Jaecoo 8 Review & Prices

Jaecoo has taken the UK market by storm, offering high-tech, good-looking cars for not much money. The new Jaecoo 8 is the pinnacle of this Chinese car manufacturer’s model line-up, sitting above the Jaecoo 5 and the Jaecoo 7. It’s a huge SUV with a classy interior, powerful plug-in hybrid engine and loads of standard equipment - but it’s not as practical as you’d hope, limiting its utility as a family car.

The Jaecoo 8 is closely related to the Chery Tiggo 9 and Omoda 9, the flagship cars of other brands under the Chery umbrella. Choosing between them is like picking between tacos, fajitas and burritos at a Mexican restaurant - you’re getting largely the same stuff inside, but the wrapping is different.

As a big PHEV SUV, the Jaecoo 8 also has a raft of alternatives you could consider, such as the Volkswagen Tayron, Skoda Kodiaq, Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento and Peugeot 5008. But as is usually the case with Chinese brands, the Jaecoo 8 undercuts the equivalent versions of these cars by several thousand pounds. Is it a cost-saving you’ll notice, though?

It certainly doesn’t look like a budget car from the outside. The Jaecoo grille with its vertical bars dominates the front end, though the rest of the car is a bit slinkier than the characteristic boxy shape of the Jaecoo 5 and Jaecoo 7. It’s more generic than those cars, but at least you can’t accuse it of taking too much inspiration from Land Rover.

Step inside and you’ll find the nicest interior of any Jaecoo yet - by a long stretch. There are shades of the Mercedes GLE with the squared-off air vents, twin screens, door-mounted seat controls and centre console, but that’s not really a bad thing. It’s handsome, though a lack of physical buttons means you have to control everything through the - rather awkward - touchscreen interface, or voice commands.

Material quality is decent though there were a couple of areas of suspect build quality on the cars we tested, including the driver monitoring system being at a distinctly wonky angle. Standard equipment is really generous, though, so you get a lot for your money.

Further back you’ll find a choice of two layouts. The regular ‘Luxury’ model is a seven-seater with a three-person rear bench and two more seats in the rear. Or, for an extra £2,000, you can get the ‘Executive’ - which swaps the bench for two captain’s chairs with heating, ventilation and massaging.

It’s an attractive-looking package but not quite as practical as it appears on paper. In practice, the third row seats are really only for very occasional use by children or very small adults. Access is also pretty difficult, especially in the Executive where the seats don’t move out of the way - you have to thread yourself through the middle.

Fold the third row away and the Jaecoo 8 makes more sense as a four-or-five-seater with a massive 738-litre boot. It’s a pity, though, that the second row isn’t particularly cavernous either. A six-foot adult can sit behind a driver of the same size, but they won’t have loads of room to stretch out. You get much more space in a Hyundai Santa Fe, and even Chery’s own Tiggo 9 is a bit roomier in both rear rows.

The Jaecoo 8 comes with just one drivetrain - a plug-in hybrid system pairing a 1.5-litre petrol engine to a big battery pack and powerful electric motors. It has all-wheel drive and an impressive 83 miles of EV range, and it generally operates really smoothly with lots of power in reserve.

Combined with the comfortable suspension the Jaecoo 8 is fantastic for long motorway journeys. It’s also the nicest Jaecoo yet to drive - though it’s not as composed in the corners as a Volkswagen Tayron or Peugeot 5008, it’s generally okay. And it’ll outsprint any of them at the traffic lights…

Verdict

It’s a pity that the Jaecoo 8 isn’t a bit more practical in the rear seats, as it could have been a fantastic choice for family buyers who want something that looks stylish, comes loaded with equipment and doesn’t cost a fortune to buy or run. It’s still a good option, though, and it’s the pick of the three if you’re choosing between the Jaecoo, the Omoda 9 and Chery Tiggo 9.

Compared with European, Japanese or Korean SUVs of a similar price, the Jaecoo 8 is very strong value. It's one of the best Chinese cars yet and if you're in the market for a Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe or Peugeot 5008 you'd be daft not to at least take the Jaecoo 8 for a test-drive.

Check out our best Jaecoo 8 deals here, or get a great price when leasing a Jaecoo 8. You can see our other Jaecoo deals, or browse used Jaecoo models for sale. And remember that when the time comes to sell your old car, you can do that right here on Carwow too.

The Jaecoo 8 starts at £45,500, making it more expensive than the Chery Tiggo 9 or the Omoda 9. That’s about the same price as a Volkswagen Tayron eHybrid in the fairly Spartan ‘Match’ trim, or a Peugeot 5008 plug-in hybrid in mid-spec Allure Premium guise - neither of which come anywhere close to the Jaecoo in terms of power or standard kit. A comparable Hyundai Santa Fe is well over £50,000.

Both versions of the Jaecoo 8 come with 20-inch alloy wheels, full LED lights all round, powered front seats, heating and ventilation for the front and middle rows of seats, a 14-speaker Sony sound system, a wireless charging pad and surround-view camera.

