Jaecoo 8 review

Our opinion on the Jaecoo 8

The Jaecoo 8 is very competitively priced when compared to many other seven-seater plug-in hybrid SUVs, and there’s no obvious signs of cost-cutting on this car’s standard kit list. The Super-Hybrid PHEV powertrain also treads a line between performance and refinement that many established rivals would be envious of.

However, while we refer to this car as being either a six- or seven-seater, Jaecoo’s engineers see it as a ‘4+2’ or ‘5+2’, which is this large SUV’s Achilles heel. The rearmost row in both variants is very difficult to access, and at best is only suitable for occasional use on shorter journeys. Think of the Jaecoo 8 instead as a huge four- or five-seater, with the added benefit of an efficient hybrid system, an upscale-look, and a tempting price.

About the Jaecoo 8

Following on from the huge success of the Jaecoo 7 — a car that’s managed to top the UK’s monthly best-selling car list — the Jaecoo 8 is the largest SUV to come from this fledgling Chinese brand, and acts as the brand’s flagship.

There are two variants available, Executive and Luxury, with the former being fitted with six seats and the latter with seven. It’s the Luxury that Jaecoo believes will make up the bulk of sales, with it being more oriented towards family car buyers. The Executive, meanwhile, is skewed towards posher private hire services and chauffeurs. 

Jaecoo 8 prices and latest deals

The Jaecoo 8’s pricing is fiercely competitive. The seven-seat Luxury model starts from £45,500, undercutting multiple other similarly-sized PHEVs, including the Hyundai Santa Fe (£53,200), Kia Sorento (£48,400) and Mazda CX-80 (£50,100). The posher, six-seater Executive model isn’t too much more expensive, starting from £47,500. 

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Some rivals still manage to undercut the Jaecoo, though, including this car’s Chery Tiggo 9 sibling, which starts from just over £43,000. The Peugeot 5008 PHEV is also available from under £43,500.

If you’re tempted, you can spec your own brand-new Jaecoo 8 with the Auto Express Buy a Car service. We can even help you to sell your car.

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Large SUVs are seldom associated with outright driving pleasure, and the Jaecoo 8 definitely isn’t bucking that trend. However, what it lacks in thrills it makes up for in performance and refinement - qualities that will be more relevant to most large SUV buyers.

Jaecoo has also placed a significant focus on the 8’s off-road ability, and while it doesn’t look quite as rugged as a Land Rover Discovery, it does come with proper off-road features like locking differentials, adaptive terrain-responsive damping and a wading depth of up to 600mm. However, in order to make the most of these features, you’d need a different set of rubber to the Continental EcoContact 7 summer tyres fitted to our test car if you plan on doing any serious off-roading.

Performance, 0-60mph acceleration and top speed

The 1.5-litre petrol engine works with two electric motors to produce a combined 422bhp and 560Nm of torque. A third motor is mounted to the transmission, and this is dedicated to the regenerative braking system. 

These figures are already pretty punchy in isolation, but even more so when you compare the Jaecoo 8 to rivals like the Hyundai Santa Fe PHEV (284bhp and 380Nm) and Peugeot 5008 PHEV (222bhp and 350Nm). Both variants of the Jaecoo 8 sprint from 0 to 62mph in just 5.8 seconds. It’ll then proceed to a 112mph top speed.

The switch between electric and hybrid power is slick, partly thanks to the 1.5-litre petrol engine being so quiet in operation. Even when cutting in under hard acceleration, there was no juddering or vibration through the pedal, nor was there any intrusive growling from under the bonnet.

Despite its considerable bulk and a slightly laggy accelerator response when setting off, the Jaecoo 8 feels genuinely spritely once on the move. In fact, it accelerates like a fully electric car, gaining momentum smoothly yet briskly.

Town driving, visibility and parking

Thanks to its high driving position and very good visibility both forward and to the sides, the big Jaecoo 8 isn’t too intimidating to navigate through narrow city streets. The steering is very light and easy to use, and it has a tight turning circle, making tricky manoeuvres a cinch.

