GAC Emzoom Premium Undercuts the Range at $22,990 Driveaway, Draws Level With the MG ZS Vibe

Image credit: GAC Australia

GAC has quietly shifted the floor of the Australian small SUV market. From this week, its Emzoom small SUV is available in a new base Premium grade at $22,990 driveaway, an introductory offer that runs until 30 September 2026. That undercuts the sole existing Emzoom Luxury by $4,000, and drags GAC into a straight fight with the MG ZS Vibe for the title of cheapest new SUV on sale in Australia. For anyone who has been holding out for something turbocharged under $25k with a seven-year warranty, this is the first time that pricing has actually existed.

The catch worth flagging up front is that this is a launch price, not a permanent RRP. GAC has not committed to what the Premium becomes on 1 October. So the shape of the story for a buyer today is simple: if the Emzoom is on your list, ordering inside the campaign window locks in $4,000 that may not be there in two months. If it is not on your list, the value equation still lands in the interesting bracket where a Chery Tiggo 4 Urban, a Haval Jolion and a Mahindra XUV 3XO already trade blows.

Pricing

Both grades are priced driveaway, meaning stamp duty, rego for twelve months, CTP and dealer delivery are folded in. The gap on the sticker is $4,000, but the equipment gap between Premium and Luxury is narrower than that once you strip the sunroof and the power tailgate out of the picture.

One Engine, One Transmission

Both variants use the same drivetrain, so the Premium loses nothing on the mechanical side. GAC bolts in a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol driving the front wheels through a seven-speed wet-clutch automatic. It is the same combination that has been in the Emzoom Luxury since the model landed in Australia in late 2025.

In a bracket where the MG ZS Vibe brings 81kW and the Chery Tiggo 4 Urban brings 108kW, the 130kW turbo four is the biggest engine at this money by some margin. For anyone who has driven a naturally aspirated 1.5 up a Sydney or Adelaide hills freeway with two adults and a boot full of stuff, the extra torque is not a spec-sheet luxury, it is the difference between the car sitting relaxed in top gear and hunting through ratios.

Equipment

This is where the Premium and Luxury split. On the Luxury you already get 18-inch alloys, a panoramic sunroof, a power tailgate, wireless phone charging, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, dual-zone climate, LED lights, keyless entry, a 360-degree camera and a six-speaker audio system. The Premium keeps the core driver-assistance and cabin tech but loses the sunroof, the power tailgate and drops a couple of the higher-trim comfort touches to hit the number. GAC has not yet published a line-by-line delete list, so on the day you sit in one, run through the differences with the salesperson rather than assuming.

Safety

The Emzoom has not been assessed by ANCAP or Euro NCAP, so it is not yet rated. That is the honest answer, and worth weighing against the Chery Tiggo 4, which carries a five-star ANCAP result from 2023, and the MG ZS, which carries a five-star result from 2017 on now-old test protocols. Standard active safety across both Emzoom variants covers autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring, a 360-degree camera and front and rear parking sensors. That is the segment expectation now, but the tuning quality of these systems still varies model to model. If ANCAP releases a result in the next twelve months, we will update this piece.

How It Compares

Here is where the Premium actually lands against the cars a CarSorted shopper is already cross-referencing at this money. All prices below are driveaway to keep the comparison honest.

Two things worth pointing out. The MG shares the sticker but not the drivetrain. That car is a naturally aspirated 1.5 doing 81kW, so the Emzoom Premium is a full 49kW ahead for the same money. The Chery Tiggo 4 is closer to the Emzoom on paper, gives up 22kW, and gets the five-star ANCAP badge that the GAC does not have yet. That safety result is a real thing to weigh, especially for families and P-plate buyers where ANCAP is the closest thing to a shorthand for crashworthiness.

The CarSorted Angle

On CarSorted's own directory, the GAC Emzoom Luxury already sits at $26,990 driveaway with the same 130kW/270Nm 1.5-litre turbo, 341-litre boot and seven-year warranty. Drop the trim to the new Premium at $22,990 and the value case gets sharper: for the money of a base Hyundai Venue or a base MG ZS you are looking at a bigger 4.41-metre small SUV with a 130kW turbo four rather than 81 to 90kW of atmo. Run the numbers on a two-year keep at 15,000km a year at $2.15 a litre with an owned-cost calculator and the higher-torque turbo pays back a lot of its fuel penalty in the driveaway saving alone. Buyers comparing Chinese small SUVs side-by-side can use our compare tool to line up the Emzoom Luxury, the Chery Tiggo 4 Urban and the Haval Jolion Premium and see the trade-offs on power, boot, safety and warranty in one screen.

Warranty and Servicing

Seven years, unlimited kilometres, on the whole car. That matches Chery, MG and Jaecoo and is a genuine two years longer than Toyota, Hyundai, Kia and Mazda. GAC's dealer network is still small compared with the mainstream Japanese and Korean brands, so it is worth checking which capital and regional service points are near you before you sign. Servicing pricing was not restated with the Premium announcement, and we will refresh this piece once GAC posts a capped-price schedule for MY26.

What This Means For Buyers

If you were within a fortnight of putting a deposit down on an MG ZS Vibe, the Emzoom Premium is now the second option at the same money that trades on more torque and a warranty that runs a couple of years longer. The counter-trade is a missing ANCAP result and a smaller dealer footprint. If you were leaning toward a Chery Tiggo 4 Urban, the maths is closer: you save $1,000 with the Emzoom, gain 22kW, and give up an ANCAP badge and a name plate that has already sold in real volume through 2026.

And for anyone who was going to buy a Luxury anyway, the arithmetic is straightforward: unless the sunroof, the power tailgate and the wireless charger are must-haves, save the $4,000 and take the Premium. That is enough to cover roughly two years of servicing plus a full year of comprehensive insurance on a small SUV, or roughly 20,000km of fuel at current metro pump prices.

For deeper cross-shopping, see our best Chinese cars in Australia 2026 guide, which stacks the Emzoom against the Tiggo 4, the Aion UT and the Jaecoo J5, and our full CarSorted directory if you want to run a driveaway-to-driveaway comparison across the whole small SUV set.