Jaecoo 7 review
The Jaecoo 7 represents a promising start for new brand, and could sell on its looks alone
Is the Jaecoo 7 a good car?
It’s hard not to see the Jaecoo 7 as being inspired by the highly fashionable Range Rover Velar, which has heavily influenced the bullish design that helps the compact SUV make a strong impression. We expect more than a few potential buyers will be attracted to the Jaecoo 7 for its looks, and the amount of standard equipment could seal the deal for some. However, the driving experience isn't as polished as the established rivals that are available for similar money and more practical.
Key specs | |
Fuel type | Petrol and plug-in hybrid |
Body style | Compact SUV |
Powertrain | 1.6-litre, 4cyl petrol, front-wheel drive 1.6-litre, 4cyl petrol, four-wheel drive 1.5-litre, 4cyl petrol plus 1x e-motor and 18.3kWh battery, front-wheel drive |
Safety | Five stars Euro NCAP (2024) |
Warranty | Up to seven years/100,000 miles |
How much does the Jaecoo 7 cost?
Jaecoo is the latest in a wave of new Chinese brands that have made their way to the UK recently. It’s owned by Chery, which most Brits probably think is a knock-off of Apple, but it’s actually China’s biggest car exporter, and has been for the past 20 years or so. In 2024, it sold more than 2.6 million cars, which is more than the BMW Group managed to shift.
Chery also owns Omoda, which you’re more likely to have heard of because the brand launched here last summer, with a philosophy of ‘affordable premium’. Its sole model for the moment is the Omoda 5 and its pure-electric E5 variant, which rival small SUVs such as the Hyundai Kona.
Jaecoo, meanwhile, is pitched as the generally more premium marque. It has a more rugged aesthetic and is attempting to go after the likes of the Audi Q3, BMW X1 and MINI Countryman with its first offering, the Jaecoo 7.
Prices for the Jaecoo 7 start from £29,435 for the entry-level, front-wheel-drive model and can reach up to £35,065 for the range-topping, plug-in hybrid version which is officially called the 7 Super Hybrid System, or SHS for short.
On one hand, the 7’s pricing undercuts the Audi and BMW, which both start from around £36,000, but our current class favourite, the MINI, also starts from £29,000. It must be said, we doubt Jaecoo can steal sales away from those particular brands at this early stage.
Yet perhaps the bigger concern for the 7 is the countless other, more established SUVs available for similar money, from the heavily value-focused MG HS, to the more practical yet still striking Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage.
There are just three models to choose from. The base model features a 1.6-litre petrol engine and seven-speed automatic gearbox, and comes in Deluxe trim that is equipped with a 13.2-inch central touchscreen, 10.25-inch digital driver’s display, a wireless smartphone charger pad, a 540-degree camera system, heated front seats, ambient lighting, a full-length panoramic sunroof and more than 20 advanced driver-assistance systems.
For £32,850, you get the same pure-petrol engine, but with all-wheel drive and Luxury trim, which adds a slightly larger 14.8-inch touchscreen, a head-up display, eight-speaker Sony sound system, ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel, heated rear seats and four-way adjustable driver’s seat, plus other goodies.
The plug-in hybrid 7 SHS is only available in Luxury trim, and swaps in a 1.5-litre petrol engine that works together with an e-motor and an 18.3kWh battery to deliver up to a claimed 403mpg and 56 miles of pure-electric driving.
Engines, performance & drive
Model | Power | 0-62mph | Top speed |
Jaecoo 7 | 145bhp | 10.3 seconds | 112mph |
Jaecoo 7 4x4 | 145bhp | 11.8 seconds | 112mph |
Jaecoo 7 SHS plug-in hybrid | 201bhp | 8.5 seconds | 108mph |
Jaecoo likes to remind potential customers whenever possible that the 7 is available with all-wheel drive, has 200mm of ground clearance and a wading depth of 600mm to go with its hearty 4x4 looks. However, as with a lot of compact SUVs, the most off-roading it’ll probably ever do is traversing through a muddy festival car park.
Underneath, the Jaecoo 7 sits on the same platform as the Omoda 5, and there’s a simple choice of either pure-petrol or plug-in hybrid power. Our first proper test of the car on UK roads was the PHEV version, or the Jaecoo 7 SHS as it’s officially called.
What sets Jaecoo’s ‘Super Hybrid System’ apart from others is it supposedly never lets the battery charge run flat. When it does start running low on juice, the engine will awaken from its slumber to generate more energy. Depending on what the situation calls for, the engine can also work with the e-motor to drive the front wheels, or go it alone.
When we tested the 7 SHS across a mixture of roads, it felt more like we were driving a pure-electric car, because the engine barely made a peep. And when the four-cylinder motor was required to deliver some extra oomph as we were joining the motorway, it didn’t sound too coarse or harsh, in fact it was a rather distant noise.
