Infiniti Q30 vs GWM Haval H6

What's the difference?

The Q30 Sport is a left-field choice in the premium hatch segment. For those who don’t care about badge equity and are looking for something different, the Q30 provides maybe 70 per cent the feel of its well-established competition while offering decent value courtesy of standard safety and spec inclusions.

The biggest letdown is how much better it could be with just a little extra in every department. Even in this top-spec the drive experience is a bit generic, and it’s missing an up-to-date multimedia experience limiting its appeal to a younger audience.

Even with its promising mixed heritage, the Q30 hardly feels more than the sum of its parts.

The GWM Haval H6 Ultra Hybrid offers an attractive package for those hunting for a medium SUV hybrid that is affordable but well-equipped. Its rivals have a nicer on-road driving experience and better multimedia systems but you get a lot for your money and the H6 has great on-going costs.

The Q30 drew more than just looks for its badge. It genuinely looks like a concept car from a motor show stand. Not the paper mache Mars rover early prototype kind, more like the six-months-before-production kind.

It’s all swoopy with curves cutting all down the sides, and Infiniti has done a good job imprinting the brand’s signature design queues – like the chrome-framed grille and notched C-pillar - on the front and rear three-quarter views.

It’s genuinely hard to tell it shares major componentry with the last-gen (W176) A-Class from the outside and I’d place the overall look somewhere between Mazda and Lexus’ design languages for better or worse.

While the front is swoopy and resolved the rear is a bit busy with lines everywhere and bits of chrome and black trim all over the place. The tapered roofline and high bumpers set it apart from your regular hatchback fare. 

It might grab the eye for the wrong reasons, but it certainly gives the Q30 a slick look when viewed in profile. I wouldn’t call it a bad looking car, but it is divisive and will appeal only to certain tastes.

Inside is simple and plush. Perhaps a little too simple when compared with the new (W177) A-Class with its entirely digital dashboard or the 1 Series with its M bits. One could even argue the Audi A3 has done ‘simplicity’ better.

The seats are nice in the two-tone white-on-black trim and the Alcantara roof is a premium touch, but the rest of the dash is a bit too basic and dated. There’s a smattering of buttons down the centre stack which are replaced with more intuitive touchscreen functions on most rivals, and the 7.0-inch touchscreen looks small, distantly embedded in the dash.

The materials are all nice to the touch, with most important touch-points clad in leather, but it also feels a little claustrophobic, with the abundance of dark trim, thick roof pillars and a low roof-line, especially in the back seat. The switchgear, which is mostly dropped straight out of a Benz A-Class, feels good.

The Haval H6 is a good-looking medium SUV. It manages to blend the functionality of its size with a sleekness that should make it appealing to a wide audience.

You can tell the hybrid models apart from the pack because the grille ‘bleeds’ into the surrounding panels rather than maintaining the usual rectangular shape of the non-hybrid models. It makes the front look more stylish.

The full suite of LED lights look particularly interesting on the Ultra Hybrid with a focus on the full-width strip at the rear and cute ‘bunting’ styled brake lights.

The cabin exudes a good sense of quality with most of the materials used, like the synthetic leather upholstery and trims as well as soft touchpoints throughout. There are some harder plastics which detract from this general aesthetic but they’re mostly found in the back row and centre console.

The dashboard is stepped and has a lot going on with the chrome accents, shapes, style of vents and tech screens. You might think that would be overwhelming but it just adds nice focal points. The cabin is a pleasant space to be in.

Infiniti calls the Q30 a “crossover” rather than a hatchback and this is best reflected through its pumped ride height. Rather than hugging the ground like the A-Class or 1 Series, the Q30 sits propped up, almost like a small SUV.

There’s also the QX30 which is an even more pumped version of this car complete with plastic guards in the vein of Subaru’s XV. The QX30 is also your only way to all-wheel drive now that the Q30 is front-wheel drive only. 

