Chery has added a new seven-seat plug-in hybrid SUV to its UK range, touting performance and range figures that outpace most rivals.
The Chinese brand came to the UK earlier this year with a pair of mid-sized SUVs, the Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8, after sibling brands Omoda and Jaecoo had rapidly built up a sizeable market share.
Priced from £43,105, the Tiggo 9 undercuts the PHEV versions of the similarly sized Volkswagen Tayron and Kia Sorento to become one of the UK's cheapest seven-seat PHEVs - although the slightly smaller Tiggo 8 is cheaper still.
Closely related to the inbound Jaecoo 8, the Tiggo 9 uses an evolution of Chery's Super Hybrid drivetrain, which combines a 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine with a pair of electric motors and a starter-generator in the gearbox.
It's much more powerful than the brand's smaller SUVs, producing a combined 422bhp and 428b ft of torque to give a 0-62mph time of just 5.4sec - significantly quicker than its closest rivals.
With a 34.5kWh battery under the floor, it's good for 91 miles of electric-only running on the WLTP cycle - eclipsing the Volkswagen Golf eHybrid to offer the longest EV range of any PHEV on sale.
Plus, with a maximum DC charging speed of 71kW, it can top up almost as quick as some fully electric cars: a 30-80% refill can take just 18 minutes.
Chery will sell the Tiggo 9 here in just one highly specified trim level: Summit. It comes with heated and ventilated seats front and rear (with massage function up front), dual-zone climate control, ambient lighting, a wireless phone charger, 20in alloy wheels and a 14-speaker Sony sound system.
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As electric motors and batteries are cheap in China, it may seem impressive, but a journlaist friend described the engine as 'a bag of nails'... and the handling was 'all over the place'. As China doesn't seem to know that the UK is in Europe, this csar does not seem to have been engineered for anywhere in Europe. Not worth the money new and probably worth half the money in 12 months' time!
What an utterly awful, bland looking 'thing'. The thought of driving around in this 'blob' is enough to make my blood curdle. Add in the fact it's Chinese and you have something to avoid at all costs, and just what is the point of putting 400hp in what's meant to be a family car? Utterly unbelievable. At this rate, we'll all be driving around in bland Chinese blobs full of pointless gimmicks and no safety rating with 1000hp!
am i the only one who noticed it says "luxury technology" around the wheel centersdude come on