid level and ending with complete catastrophic failure. But if you ignore this problem, it could easily morph into a bigger, even more expensive fault. Take the car to the dealership you bought it from and give the service manager the full run-down on what’s going on and when. From there, it should be possible for Haval to identify the cause and fix it as a warranty issue.

Even if it’s not fixed immediately, the fact that you’ve reported it to Haval means it’s then a pre-existing condition and remains a warranty issue even if the warranty was to run out in the meantime.

GWM is unlikely to replace your hybrid battery, because under the terms and conditions, the car is now out of factory warranty. The problem is that the car has been used as a ride-share vehicle, at which point GWM’s factory warranty drops from eight years and unlimited kilometres to eight years and 150,000km. So, on the basis of distance travelled and the car being used for ride-share duties, you’re around 20,000km over the warranty limit.

You can certainly contact GWM’s Australian customer service department and plead your case, but on the face of it, your car is out of warranty and GWM has no obligation to help with repairs or costs.

There could be any number of reasons for this from an electrical or a mechanical point of view. Since the car is under warranty, why not tackle your Haval dealership with the problem as, legally, it’s their responsibility to put right.

But on another level, are you sure the vehicle is not using its electric motor to help power the vehicle? The transition between petrol, electric and a combination of the two can be pretty hard to pick sometimes, especially in newer vehicles with smoother engines and better sound-proofing. In fact, the Jolion Hybrid has been praised in road tests for the seamless way it transitions between petrol and electric power, so maybe because you’re not feeling or hearing this transition, it appears to be not happening, even when it is.