While the extra ride height means you won’t have to worry about scraping expensive body panels on speedbumps or steep ramps you won’t be wanting to get too brave off the tarmac.

Interior space is fine for front passengers with plenty of arm and legroom, but back seat passengers are left with a small, dark space which feels especially claustrophobic. Headroom is not great no matter which seat you’re in. In the front seat I could almost rest my head on the sun-visor (I’m 182cm tall) and the back seat was not much better.

Rear passengers do score nice seat trim and two air-conditioning vents though, so they haven’t totally been forgotten.

There’s average amounts of storage up front and in the back, with small bottle holders in each of the four doors, two on the transmission tunnel and a tiny trench – useful for keys maybe – in front of the air-conditioning controls.

Even the centre console box is shallow, despite a large opening. Once I had collected enough loose objects on my trip I started to run out of room for things in the cabin.

There are nettings on the back of the front seats and an odd extra one on the passenger’s side of the transmission tunnel.

Power outlets come in the form of a single USB port in the dash and a 12-volt outlet in the centre box.

The boot is a much better story despite the swoopy roofline with 430 litres of space available. That’s bigger than the A-Class (370L), 1 Series (360L), A3 (380L) and CT200h (375L). Needless to say, it ate up two large duffle bags and some extra items we brought with us for our week-long trip.

This is due to its impressive depth, but it does come at a cost. The Q30 only has the sound system’s base and an inflator kit under the boot floor. There’s no spare for long distance trips.

One irritation I have to mention is the shift-lever, which was annoying in its tilt-shift operation. Often when trying to change to drive from reverse or vice versa it would get stuck in neutral. Sometimes I wonder what’s wrong with a shifter which locks in position…

The cabin has loads of passenger space and it feels roomy up front. It’s also an easy car to get in and out of, which I like. I don't love the comfort of the front seats, though, as the seat backs cave too far inwards, even with the lumbar extended. Not conducive to great posture.  

The back seat is like a lounge, though, and in this instance I'd prefer to be a passenger princess than the driver in this car.

In the back row, the head- and legroom is excellent and middle seaters will be comfortable thanks to the flat floor. 

Individual storage is very good up front, the centre console playing the hero with its large shelf underneath. There are also two cupholders, a utility tray and a cute little nook for any small items like keys.

The middle console is medium-sized, as is the glove box and both doors have storage bins and a drink bottle holder.

In the back seat, there are map pockets, two cupholders in a fold down armrest and shallow storage bins in each door.

The other amenities in the back row are okay and you get directional air vents and reading lights.

You get a good storage capacity with the 600L boot and the level loading space makes it easy to slide gear in and out. The back seat has a 60/40 split if you need to boost your storage capacity. There’s no spare tyre in this model, just a tyre repair kit but you do get a powered tailgate. 

The practicality of the cabin is hurt by the usefulness of some of its tech, which is a shame since the cabin on a whole is fairly good.

The 12.3-inch touchscreen multimedia system looks great and is fairly easy to use but the screen can occasionally lag. There are a lot of functions buried in the system and I miss having physical buttons for this reason. I sometimes don't bother with the heat and ventilation functions for the front seats because it isn't simple to access them.

You don’t get built-in sat nav or digital radio in this model but you do have wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I have beef with the CarPlay as the USB-A port for it is on the passenger side, not the driver's side. The CarPlay and Bluetooth connectivity also dropped out a lot, which I found frustrating, especially when I was using it to navigate.

Charging options are okay with each row getting two USB-A ports. The front also features a wireless charging pad and a 12-volt outlet but you miss out on faster USB-C sockets.

The H6 has six variants and our model on test is the flagship Ultra Hybrid, which is priced from $45,990, drive-away. That makes it way more affordable than similarly equipped rivals, the closest drive-away price tag being over $10K higher, at $56,206 for the Toyota RAV4 Cruiser 2WD Hybrid.