Unfortunately, the 8’s sloping roofline does take its toll on visibility out of the back, but this is mitigated by the brand’s ‘540-degree’ camera. No, Jaecoo’s engineers haven’t skipped their geometry homework; the extra degrees account for this system’s ability to render the area directly underneath the car. A transparent image of the car is shown in the centre of the screen, so you can see any impending obstacles. While this camera’s resolution isn’t as high as you’ll find in a Hyundai Santa Fe, it still makes parking the 8 a lot easier than it otherwise would be. 

Country road driving and handling

The Jaecoo 8 has a kerbweight of over two tonnes, and there’s only so much that engineers can do to defy the laws of physics. There is some inevitable body roll if you take a corner in a particularly spirited fashion, but it’s nothing that we wouldn’t reasonably expect from a car of this size. Drive it sensibly —  as most family SUV buyers will anyway — and it’s simply noticeable rather than disconcerting. 

Another thing that eliminates any chance of having fun is the Jaecoo 8’s steering. The trade-off for that lightness around town we mentioned is vagueness at higher speeds.

Motorway driving and long-distance comfort

While powertrain and wind noise are kept well in check on the motorway, tyre roar does become quite noticeable. We wouldn’t describe this as intolerable, but the noise level is a shame when everything else is so quiet.

Another upside of the Jaecoo 8’s EV-like acceleration is that there’s still a healthy punch of power available for overtaking at motorway speeds. Our test car’s ride did become a little fidgety over more uneven patches of tarmac, but for the most part, this SUV is a pretty calm cruiser.

“The Jaecoo 8’s acceleration really took me by surprise. If anything, I think the official 0-62mph time is a little bit modest.” - Shane Wilkinson, senior content editor.

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The Jaecoo 8 is a plug-in ‘Super-Hybrid’ (also known as SHS-P), and a WLTP combined efficiency figure of 57.6mpg is certainly appealing for a car of this size. 

Oddly, the driver’s display only shows the car’s live economy over the last 31 miles covered in hybrid mode, and this revealed an average of 43.5mpg after the mixture of in-town, B-road and dual carriageway driving we did on our test. However, when driving at slower speeds, the powertrain is very eager to cut out the engine entirely and run on electric power alone.

One of the Jaecoo 8’s closest seven-seater relations, the Chery Tiggo 9, also has this same ‘last 31 miles’ display, but this car stayed firmly north of the 50mpg mark during our testing, even with very low battery charge, suggesting it should be slightly more efficient during real-world use.

Electric range, battery life and charge time

The Jaecoo 8’s 34.5kWh battery carries a claimed pure-electric range of 83 miles, which is leagues ahead of the plug-in Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe’s official maximum range of 34 miles. In fact, not even the Peugeot 5008 can come close at only 48 miles. 

One seven-seater SUV that does manage to outshine the 8’s official battery range is very close to home. The Chery Tiggo 9 is built by Jaecoo’s parent company, and it manages a claimed 91 miles from its 34kWh pack. 

When it’s time to top up, the Jaecoo 8 can handle rapid charging at up to 70kW. This is pretty impressive, because many PHEVs aren’t capable of taking a DC charge at all. Jaecoo claims that a 30 to 80 per cent top up will take around 20 minutes. For those using a typical 7.4kW home wallbox charger, a full charge will take around four and a half hours.

Insurance groups

The Jaecoo 8 is yet to have its insurance groups allocated, but if the Chery Tiggo 9 is anything to go by, it’ll sit around group 44. If this is the case, it’ll be much pricier to cover than the Kia Sorento PHEV (group 31) and Hyundai Santa Fe PHEV (group 36).

Tax

While it does undercut much of the competition, the Jaecoo 8 still falls foul of the £40,000 luxury car tax threshold for combustion cars. This, on top of the standard VED road tax rate, results in an annual bill of £640 between the second and sixth year after the car’s initial registration.

Company car drivers will see some Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) relief due to the 8 being a PHEV, but for the very lowest rates, an electric SUV will be the best option. Jaecoo is yet to offer an electric car in the UK, so you’ll need to look a bit further afield for a zero-emission seven-seater option, such as the Hyundai Ioniq 9, Kia EV9, Mercedes EQB, Peugeot E-5008 and Volvo EX90. 

