In 2025, it’s bloody difficult to make a bad car.
After all, it’s no longer the eighties where playground jokes about Lada and Skoda were the norm (albeit mostly proffered by people who knew nothing of the products being mocked). This isn’t even the new millennium, where new brands such as SsangYong arrived on our shores with – let’s be honest – frankly awful products.
Indeed, it’s now 2025 and a new breed of manufacturers are hitting our shores, many from burgeoning Chinese manufacturers riding a wave of electrification and doing it very well. Add to the mix a rising dissatisfaction with the USA’s weirdo-in-chief, Mr Elon Musk, and there is an ever-increasing number of reasons to look past the crumbling Tesla hegemony.
Within this mass of new arrivals comes a premium small-sized SUV under the Jaecoo brand, itself a sub-brand of the behemoth that is Chery International. If car brands worked solely on economies of scale, then Chery would be known the world over. Stellantis would also be doing a hell of a lot better. For now, however, the model line-up is singular with a second model due for launch later this year. That model? The Jaecoo 7, currently available in two flavours. Your standard vanilla petrol offering, and the clever plug-in hybrid SHS that we were scheduled to drive. It’s a model that would return us to the bustle of London, all the way from Scotland with no need to refuel. Let’s see.
We had a wonderful itinerary set up for us. After a brisk flight to Aberdeen, we were to start in the Fife Arms, a wonderfully eclectic hotel in Braemar. The hotel forecourt gave me my first impression of the car, and in a sea of Mustang Mach-e and Tesla Model 3’s the length and breadth of the country, the Jaecoo 7 SHS cuts a stylish dash – even more so with several lined up alongside one another. A brief sit and play was allowed and I acclimatised myself to a hugely digital cabin experience. A massive touchscreen is the home centre for seemingly every possible action one would make, right down to mirror controls as well as climate and seat controls. While it isn’t what I would call intuitive, nor is it a chore. That is to say, some actions were relatively obvious and well signposted, but the mirror thing I needed to be shown four times. Maybe it’s a generation thing.
Anyway, the car was for the next day. First an evening to relax and enjoy some Scottish hospitality. The hotel treated us to a gracious stay, including a wine tasting in their cave-like cellar room and a sumptuous meal under the light of the most curious of chandeliers. Had the price quoted for the installation been accurate, then I (and perhaps almost every single other living person) am in the wrong business. A nighttime talk – hot chocolate included – on the beauty of the Aurora Borealis, a beauty we were scheduled to gawp over had the inevitable Scottish weather not scuppered our plans and relegated us to the courtyard. Disappointing, yes. Informative? Very much so.
The next morning, once breakfast was taken and the morning coffee essentials attended to, the plan was to drive onwards to our second night’s destination in Lake Windemere, an area of the UK I was unfamiliar with. In fairness, in my 43-odd years there is much of our fair isles I am yet to see, and the beauty of the journey from Braemar to Windermere was not lost on me. A morning coffee stop was then followed by lunch beneath the Forth Railway bridge. Technology was meeting engineering. So how was the journey? Well, the 7 SHS does a good job of ferrying its passengers in comfort and ease. The car itself is slap bang in the middle of what one would expect, and to some degree, what most of us need. It’s relative lightness means an eight-and-a-half second 0-62mph drag, onto a top speed of 112mph (although I doubt that is a speed one would want to do, regardless of our limits, motorway or otherwise). Chassis control isn’t out of this world, the lightness and associated body roll, when pressed, expose the vehicles limitations. However, even running at a good cross county lick, the 7 SHS felt planted and efficient, if not exactly assured.
Overnight was spent at the quiet luxury of Rothay Manor. A little gem in Windemere, I stayed in the semi-new annexe, where I was greeted by a superbly appointed and cavernous room. The highlight of the stay was the meal, which proved solidly that dining so far from the city meant anything but provincial quality.
The 7 SHS was performing well and the next morning, bacon roll in hand, Pete and I headed into the town and out the other side for some filming and reflection. A brief coffee was taken alongside the lake where we discussed the car, chatted to a fellow mini dachshund owner, and gazed in awe as a pair of Typhoons cruised overhead. With a morning haze of sunshine, the 7 SHS looked especially smart. Reminiscent of Velar, squared styling is quite akin to Polestar’s design language. It looks like a cut above. Materials are adequate in the macro sense of car ergonomics and, for sector and price point, they’re probably class-leading. But the key takeaway from the hour lakeside was the sheer number of people asking about the car. Now, with a new brand, public perception and adaptation is a make or break matter. From the general consensus of the lovely people that we came into contact with, the vast majority seemed to be fans.
A good variety of roads on the assigned route meant that we had the opportunity to test the 7 SHS’s performance in an array of settings. Now, it is definitely not a B road smasher. As alluded to earlier, it was fine but not exceptional, with chassis refinement not being so focussed as to allow a real push on. But on motorways and around urban areas, it was as accessible and efficient as any other car on the market. That, I guess, is the point. When all else is equal, how a car feels and what it comes supplied with may well separate one car from t’other in a crowded market. The Jaecoo is efficient, pleasant to be in, and comes loaded with technology – a big tick right there. Various modes for wading, sand, off-road and snow intimate what may be possible, but I hazard to guess it is a small number of buyers who will access that tech. Nice to have though.
The journey back to London, in part due to trying to maintain efficiency as keenly as possible passed without a hitch and with little excitement. But again, that’s the point. It’s kind of like no-frills motoring with lots of frills. Which I kind of like. We returned to Mount Street Restaurant in Mayfair for a well-earned meal and relaxation in the company of some of the brand’s main European executives. What was evident was how keen they were to listen and to see how the European soft luxury segment works and attracts buyers. Given the progress of other new brands such as Dacia, whose starting point was so far behind the Jaecoo as to barely be visible, it is an intriguing proposition as to what the brand may have in store.
For now, the Jaecoo 7 SHS proved an innovative, stylish, efficient, incredibly well-specified but ultimately vanilla car, and that is by no means a bad thing. In a cluttered market, small differences make all the difference, and there is enough to like about the 7 SHS to set it apart from many rivals.