Pricing goes up from there with the Kia Sportage GT-Line HEV priced from $60,496 and the Nissan X-Trail e-Power Ti-L from $63,200 (drive-away prices based on a NSW, 2000 postcode). So what do you get on the top-model hybrid H6?

For premium features, expect to see synthetic leather upholstery and trims, a panoramic sunroof, a handsfree powered tailgate, dual-zone climate control and a head-up display.

The front seats are electric, with the passenger side featuring four-way adjustment and the driver's side eight-way, as well as powered lumbar support. They sport heat and ventilation functions for added comfort.

Technology is high-quality with the 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and 12.3-inch touchscreen multimedia system. There is wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which is good because unlike it's rivals, you miss out on built-in satellite navigation and digital radio in this model.

The exterior boasts a full suite of LED lights, including DRLs. Rims are 19-inch alloy but this hybrid model only gets a tyre puncture repair kit.

For the price tag, the kit is well-rounded and most creature comforts are assured.

For 2019 the Q30 has had its list of engines trimmed from three to just one. The diesel and smaller 1.6-litre petrol engines have been culled, leaving a 2.0-litre petrol.

Thankfully, it’s a strong unit producing a once-V6-range 155kW/350Nm across a wide band from 1200-4000rpm.

It feels responsive and isn’t let down by a slick-shifting seven-speed dual clutch automatic transmission.

The new-generation A-Class equivalent, even in 2.0-litre A250 guise produces less torque with outputs of 165kW/250Nm, so for the money the Infiniti scores a solid serving of extra punch.

The Ultra Hybrid is powered by a (110kW/230Nm) 1.5-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine and 'two-speed' (130kW/300Nm) electric motor with drive going to the front wheels only. The motor is powered by a relatively small 1.8kWh lithium-ion battery and GWM Haval quotes combined petrol-electric outputs of 179kW/530Nm.

Clearly that 530Nm torque figure is the result of simply adding the engine and motor's peak numbers together, which is 'unusual' because other brands quote a blended torque output and that's a massive amount of pulling power. In comparison, the RAV4 produces 160kW/221Nm and the Sportage 169kW/350Nm.

Question marks hovering above specification calculations aside, on the road the Ultra Hybrid is no slouch and you can easily keep your speed consistent on hills.

Over my week-long test the Q30 returned a figure of 9.0L/100km. I was a little disappointed with this figure given much of the distance covered was cruising at freeway speeds. 

It’s made worse when you pitch it against the claimed/combined figure of 6.3L/100km (not sure how you could achieve that…) and the fact that I left the irritating stop-start system on for much of the time.

For a leader in the luxury hatch class consider the Lexus CT200h which makes full use of Toyota’s hybrid drive and pitches a fuel consumption figure of 4.4L/100km.

The Q30 has a 56-litre fuel tank and takes a minimum of 95 RON premium unleaded.

The official combined cycle fuel figure is just 5.2L/100km and my real-world usage is 6.0L/100km after mostly open road driving. I would expect that figure to be lower in an urban setting.

Based on the combined cycle number and the 61L fuel tank, expect a driving range of up to 1173km for this model. Great for road tripping adventures. GWM recommends a minimum 91 RON 'standard' unleaded petrol to be used.

The Ultra Hybrid is not a plug-in hybrid. Instead, it uses its engine and regenerative braking to recoup battery percentage while you’re driving. After 230km I was only down to 91 per cent for the battery, which means it’s pretty darn efficient in that recouping process. 

Thanks to its shared underpinnings with the A-Class the Q30 Sport drives largely like you would expect a premium hatch to drive. It’s just lacking a bit of character.

The engine is responsive, the transmission is fast and the availability of peak torque from just 1200rpm will lead to spinning the front wheels if caution is not applied. Power is no real issue.

Although Infiniti says it has tuned the Q30 in Japan and Europe, the ride has an undeniably Germanic flavour. It doesn’t feel quite as tight as the A-Class or 1 Series but it doesn’t feel as soft as the CT200h, so it strikes a decent balance.

