Jaecoo 7 SHS: Can you really get a luxury SUV for £35,000?

The Jaecoo 7 SHS doesn’t look like a £35,000 car. It has a large, expensive looking ‘waterfall’ grille, a sloping roof line and a muscular side profile. Its letters are spaced out elegantly across its boot in the vein of classic American automobiles of the mid-century, and its alloys are large and shiny, the kind you don’t want to curb.

Walk past a 7, glance inside and you’ll notice the large central, tablet-like screen that dominates the interior. It is the kind of tablet that you’ll find in a new Range Rover. Sit behind the wheel and you’ll notice the secondary driver-focussed screen, the minimalist dashboard and soft, synthetic leather seats.

£35k is not an insignificant sum of money. It is a respectable house deposit, and £10k more than the average cost of a wedding in the UK. You can buy a good, second hand Porsche 911 with it. But when it comes to new vehicles, these days that figure will afford you a hatchback or small family car.

Cars like the Jaecoo 7 — a mid-size plug-in hybrid SUV — tend to be much more than that. A Kia Sportage ‘GT-Line’ PHEV starts at £40,575. At the top end of the class, a Range Rover Velar P400e PHEV can be had from £65,335. Jaecoo is aiming to undercut its competitors while offering, on paper at least, comparable specs.

Even if you have no interest in motoring, you will have noticed an influx of Chinese cars on forecourts in recent years. There is BYD, the now SAIC Motor-owned MG, Skywell, Xpeng, GYM Ora, and soon to be many more. Jaecoo, and its partner brand Omoda are the latest. They’re owned by Chery International, one of China’s biggest carmakers and exporters, which already boasts over a million sales globally and two million domestically. In August 2024, Chery made its Fortune Global 500 debut with a revenue of $39.1 billion. Put simply, they have money. Lots of it.

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Properly cracking the European market is the next step, and the Jaecoo 7 is one of the cars it envisions will do best. Being an SUV, and in this case powered by hybrid technology, it’s a recipe that it knows works.

So what does it offer? While also available in a 1.6-litre petrol only variant, the 7 also comes in SHS (Super Hybrid System) form, which pairs a 1.5-litre TDGI engine with a 18.3kWh lithium-iron battery pack. On its own the batteries can drive it for up to 56 miles. With the diesel engine running, it self-charges, topping itself up as you go along.

As a plug-in hybrid, it can be charged externally at up to 40 kW, going from 30%-80% in 20 minutes. Combined range is seriously impressive, with up to 745 miles claimed. Power meanwhile is more modest at 201bhp and 310 Nm torque, which is enough for a 0-62mph time of 8.5 seconds and top speed of 108 mph. This isn’t a car that’s been designed for overtly spirited driving. Instead, it’s a comfortable cruiser that will make light work of both shorter journeys through town and long, cross-country jaunts.

It is remarkably well-kitted-out, especially for its price point. Its interior is a pleasant place to be, and it has everything one would expect of a modern, tech’ed-up family car. Heated seats come as standard, while a huge panoramic roof offers plenty of light for rear passengers. There is also that huge 14.8 inch touchscreen, which dominates the interior experience. It is likely what many people want, and is what they might have come to expect considering the offerings from many other new car launches.

Whether it works for you or not probably depends on what you want from a car. It is no doubt handy for navigation, and when linked up with Apple Car Play or Android Auto makes Google Maps a joy to use. But it is also frustrating. Anything you want to change must be done so through it. Simple things like climate control and even adjusting the wing mirrors requires multiple touches. This isn’t such a big issue when stationary, but it is unhelpful when on the move.

The 7 is equipped with 16 Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) technologies. These include collision warnings, cyclist warnings (handy for city drivers), and of course speed warnings and lane assistance. As is the case with all new cars, legislation dictates these must be reset every time you turn it on. To stop the warning sounds in the 7 you must swipe the touchscreen and turn them off individually every time. The lack of physical buttons is a downside, but the 7’s interior is an otherwise spacious, comfortable place to spend time in, if a little plasticky.

To test the 7 SHS I drove it on a six hour route from the Fife Arms in Braemar, down to Rothay Manor in the Lake District. This took in the winding twists of the Old Military Road (A93) through the Cairngorms, as well as extended stretches of motorway and small villages.

Technical roads don’t come naturally to the 7, but it’s not a car about lap times or fast point-to-point driving, so that doesn’t really matter. Its suspension is bumpy at low speeds and its steering doesn’t offer a great deal of feedback, but this isn’t a car you buy for tackling the cosy lanes.

Instead, where it impressed was its long-range comfort and the ease of which you can drive it. On motorways the ride softens up and it can cruise at speed effortlessly and quietly. Essentially, it is a big go-kart, with heated seats, enough power, good visibility and plenty of tech. As far as £35k SUVs go, that is more than you can ask for.