Buyers are sure to appreciate the tall and very commanding driving position, and with the large squared-off bonnet stretching out in front of you, it all helps create the illusion you’re at the helm of a much larger SUV, say a Range Rover, perhaps.
However, the Jaecoo 7 isn’t as refined as a Range Rover. On the motorway we noticed a lot of wind noise, which isn’t surprising given this car’s large door mirrors. Road noise makes its way into the cabin as well, but the more surprising intrusion are the vibrations that come up through the seat and steering wheel.
The ride in the 7 SHS was also a letdown. It’s not uncomfortable, but the car never settles down even when cruising and is very easily upset by lumps and bumps of ordinary British B-roads.
The ride is smoother and feels more stable in the pure-petrol 7, presumably due to it being lighter. The downside for this version is its 1.6-litre engine sounds stressed whenever you accelerate, while when you put your foot down, there’s some latency before the rev soar and you gradually gain speed.
Twistier routes also expose the 7’s vague steering and it will understeer if you’re not careful through corners. At least the steering is light, which helps in town, as does the jacked-up driving position and large amount of glass which provide a great view ahead.
The rather small rear windscreen doesn’t help, however, and even in the strongest mode, the regenerative braking system doesn’t provide much stopping force.
But the bigger and more surprising issue is a noticeable amount of latency again, this time from the electric motor. It very quickly reminds you this is not an electric car after all. At least we could see this issue being resolved through software updates, hopefully soon.
Hopefully the incredibly annoying driver monitoring system can be improved over the air as well. During our testing, it would bong if we merely glanced at the touchscreen, or sometimes even when we were looking at the road ahead. And if we looked down at the driver’s display to read the ironic warning message for us to pay attention to the road, it would tell us again for being distracted.
MPG, emissions and running costs
Model | MPG | CO2 | Insurance group |
Jaecoo 7 | 37.7mpg | 169g/km | 21 |
Jaecoo 7 4x4 | 35.3mpg | 182g/km | 22 |
Jaecoo 7 SHS plug-in hybrid | Up to 403mpg | 23g/km | 31 |
The simple petrol engine offered in the Jaecoo 7 should be able to average up to 37.7mpg in front-wheel-drive models, or 35.3mpg if you upgrade to all-wheel drive. For context, that’s about the same as the petrol MG HS is capable of on paper, but less than the claimed figures for the equivalent Sportage or Tucson.
Meanwhile, the plug-in hybrid Jaecoo 7 SHS has a 56-mile EV range and can supposedly return up to 403mpg which, as with all PHEV’s outlandish fuel economy figures, should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. That’s because when most PHEVs aren’t charged regularly or the battery runs flat, they then have to use lots of fuel lugging around the heavy, empty battery.
To avoid this, Jaecoo’s SHS system is designed to never let its 18.3kWh battery run flat. Of course, it achieves this by having the engine generate energy, but means you’ve always got juice in the battery for when you can enjoy running in EV mode, such as through town. According to the brand, you should be able to cover 745 miles on a full battery and a single tank of petrol.
However, even if the Jaecoo 7 SHS was as efficient as the brand claimed, you might never realise this because the car only shows how it has performed over the previous 50km (31 miles). At the end of our testing, we indicated 47.9mpg – about the same as we’ve seen for the full-hybrid Tucson and Sportage, which both offer the advantage of not needing to be plugged in.
If you want to make the most of the EV driving capabilities, fully recharging the Jaecoo 7 SHS using a standard home wallbox takes nearly seven hours. It can be plugged into a public DC rapid charger, however, these are much more expensive and with a maximum speed of 40kW, a 30 to 80 per cent top-up still takes 40 minutes.
While certain Chinese cars are proving difficult for owners to insure, Jaecoo and sister brand Omoda have worked with Thatcham Research “to prove the insurability of its new and future models in line with Thatcham Research’s new Vehicle Risk Rating system” to help “give insurance underwriters full confidence in the UK parts aftersales and vehicle repair provisions of its debut models”.
Its work seems to have done the trick, because the pure-petrol Jaecoo 7 sits in insurance groups 21 or 22, which are similar ratings to rivals from Nissan and MG. However, the plug-in hybrid version sits in a much higher group 31 rating.
Design, interior & technology
We think that even from a distance you could tell what car has inspired the design of the Jaecoo 7, to the point that some might think this actually is a new Land Rover product, while others will see this as the return of the Chinese copycat cars. It’s not an isolated case, either, because the Jaecoo 6 currently on sale in Asia is a clear rip-off of the Land Rover Defender.
So we can’t give Jaecoo any points for originality, but we understand why parent company Chery – which actually has a joint venture with JLR in China – would want to draw from the most desirable SUVs money can buy when launching its own “premium off-road” brand.
