ANOTHER TASTE OF THE ORIENT (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Premium Chinese brand Jaecoo enters the mid-sized SUV segment with this car, the Jaecoo 7. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 43

The Chinese Chery motor group's premium brand Jaecoo brings us this mid-sized SUV, the Jaecoo 7. It's a striking thing and no one else in your street will have one. But should you take a risk with unknown brand? You might be tempted...

Backgroundword count: 153

You may already have lost track of the new Chinese brands entering our market. Here's another, Jaecoo. It's the premium brand of China's biggest car exporter Chery, a conglomerate that sold nearly 1.9 million cars in 2023 alone and has already launched a more mainstream marque - Omoda - into our market. Chery has had a joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover since 2012 and has drawn on that expertise for the first premium model it will sell here - the Jaecoo 7. It's an upper mid-sized SUV running on a stretched version of the chassis of the first Omoda model to launch here, the Omoda 5. But the Jaecoo 7 sells at the kind of money that European premium brands want for smaller posh SUVs like the Audi Q3 and the BMW X1. Sounds quite promising - provided you buy into the 'premium' remit being marketed here. Let's take a closer look.

Driving Experienceword count: 299

The early import Jaecoo 7 we drove had a turbocharged 1.6-litre four cylinder petrol engine driving the front wheels mated to a 7-speed auto gearbox. There's 147PS available with 275Nm of torque, which provides for leisurely acceleration, 62mph reached in around 8 seconds. Jaecoo also offers a 4WD variant with this standard engine. If you're happy with front wheel drive, you'll be offered a 204PS Plug-in Hybrid model with an 18.3kWh battery giving a target EV range of 56 miles. All variants use a dual clutch DCT auto transmission which shifts smoothly and can kick down quickly when rapid acceleration is needed; the engine loses its smooth, refined demeanour when this is called for though. At the wheel, you sit quite high and commandingly - certainly compared with the premium small SUV rivals Jaecoo wants to compete with. Sight lines are great across the flat square bonnet, making narrow lanes or in-town manoeuvring simple. We'd have preferred a little more weight in the steering, but it's accurate and makes the car easy to place through fast bends - where you'll notice a little more body roll than is evident with obvious rivals. The supple ride seems well judged and copes effectively with suburban potholes and speed humps. Light off road work is aided by 200mm of ground clearance and a 600m wading depth. The four-wheel drive version features seven driving modes, including Sand, Mud, Snow and Off-Road settings. The approach and departure angles are rated at 21 and 29 degrees respectively, with a maximum breakover angle of 200mm. A Bosch-developed Integrated Power Brake (IPB) system on four-wheel drive models simulates a differential lock with enhanced and faster locking capability. The system can respond in less than 0.1 seconds, providing the fastest 4WD response times when compared to its peers.

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