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Just like the Jaecoo 7, there’s a certain familiarity about the Jaecoo 8’s looks, but it’s a pretty likeable one. This time, the design is more curvaceous rather than blocky, and we dare say it’s a bit less distinctive as a result.

Jaecoo has upmarket ambitions with the Jaecoo 8, something which is unashamedly indicated by the trim level names: Executive and Luxury. 

The Luxury is the seven-seater model, and it comes with slightly less kit than the six-seater Executive. That being said, the 8 Luxury is hardly stingy because it’s fitted with: 

• LED headlights
• Heated and ventilated front- and mid-row seats
• A 14-speaker Sony audio system
• A panoramic sunroof

For those who don’t mind foregoing a seventh seat, the Executive adds some extra premium touches like reclining and massaging mid-row seats, suede detailing, leather upholstery, and electronically-operated door releases all around.

Interior and dashboard design

In keeping with the Jaecoo 8’s more luxurious ambitions, the cabin is a bit fancier than you’ll find in the more mainstream Jaecoo 7. In fact, there’s a slight aura of Mercedes about it with three central air vents on the dashboard and door-mounted electronic seat adjustment controls.

A pair of 12.3-inch screens dominate the dashboard, but there are very few buttons and switches to be found within this car. What few physical controls there are include a large rotary controller that switches between drive modes, a volume adjuster, and a small array of buttons to switch between powertrain modes and activate front or rear demisting. 

Materials and build quality

One thing we’re particularly pleased to report is that Jaecoo has snubbed the all-too-common theme of applying copious amounts of piano black plastics that are hideously easy to scratch and smudge. Instead, there’s a reasonable number of soft-touch materials and smart-looking plastics that give the 8 a pretty upmarket feel. 

However, some of the surfaces behind these visually appealing materials did feel a bit hollow to the touch, one indicator of how Jaecoo has managed to make this car so cheap. The 8 still feels reasonably well put together, but the cabin isn’t quite as sturdy as you’ll find in a Hyundai Santa Fe. 

Infotainment, sat-nav and stereo

Due to the lack of buttons, there’s a big focus placed on the central infotainment screen. The Jaecoo 8’s software is pretty responsive and looks fine, but we did experience some frustrations when navigating it.

The most direct way to access frequently used functions like the climate control is to swipe upward from the bottom of the screen. We found that this often took more than one attempt, ultimately requiring attention to be diverted from the road ahead. This is never ideal, but it’s made even worse by the driver attention warning being all too keen to tell you off for doing it. The only way around this is to use voice-activation tech, which is the safer option. However, it’d be far better if this were a choice as opposed to a necessity.

Aside from this frequent scolding, Jaecoo’s active safety systems, such as the speed limit warning, are far less incessant than we’ve experienced in some other Chinese cars. The bongs and chimes are still there – the cause of some wasn’t always clear during testing – but they’re present rather than annoying.

“Jaecoo has thrown in plenty of luxurious touches with the 8, but the constant need to delve into sub-menus ruins the relaxation.” - Shane Wilkinson, senior content editor.

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The Jaecoo 8 is a mixed bag in terms of practicality. On the one hand, there’s a good amount of passenger space on offer if you’re using it as a four- or five-seater. However, unfolding the rear row quickly throws a spanner in the works as it’s all too obvious that these seats are only intended for occasional use.

Dimensions and size

The Jaecoo 8 is the brand’s biggest car, but it’s ever so slightly shorter than the behemoth that is the Hyundai Santa Fe. That said, the 8 is wider than its Korean counterpart and has a slightly longer wheelbase.

Seats & passenger space

Those in the front of the Jaecoo 8 can get perfectly comfortable, with all variants coming with electrically adjustable seats as standard. The driving position is commanding, which is good for a large SUV.

There’s also plenty of leg and foot space in the middle row, regardless of whether you go for the six- or seven-seat versions. Headroom here is pretty good, too, although the enormous panoramic roof does take up a little space and could be restrictive for those over six feet tall.

