Bruce Sinclair Local Democracy Reporter A private hire firm has won permission to display small internal plates instead of standard external plates on its newly bought Chinese luxury car. At the October 27 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s licensing sub-committee, members…
Few cars get nicknamed by the tabloids. The Jaecoo 7 earned its tag, the Temu Range Rover, for a good reason: its upright stance, slatted grille, flush door handles and clean slab sides borrow liberally from the vocabulary of Solihull, for a fraction of the price. Laugh if you like, but the formula worked. Within a short time of reaching Britain the Jaecoo 7 was appearing among the country's best-selling new cars in some months, an astonishing result for a brand most buyers had never heard of.
Jaecoo is Chery's off-road-styled label, launched internationally alongside Omoda, and the 7 is its mainstay compact SUV. A turbocharged petrol engine is offered, but the headline act is the plug-in hybrid, sold under Chery's Super Hybrid banner, which pairs a petrol engine with a sizable battery for useful electric-only driving and a long total range between fill-ups. Critics have praised the value, equipment and refinement while pointing to soft handling and an interior that sometimes favors screens over buttons.
Its rivals are the family SUVs that sell in volume everywhere: the Nissan Qashqai, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, Toyota RAV4, MG HS and BYD Seal U. The Jaecoo 7 is sold in Britain, Europe, Australia, South Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, and it shares much of its engineering with Chery's Tiggo models. Its success in the United Kingdom has become shorthand for how quickly Chinese brands are winning over buyers who were once loyal to Japanese and European names.
The open questions are the ones that come with any overnight success. Will the Jaecoo 7 hold its value on the used market once early cars come off finance deals? Will its reliability record match its showroom appeal? And can it keep its place in the charts as rivals cut prices and other Chinese brands arrive with similar recipes? Monthly sales charts, long-term tests, used-car values, recalls and the broader story of Chinese carmakers abroad all shape the coverage of this unlikely British best seller.
The boxy, Range Rover-flavored Chery SUV that stormed Britain's sales charts, with a turbo petrol or a long-legged plug-in hybrid under the hood.
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