The Q30 uses MacPherson strut suspension in the front and multi-link at the rear, more suited to a premium car than the torsion bar rear on the new Benz A 200.

The wheel has a nice amount of feedback, and thankfully doesn’t use the larger Q50’s strange ‘Direct Adaptive Steering’ which has no mechanical connection between the driver and the road.

If you’ve driven a decently-specified A-Class before the drive experience will feel familiar. The added ride height seems to remove a bit of feel from the corners, however.

There’s also the inclusion of three drive modes – Economy, Sport and Manual. Economy mode seems to be the default with Sport simply holding gears for longer. Steering-wheel mounted paddle-shifters could be used to mill through the seven gears in 'Manual' mode, although this didn’t add much to the experience.

The addition of active cruise control and adaptive high beams proved to be fantastic for reducing fatigue on long highway stints during the night, but the lack of a padded surface on the inside of the transmission tunnel proved uncomfortable for the driver’s knee on longer trips.

I persisted with the stop-start system to test it, but it proved slow and irritating. Under normal circumstances it would be the first thing I’d turn off.

Visibility was also a bit limited out the rear three quarter courtesy of the low, swoopy C-pillars.

The Ultra Hybrid has a good well of power to dip into and the switch between the petrol and electric functions is pretty smooth but occasionally when you’re getting up to speed on a highway you get some loud noises as it switches over.

Power delivery is well balanced but you lose traction in the front if you accelerate too quickly from a standstill, particularly if you’re doing it on an incline.

When you’re braking on a hill, there can be a quick sliding sensation as if its slipped out of gear, which I did not like at all.

The ride comfort is a mixed bag for me, mostly because the front seats are uncomfortable on a longer journey but the suspension is compliant enough that you don’t wince when you hit bumps. There is some roll when you hit corners but otherwise you don’t really feel jostled in the Ultra Hybrid which is good.

Around town and at lower speeds, the engine noise is virtually nil and that creates a more refined on-road experience but road and wind noise are noticeable at higher speeds.

With the steering wheel feel set on ‘Comfort’ the H6 manoeuvres responsively in the city but can feel a little clunky in a tight car park because of its larger 12m turning circle.

The 360-degree view camera system is super clear, though, and you also get front and rear parking sensors so I didn’t find the H6 hard to park.

In this grade level the H6 has a great suite of safety features, including a biggie like rear cross-traffic alert, which is only available on the higher Ultra grades. The lane keeping aid is quite sensitive, though, which can lead to a jerky on-road feel.

Other standard safety features include driver attention alert, tyre pressure monitoring, rear collision warning, LED lights, lane departure/keeping aids, emergency lane keeping aid, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control, child safety locks and a 360-degree camera system with front and rear parking sensors.

A windshield mounted USB-A port for a dashcam, is also standard.

The H6 has a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from testing done in 2022 as well as seven airbags including a front centre airbag.

It has high individual assessment scores for adult and child protection at 90 and 88 per cent, respectively.

The H6 features AEB with car, pedestrian and cyclist detection which is operational from 5.0-85km/h (150km/h for car detection).

There are two ISOFIX child seat mounts and three top tether anchor points. Three car seats are likely to fit.

As with all Infiniti products, the Q30 is covered by a four-year/100,000km warranty and a three-year service program can be purchased with the car. Pricing was not available for the 2019 Q30 model year at the time of writing, but its 2.0-litre turbo predecessor averaged $540 per service once a year or every 25,000km.

Credit where credit is due, the Q30 edges out the European competition by a year of warranty length and general service pricing. This market segment is still wide open for a manufacturer to take the lead offering five or more years of warranty coverage.

Affordability is extended to the ongoing costs for the H6 because it comes with a seven-year/unlimited km warranty, which is above average for the class.

The hybrid battery is covered by an eight-year warranty and there is a five-year capped priced servicing program where services average $330, which is very competitive for the class.

Servicing intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first and you also get complimentary roadside assistance for five years through Allianz Global Assistance.