Head towards the rear, and you’ll either see six seats within the Executive model or seven seats within the Luxury model. While both of these will initially sound appealing to larger families, Jaecoo refers to its configurations as 4+2 and 5+2 instead. This ‘+’ naming approach is also found in the Land Rover Discovery Sport, and translates as ‘don’t expect much space in the third-row seats’. This is a shame because the Jaecoo 8 is a pretty roomy car in both the front and middle rows.

The six-seater requires rear occupants to squeeze through a tight gap between the mid-row seats in order to access the third-row, and adults will have to contort themselves whenever they’re entering and exiting the vehicle. The mid-row seats do slide forward to provide the third row with a little more leg room, but those relegated to the rearmost positions will find the accommodations cramped. 

The situation doesn’t improve in the seven-seater model because the mid-row seats don’t slide far enough forward to create a usable gap to access the third row. Instead, rear passengers are required to climb over the folded second row seats, which proved exceptionally difficult for our adult-sized road tester. Once they are eventually situated, passengers will find very little room back there.

This lack of easy access is an obstacle that you simply won’t find in a number of the Jaecoo 8’s rivals, like the Hyundai Santa Fe. In fact, it’s not even an issue that you’ll find in the closely related Chery Tiggo 9. If you want a fully-fledged seven-seater, we’d point you towards that car instead. However, fold away the Jaecoo’s tricky rear seats, and you’ll be left with a reasonably spacious five-seater with plenty of luggage space.

Boot space

With all three rows of seats in place, both the Jaecoo 8 Executive and Luxury offer 110 litres of boot space, which is less than the plug-in Santa Fe and Sorento’s 179 litres. However, fold the rear row away, and this rises to a highly competitive 738 litres, which is over 100 litres more than you’ll find in the Korean cars. 

If you need even more room to work with, the middle seats can also be folded down to open up a cavernous 2,021 litres. Again, this is more than you’ll find in the Santa Fe (1,949 litres) and Sorento (1,988 litres). 

Towing

The Jaecoo 8 is capable of towing a braked trailer or caravan of up to 1,600kg. This makes it a far stronger load lugger than the Hyundai Santa Fe, which can only take on up to 1,110kg. However, if you’re not too bothered about the PHEV aspect, the diesel-powered Skoda Kodiaq can handle up to 2,300kg.

“With so much room to work with, I have to wonder why the Jaecoo 8 doesn’t offer the same amount of space inside for passengers as its cheaper Chery Tiggo 9 sibling.” - Shane Wilkinson, senior content editor.

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Following on from the Jaecoo 7’s five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, the more upmarket Jaecoo 8 is adorned with plenty of standard advanced safety and assistance features. This car is yet to receive its own score, though.

The list of standard kit includes cruise assist, brake assist, blind spot assist, lane-keeping assist, parking assist, rear cross-traffic alert, a driver monitoring system and a 540-degree camera.

Despite its increasing popularity, this brand is still in its relative infancy here in the UK, so we’re yet to see any Driver Power data to reflect its customers’ satisfaction. 

• Best buy: Jaecoo 8 Luxury

The Jaecoo 8 Luxury comes with a lower price, an extra seat and an increased focus on family-friendliness. While the Executive is technically more luxurious than the Luxury (yes, this confused us a bit, too), the difference between the two is small, because both come with a long list of standard features. 

Jaecoo 8 alternatives

For those in need of a fully fledged seven-seater car, the Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento and Nissan X-Trail are three of the Jaecoo 8’s closest competitors, but it’s worth noting that they’re all more expensive to buy. The Peugeot 5008 is one of the few alternatives that manages to sneak below the Jaecoo’s starting price, although it won’t come with as much kit.

There are also two appealingly-priced alternatives that are very closely related to the Jaecoo 8: the Chery Tiggo 8 and Chery Tiggo 9. Both of these cars are also plug-in hybrids, but this time they’re a little bit more geared towards practicality rather than plushness.

Alternatively, if you’re considering making the leap to a fully electric car, the Hyundai Ioniq 9, Kia EV9, Mercedes EQB, Peugeot E-5008, and Volvo EX90 are all seven-seaters that are worth a look.