Is the Jaecoo 7 actually any good? Driving the ‘Temu Range Rover’

The Story

Is what is now one of Britain’s best-selling cars actually any good? We got one in to find out.

RRPfrom £29,195Recognisable (if pilfered) design, good PHEV powertrain, relatively intuitive and responsive UISurprisingly poor body control, ride and steering, important controls hidden within a menu-heavy screenIt’s the bane of any road tester’s life at the moment. Tell anyone that you drive cars for a living and it’s only minutes before someone asks ‘what about that Jaecoo 7, then?’. It’s the talk of the country indeed, now being a regular fixture in the UK top 10 best-selling new cars, peaking in March 2026 at the top spot. And superficially, it’s easy to see why. People love the way it looks (it’s not known colloquially as the ‘Temu Range Rover’ for nothing) and it’s competitively priced (though not as 'bargain basement' as you'd expect) too.

You'd be right also in wondering if this isn't a little out of our usual sphere of interest but to that I'd couner, it’s important for us to stay in the loop of what the vast majority of consumers are investing their money in. Plus, some of our favourite performance cars have best-selling bones – Volkswagen’s Golf GTI, Ford’s Fiesta ST. Then there’s the fact that morbid curiosity also prevails as we all find ourselves asking, what’s the catch?. If it looks good, is that much cheaper than rivals and comes from a new, unknown name, where’s the trade-off?. Only one way to find out.

The Jaecoo 7’s powertrain lineup includes a straightforward petrol with a 1.6-litre turbocharged engine and 146bhp, a closed-loop self-charging hybrid, known as Super Hybrid System (SHS-H) with 221bhp and a plug-in hybrid with a 1.5-litre engine and 201bhp. It’s the latter (most popular) SHS-P plug-in model that we’ve been testing.

We’re off to a good start, as this is a genuinely impressive powertrain, offering passable performance, commendable efficiency and clever self-management. Peak power of 201bhp and 229lb ft aren’t show-stopping – 0-62mph takes 8.3sec on the way to a 112mph top speed – but the electrical element and sturdy 18.4kWh battery mean it’s responsive, with a useful EV-style surge available from low speeds. This is a powertrain you have confidence in around town as well as at higher speeds.

Many plug-in hybrids default to chewing their way through their battery reserves irrespective of the type of driving, even at motorway speeds. The plug-in Jaecoo swaps to its combustion engine (often smoothly but not always) at higher speeds, meaning your battery power is kept in reserve for when it can be most efficiently used, in urban and rural lower-speed driving, not to mention in traffic.

It’s also swift to self charge when you give it a target to reach and the electric range itself is decent. All told, with some heavy-footed driving and plenty of self-charging, it still managed to average almost 50mpg overall. With diligent home charging and more considered driving, this would be a very frugal prospect indeed.

You’d be forgiven for expecting impressive things when it comes to ride and handling too. It has a stiff structure, independent multi-link rear suspension and dynamics proudly honed at a German development centre. This, because ‘Jaecoo understands that customers in the UK and Europe are some of the most demanding worldwide when it comes to vehicle dynamics. And that UK roads bring with them a unique set of needs for a vehicle set-up’.

On the contrary, in our experience at least, the driving dynamics bring things crashing right back down to Earth. Nevermind a Porsche Macan, if you’re used to Citroen’s C5 Aircross, the Jaecoo will feel like an old Land Rover Discovery with its body tethered to its ladder chassis via an intricate web of bungie chords.

The latency between you passing through a disturbance in the road and the body actually reacting is palpable. Then it often doesn’t settle after that first undulation, meaning you start to feel like you’re caught in a runaway wave machine when on a continuously undulating road, to the point of making yourself feel slightly carsick. It really could be a masterclass in mass control feedback loops.

The dynamics are by far and away the most glaring way the Jaecoo tells on itself. You do recall while driving it just how far Land Rover have come in terms of their suspension tuning. This is where some of the extra money a Volkswagen Tiguan or Audi Q3 costs goes.

Why It Matters

RRPfrom £29,195Recognisable (if pilfered) design, good PHEV powertrain, relatively intuitive and responsive UISurprisingly poor body control, ride and steering, important controls hidden within a menu-heavy screenIt’s the bane of any road tester’s life at the moment.

CarMotion Daily’s Take

Nevermind a Porsche Macan, if you’re used to Citroen’s C5 Aircross, the Jaecoo will feel like an old Land Rover Discovery with its body tethered to its ladder chassis via an intricate web of bungie chords. Watch this space over the coming weeks.