The Jaecoo 7 is an imposing car in the metal, thanks to its enormous ‘waterfall’ grille, square-jawed front end and classic SUV shape. Certain elements such as the pop-out door handles, gently sloping roofline and full-width rear light bar are there to remind you that this car wants to be seen as a small premium SUV.
As with some of the smaller, trendier Range Rover models, the Jaecoo 7’s interior is fairly minimalist, and features a tall, wide centre console. Even the three-spoke steering wheel design looks suspiciously similar, although the base Deluxe model gets rivets in the door handles – much like those in a Land Rover Defender.
If you stick with the petrol engine, the dashboard features an oversized gear selector that looks like it was plucked from the corpse of a Transformer, a large drive-mode dial and some physical shortcut buttons. The plug-in Jaecoo 7 SHS has a column-mounted gear selector and a row of buttons for the hybrid powertrain on the centre console.
Overall, the interior looks impressive, especially with its huge tablet-style touchscreen and upright dashboard. We like there’s been attention to detail, such as the squidgy material on the dashboard and the abstract pattern on various surfaces. Everything feels screwed together well, however, you don’t have to search very hard to find the hard, cheap-feeling black plastic.
Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment
The Jaecoo 7 features a 13.2-inch or 14.8-inch portrait touchscreen, depending on the exact specification, but both are paired with a 10.25-inch digital driver’s display. The touchscreen is very sharp and responsive, and the digital instrument panel is equally clear. However, the font on the latter is very small and there’s so much information on there that it can be hard to read details with a quick glance.
Thankfully the font and toggles on the touchscreen are much larger, and all the menus are organised much like those on a smartphone. However, there are more than a dozen different settings menus, with each one then including numerous functions, which makes it hard to find things quickly.
Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also standard-fit, and fill the touchscreen entirely. While this looks great when you’re using Google or Apple maps, it cuts off the shortcut buttons and climate controls. They will reappear if you swipe at the screen, otherwise you have to rely on voice commands and hope they work, or leave whatever app you’re in to adjust basic settings, which can be tricky on the go.
Boot space, comfort & practicality
Dimensions | |
Length | 4,500mm |
Width | 1,865mm |
Height | 1,680mm |
Number of seats | 5 |
Boot space | 412-1,335 litres |
The Jaecoo’s boxy shape creates a huge amount of headroom all around, and there’s plenty of legroom for six-feet-tall adults to sit comfortably in the rear. The model we tested also had extra controls for the front passenger seat, so those in the rear could move it forward if someone’s hogging the legroom.
The Jaecoo 7 features two sets of ISOFIX child-seat mounting points in the back, with plastic covers that should make them easy to access. If you’ve got older kids or adults to ferry around, they may be disappointed by the single air vent and two charging points (one USB-A, one USB-C) on offer.
There are some practical touches dotted around, such as the storage space under the centre console, wireless smartphone charging pads on every Jaecoo 7, a big bag/takeaway hook in the passenger’s footwell and a 3.3kW socket in the boot of the plug-in SHS version.
The Jaecoo 7 offers 412 litres of boot space, which swells to 1,335 litres when the rear seats are folded flat. There’s also some space under the boot floor, which is ideal for storing any charging cable in the plug-in hybrid version.
However, those figures simply can’t match any of its key rivals. For instance, the MINI Countryman offers 450 litres of luggage capacity, the BMW X1 boasts 540 litres and up to 657 litres worth of stuff can be crammed into the Audi Q3, depending on how its sliding rear bench is positioned. The Hyundai Tucson also features a 620-litre boot, even though it’s exactly the same length as the Jaecoo 7.
Safety & reliability
Key standard safety features | Euro NCAP safety ratings |
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We’ve been told the Jaecoo 7 has achieved the maximum five-star crash safety rating from industry experts Euro NCAP. However, the organisation’s full report on the car hasn’t been published at the time of writing. We don’t have any reasons to doubt the claimed score, because the Omoda 5 that uses the same platform also boasts a five-star Euro NCAP rating.
Plus, as we mentioned, every Jaecoo 7 is equipped with more than 20 safety and driver-assistance systems as standard. Among these are safe exit warning, autonomous emergency braking, traffic sign recognition, corner speed control assist and adaptive cruise control.
The Jaecoo 7 also comes as standard with a seven-year/100,000-mile warranty, which is exactly the same amount of coverage Kia offers on all its new cars. It also beats the seven-year/80,000-mile warranty you get from MG. The generous warranty should provide Jaecoo’s customers with ease of mind, which is key for a brand that’s only just arrived in the UK and is still establishing itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Jaecoo 7 looks impressive, as does the amount of equipment it provides as standard. But the driving experience lacks the same degree of polish that’s offered by its European and Japanese rivals.