Plug-in hybrids have, for some time now, received a bad rap in Australian motoring circles. The world is a little different now, though, and vehicles like the new 2025 Jaecoo J7 PHEV we’re testing here are a lot more likely to appeal to a lot more buyers, because, surprise, surprise, PHEVs are starting to make more sense to more people, especially in a market like Australia. And there’s a good reason for that. Jaecoo is part of the Chery brand, and just about to make what it hopes will be a pretty big splash in our local market. 

I’m writing this having just completed a 1200km drive – with a sealed tank – from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. Well, in truth, we covered just shy of the 1200km mark as we rolled into the airport in Port Elizabeth, but the cars then clocked another 50-odd kilometres back to their base after that, cracking the 1200km mark, still with a little in reserve. 

Why South Africa? In short, like Australia, this incredibly diverse and fascinating country is a key right-hand-drive market for emerging brand Jaecoo, and as such, we completed the drive along with counterparts from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the UK in what became a de-facto, super-long-distance economy drive.

But, here’s the rub. My Aussie co-driver and I didn’t attempt to be efficient at all. Instead, we drove exactly as you would on a regular road trip in this country. That is, at the speed limit, with no attempt to coast or conserve fuel. And yet we still registered low 5L/100km readings on most days, and covered the claimed 1200km easily.

MORE: 2025 Jaecoo J7 PHEV to launch alongside petrol model in Australia

And that’s why the current crop of plug-in hybrids are starting to catch the eye of the Aussie buyer. If you do what most of us do, and commute less than 60km in total each day, you’ll get to and from work on electric power without using fuel.

Plug in to a regular power point at home overnight, and do the same thing five days each week. Then, when you need to go further afield, tax the battery pack, and then access the internal combustion engine, which adds up to a 1200km cruising range. 

A quick note on dimensions – and let us know what you think of the styling in the comments section below, because out on the open road, we reckon the J7 looks pretty stylish. The J7 is around 100mm shorter nose to tail than a RAV4 Hybrid, but otherwise very similar in crucial dimensions. So consider the current crop of medium SUVs when you're assessing where the J7 fits.

The J7 PHEV features Jaecoo’s new Super Hybrid System, which centres around a fifth generation, dedicated four-cylinder, turbocharged engine with a capacity of 1.5 litres. There’s a single, front-mounted electric motor plus a dedicated hybrid transmission. All told, the system generates 255kW and 525Nm.

You have probably read about the regular internal combustion-powered J7, and while it’s a decent offering, the PHEV’s numbers blow it out of the water.

South African specifications show those figures are reached through 105kW/215Nm from the engine and 150kW/310Nm from the electric motor.

Jaecoo claims 90km on battery power, and we got into the low 80km range without being too cheeky in traffic as we left Cape Town on day one of the economy drive. Remember thereafter, there was no plug-in charging done anywhere along the drive. That pure electric range comes by way of an 18.3kWh battery pack, which can accept DC fast charging at up to 40kW from 30 to 80 per cent in just 20 minutes.

Jaecoo claims fuel use as low as 5.2L/100km internationally, and we certainly saw figures that low during regular city driving. Some of our international counterparts, who tried to be as frugal as possible, surpassed the 90km claim.

Once the pack gets down to the 15 per cent mark, the J7 switches over to a conventional hybrid mode, and even at speed on the highway for long stretches, the claimed range was suggesting 1100km was possible. The system likes to keep the battery charged to around the 20 per cent mark in 'self-charging' mode, and in that state both the petrol engine and e-motor constantly discharge and recharge the battery as you drive. 

As you roll along you will hear the petrol engine, but it’s never intrusive, and the J7 is quite an insulated and relaxed cruiser for long-distance driving. There’s little in the way of wind, tyre or other outside noise that interrupts the passengers in the cabin, at any speed, even up to the legal highway speed of 120km/h in South Africa.

The cabin is neatly executed, and looks to have lifted the bar again for Chinese manufacturers in regard to choice of materials, and fit and finish. The heated and cooled front seats were comfortable, even after a 550km day, there’s enough room in the second row for adults, even with tall adults up front, and the luggage space easily accommodates two large suitcases beneath the retractable cover.

This is a flexible and useful family-focused SUV that will offer the kind of cabin comfort buyers in this segment want. 

Of note was the ride quality, which dealt with the mix of road surfaces you’d typically see in Australia with ease. That said, generally speaking anyway, South Africa’s roads were better than our rural roads are in Australia, so we’ll take note of that when we test the J7 PHEV locally.

Interestingly, despite the tyres (on 19-inch rims) possibly even being a little over the placard to generate the best efficiency, the bump absorption and comfort were excellent, and maybe on the firm side of the ledger. Perhaps more like what we’d expect from a European car, but that's something we'll take a closer look at on our road network when it lands locally.

MORE: 2025 Jaecoo J7 family SUV range pricing to start around $35K drive-away

We did notice some torque steer from the front wheels if you nailed the accelerator out of a corner, which is not uncommon for a powerful front-wheel-drive vehicle. We drove in the wet for a fair amount of time, too, which did leave us wondering why Jaecoo wouldn’t offer the J7 in all-wheel-drive guise? 

The J7 PHEV SHS can be driven in four modes: Electric-only, series hybrid where the petrol motor acts as a generator, parallel hybrid allowing the petrol and electric motors to work together, and ‘energy recovery’ to prioritise recharging the vehicle’s battery.

On test, we preferred (with one exception) to leave the system in parallel hybrid mode on the drive, to let the J7 do what it wanted to do to be as efficient as it could be. Once we test the J7 locally, we'll take a closer look at the different modes. The exception was when we first hit the road, and we forced the J7 into pure EV mode to see how far we could travel on battery power alone.

The infotainment and tech were reliable for us on test, too, with Apple CarPlay not quite as snappy as Android Auto. The native systems, as much as we were able to explore them, were responsive and easy to work out. The 14.8-inch screen is a big one, and well positioned below the top section of the dash so that it remained visible even in harsh light.

As we’ve seen with many first-time efforts from challenger brands, some of the electronic driving assistance was a little too enthusiastic We preferred to turn some driver-assist systems off, in order to drive as we would want to on roads that very much resembled rural roads around Australia. 

The only other gripe for us was the steering, which wasn’t as quick to return to centre out of a corner as we would like. We did get used to it, but we’d like to see that sharpened up a little before the J7 PHEV lands in Australia. 

Pricing will be announced for the J7 PHEV closer to its local launch, but if Jaecoo can get the starting price somewhere around the $50,000 mark, this PHEV will be a competitive offering for those of you willing to take the punt on a challenger brand in an ever more challenging market.

MORE: 2025 Jaecoo J7 review – Australian first drive