Chery Tiggo 7 review

Chinese brand comes to the UK with a cut-price family SUV to rival the Ford Kuga

Chery is yet another new brand to the UK, arriving from China with two SUVs: this Chery Tiggo 7 and the seven-seat Chery Tiggo 8.

While the Chery brand is new, Chery the company actually already has a significant presence here, through Jaecoo and Omoda.

These sibling brands hsave been on the market for only a year, yet their respective 7 and 5 mid-sized SUVs have already grabbed them a combined share of 1.5%.

In a market infamous for brand snobbery and suspicion of the unfamiliar, this is unprecedented and astonishing.

The Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 are closely related to the aforementioned 7 and 5 – same platform, same powertrains, same interior technology – and have similarly head-turning pricing. So, just more of the same?

Not quite, because a separate dealership network is being built and each brand has a distinct positioning: Chery is the most affordable and meant to make families happy (the name derives from the word 'cheery'), while Jaecoo seeks off-roady adventure and Omoda is all about fashion.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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At 4.55m long, the Tiggo 7 is comparable with the Ford Kuga, Vauxhall Grandland and Volkswagen Tiguan, except many thousands of pounds cheaper: £24,955 as a petrol or £29,995 as a plug-in hybrid. And that’s with all the standard kit you would expect and some you might not.

The Tiggo 7's exterior design is generic in a similar way to how its Jaecoo and Omoda siblings are, as if someone had fed every brand's recent designs into ChatGPT and asked for a new SUV. It's fine. 

Almost every brand is just spelling out its name on the back of its cars nowadays, which generally I dislike, but it makes sense here.
Kris Culmer
Chief sub-editor

There are no obvious differences visually between the petrol and PHEV models except for the badging on the back and the second flap.

INTERIOR

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Both the petrol and the PHEV have virtually the same interior, too.

Up front is a comfortably padded and electrically adjustable driving seat, a 12.3in digital instrument display and a 12.3in infotainment touchscreen, both of high definition.

What was that mysterious ticking noise? It came from somewhere above my right knee for extended periods in both versions of the Tiggo 7 – loud, regular, spaced out. No clue.
Kris Culmer
Chief sub-editor

Familiar from the Jaecoo 7, the touchscreen has seemingly endless functions – including Android Auto and Apple CarPlay – but not the most intuitive user experience at first. There are lots of menus and submenus for various functions, including driving settings.

Soft-touch materials abound – there are no conspicuous hard scratchy plastics – while the curved fascia has a smooth, carbonfibre-mimicking finish.

Commendably, there is a number of physical controls on the steering wheel and even some touch-sensitive icons for the climate control on the dashboard, plus a couple more by your right hand to change the screen brightness and the volume of the ADAS bongs (which, trust me, will definitely want to use every time you drive – whether because the cameras have missed a change of speed limit or they believe that you wearing sunglasses constitutes 'being distracted for a long time').

Accommodation in the back is impressive in terms of both head and leg room, so taller adults should be fine, and there are no complaints about the boot capacity, which includes underfloor cable storage in the PHEV.

Stepping up from Aspire trim to Summit trim adds heating and ventilation for the front seats, electric adjustment for the front passenger, a Sony eight-speaker stereo and an opening sunroof.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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The petrol model uses the same 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine as the Jaecoo 7. It gives perfectly acceptable country-road performance, thanks to 145bhp.

It's not the nicest-sounding engine in the world but keeps pleasantly quiet at a steady cruise.

Neither the petrol nor the PHEV is especially to drive smoothly. The latter has noticeably stronger-feeling brakes, thanks to motor regeneration.
Kris Culmer
Chief sub-editor

It is however let down by its dual-clutch automatic gearbox, which makes for surging rather than smooth acceleration when you need to boot it.

The PHEV combines a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with a 201bhp electric motor, fed by an 18.4kWh battery, and it’s the latter that does most of the work (or indeed all of the work if you press the ‘EV’ button on the transmission tunnel).

It usually behaves more like a series hybrid than a parallel one, as if it were an EV, with the combustion engine remaining disconnected from the wheels, just running at a constant rev rate to generate energy when needed (which was not often in our experience).

You will definitely notice the greater overall output and instant torque response: this is pretty bloody quick for a budget family SUV (just under nine seconds from 0-62mph). Quiet too, unless asked to sprint uphill. 

RIDE & HANDLING

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The petrol car's ride is agreeably smooth on better roads, being neither too firm nor too soft (there are SUVs guilty of both crimes) so neither jiggling nor wallowing.

However, it struggles to keep calm over road scars, slamming through the worst potholes.

Want to get your kicks in an SUV? Move on, nothing to see here.
Kris Culmer
Chief sub-editor

This quality is more notable than the chassis’ athleticism, or rather the lack thereof: this is a car set up for ease, not excitement (to its credit, it will push into safe oversteer if you take liberties through corners).

There is one major flaw, however: the lifeless steering, which has you perpetually second-guessing how much lock will be needed.

The dynamic repertoire of the PHEV is much the same, except the steering is poor in a somewhat different way, feeling lighter and springier.

The ride is still decent and the handling is still unremarkable, the extra weight of the dual power sources seemingly not mattering.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Efficiency isn’t the best in the petrol model either: officially it’s 40.3mpg, but our test car recorded 36.7mpg at an average of 34mph.

Meanwhile, the PHEV has a mad official MPG figure of 256.8mpg, because it has a long electric-only range of 56 miles – and consequently very low company car tax.

It wasn't so long ago that even the most expensive PHEVs could barely do 20 miles as an EV. That a £30k one now offers 56 miles is amazing.
Kris Culmer
Chief sub-editor

That compares with 40 miles for the cheapest Kuga PHEV, which, while better to drive, costs a staggering £10k more. The Tiguan PHEV does 77 miles but is another £3000 pricier again.

It can charge fairly quickly too: replenishing it from 30-80% takes just 20 minutes, according to Chery.

On our test drive, the battery's charge depleted to the point that the car recommended that it be switched into a 'smart power-saving mode', accepted by way of okaying a touchscreen pop-up. 

You can also change these modes – and indeed the strength of the regenerative braking – whenever you want after finding the appropriate touchscreen menu.

VERDICT

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In short, neither flavour of either Tiggo 7 model is even a herby chicken breast, let alone a peri-peri wing. For something that can light up your tastebuds, you will have to pay a lot more elsewhere.

However, as we’re already seeing with Jaecoo and Omoda, there’s a great many people out there who will gladly grab the reduced-to-clear unseasoned drumsticks.

At launch, dealer group Arnold Clark is offering the petrol for £315 per month on finance after a deposit of only £315. Add £60 to each of those figures for its PHEV deal.
Kris Culmer
Chief sub-editor

Not at all one to interest enthusiasts but certainly one for those who just need a car.