Juniper
Review of JAECOO J7 PHEV (AWD) & J7 AWD by Dr SP Long
A lot of people are very much into pure ICE SUVs, with a minority going for EV SUVs. Undeniably for their higher ride, access convenience, perceived higher riding comfort, less road trip fatigue and a commanding view above others. Rarely have the motoring public given a second thought for a PHEV, fearing its complexities, reliability and questionable durability in the long run. Also many Continental makes of PHEV SUVs aren’t easily attainable for most, being legacy brands’ offerings in the premium segment.
That is, until our market has been offered an attractive option in the guise of the JAECOO J7 PHEV, at a list price of RM158,800 (before various attractive rebates). To be honest, I am not much of a fan of HEV and now this PHEV, since I am much enamoured with pure electric vehicles (BEV) over the past 2 years.
When Omoda-Jaecoo Malaysia handed me their J7 PHEV, I was clouded with the old impression of a Toyota Prius 1.8 (3rd generation) which I had owned before. I didn’t think much about an engaging drive since I am also not much of an SUV fan, bored from the days of my brief ownership of a Proton X70 1.8 TGDi. There is no cheating physics: that high stance and therefore higher centre of gravity (CoG). Unless it is a super premium SUV with fancy latest gen air suspension, or really stiff electronically adaptive dampers plus anti-roll bars as thick as your forearms. That’s probably another story for another day.
I am not going to dabble in the specifications of this Jaecoo J7 since most will be familiar seeing plenty on the road already. Try counting them like sheep on a farm…J7s are as many if not more than the perennial non-national segment leader, the Honda CR-V? The fact that this J7 PHEV did 1070km as tested (quite heavy footed driving), on a near tankful, estimated 55 litres RON95 burnt is definitely worth a mention though. So is the BEV-like acceleration and almost effortless highway overtaking of cars. Surprising and addictive indeed.
The SONY sound system is commendable, better than most Japanese OE infotainment systems. Its 540 degrees surround camera displays crisp images too, on the huge 14.8 inches portrait layout screen. However, the aircon settings buried under a quickly stowed-away lower taskbar could use a BYD-like always-ON lower display bar. A few physical switches or dials for AC temp, vent settings and fan speed would be much welcomed.
Initial driving impression could be the Achilles heel of both J7 PHEV and J7 AWD (ICE) – its steering has a loose feel of that little free play just off-centre. This is a bit disconcerting, during low speed puttering. I reckon this might be frequently the reason given by many potential buyers, who say that this “China car” feels less solid when compared to a Corolla Cross, the CR-V or that CX-5. A two-or-three traffic lights test drive out of the showroom will not do justice to a potential buyer considering paying a booking fee.
Coincidentally, the newly launched (5th March 2026) JAECOO J5 had none of this loose joystick feedback. It is on the highway that the J7 PHEV shines. Its steering rack tightened up considerably and the chassis felt planted – positive roadholding characteristics afforded by AWD. Almost none of that floaty feeling, which is much typical with most Chinese cars – for now. Testing the regular ICE J7 AWD back-to-back had me missing the additional assistance of that rear axle DC motor capable of shoving that additional 150 kW (204 PS) plus 310 Nm worth of grunt. Interestingly, the PHEV high voltage battery SOC rarely falls below 22% which enabled the J7 PHEV to continue driving with its intended gusto. There was this instance when the LFP battery charge level was 16% after a period of hard driving when I experienced that the 1.5 turbo ICE engine worked really hard to recharge the battery and provided sole duty of propulsion – for some 20 minutes or so, with palpable loss of power and weakened throttle response.
I did a home wall-box AC charging for about 2 hours to top up from 25% to 100% SOC for the 18.3 kWh LFP battery. This enabled a pure electric range of an indicated 92km. In all honesty, I could NOT tell when the DC motor was pushing from the rear axle or when the 1.5 turbo engine had kicked in to assist. Herein lies the big jump in advancement and refinement over the old hybrid system of a 3rd gen Prius. Not a fair comparison I have to agree, but we don’t have the 4th or latest 5th gen Prius to compare in Malaysia. After all, the Prius has always been the benchmark of hybrid drive excellence.
The petrol J7 AWD drove quite well at highway speeds too, Just that little higher NVH due to ICE engine huffing and puffing driving both axles. It also felt somewhat underpowered under full load when climbing up slopes versus the J7 PHEV.
My experience with the Super Hybrid System (SHS) in this J7 PHEV – aka Chery Super Hybrid (CSH) in other Chery cars – has somewhat reset my POV on PHEVs. The beauty of this marriage of twin powertrains is that you get easily 1100+/- kms to a tankful of 60 litres of petrol. This enables you to do interstate crossings with ZERO range anxiety versus a BEV SUV.
Also, petrol stations are everywhere, they don’t go offline for no reason, you don’t need apps to find them, while filling up 55 litres of RON95 will definitely be under 8 minutes or so. Nonetheless there is still that classical ICE engine costlier servicing costs, more frequent service intervals – with higher mechanical wear-and-tear into the later years and after accruing high mileage. More moving parts of an internal combustion engine as they always say.
Hmmm…