The Executive model costs £2,000 extra, and gets the twin captain’s chairs in the middle row with heating, ventilation and massage functions. There’s also an artificial suede headliner. Both versions get artificial leather upholstery, but the Executive gets a slightly nicer grade of it, plus the option to upgrade to an eye-catching ‘Cognac’ trim finish.

Comfortable on the motorway and quite agile around town, but the Jaecoo 8 is outshone by alternatives on a country road

In town

Despite its huge size, the Jaecoo 8 isn’t too intimidating to drive around town. Visibility out of the front is quite good, and the front seat can be jacked up quite high for a commanding view out. The side windows are large too, even if the sloping roofline means a narrow rear windscreen.

The standard-fit surround-view cameras certainly help with parking, as do the large door mirrors. Tight turns and parking are easy thanks to the light steering, and the instant response of the electric motors means you can get up to speed smoothly and quickly. The suspension is quite soft, so it copes well with big movements like speed bumps, but lots of smaller imperfections can judder through the cabin.

On the motorway

The Jaecoo 8 has bags of power - more than 400hp, which is way more than a Hyundai Santa Fe, Mazda CX-80, or even the sportiest version of the Volkswagen Tayron eHybrid. That means that its bulk moves very smartly up to speed and you’ll have zero issues on short sliproads or making decisive overtakes. The powertrain favours the electric motors, but even when the petrol engine cuts in it’s not too obtrusive.

Road noise is also well contained but this highlights a bit of wind noise at speed. It’s far from terrible, but it makes the Jaecoo 8 just a little bit less refined than a Hyundai Santa Fe.

On a twisty road

Jaecoo has fitted the 8 with a degree of off-road tech including locking differentials, hill descent control and the ability to wade up to 600mm of water - that’s a lot more than the alternatives (Land Rover products aside). The ground clearance is still too low to do any proper mud-plugging, but it’s reassuring to know that if your idea of a twisty road is one that’s less tarmac than it is dirt track you should be capable of proceeding quite easily.

On a winding B-road, it’s not as impressive. It feels more tied-down and less wobbly than the Omoda 9 or Chery Tiggo 9, but the Jaecoo 8 is still rather wayward in the corners compared to a Hyundai Santa Fe or VW Tayron. The body leans a bit more and the steering is too light to communicate what the front wheels are doing.

There's adaptive suspension that stiffens up when you're in sport mode or when the car's being driven hard, but even that doesn't make too much difference to the body control. It’s fine at sensible speeds, but don’t expect to use that full 428hp very often.

Comfy front seats and lots of storage space, but the rear of the Jaecoo 8 isn’t as spacious as it should be for a proper family car

The Jaecoo 8’s front seats are big and pretty comfortable, with more bolstering than we’re used to so you don’t fly out of your seat at every corner. Better yet, it’s one of the only Chinese cars to get adjustable lumbar support - something you don’t realise you miss until you get into the car with an achy back and can’t do anything about it.

Storage up front is quite good. There are a pair of pads for your mobile phone, though only one has wireless charging (and annoyingly it’s the one furthest from the driver). A pair of cupholders sit behind them and there are big storage spaces under the centre console, under the armrest, and in the door bins. The glove box is quite poky though.

Space in the back seats

There are two configurations for the Jaecoo 8’s rear seats depending on whether you go for the ‘Luxury’ or the ‘Executive’ model. The Luxury version is a more conventional layout with a three-seater bench in the second row and two extra seats in the very back. Executive models replace that bench with two big captain’s chairs, with twin armrests and a recline function, as well as heating, cooling and even massaging.

Space in the middle row is okay, but not as sparkling as you might hope for such a large car. Our 6’2 tester could fit behind his own driving position, but there’s a good bit more room in a Hyundai Santa Fe or even a Volkswagen Tayron. That means that the Executive model doesn’t really have the luxury of massive space to go along with its (very comfy) seats. You might as well save your money and go for the Luxury version instead.

The Luxury model has another advantage, and that’s access to the third row. It’s still not great, as the seats don’t slide very far forward, so you have to thread your way awkwardly through. However, on the Executive, the second row of seats don’t move out of the way at all - so your only access to chairs six and seven is by threading yourself between a very narrow gap in the middle.

When you’re back there, things aren’t great. There’s not enough head or legroom for an adult to sit for any length of time, so it’s better reserved for young children - but even they’ll be quite cramped. Jaecoo says the 8 is a 5+2 seater, rather than a 7-seater, but this does limit its utility next to the Hyundai Santa Fe or Peugeot 5008, both of which can accommodate adults in the third row. Even the closely-related Chery Tiggo 8 and 9 have more room. There are ISOFIX points in the outer seats of the middle row, though none in the third row.

Boot space

With all three rows of seats in place, boot space isn’t awful at 110 litres - you won’t get the whole family’s luggage back there but there’s room for a weekly shop, a few soft bags, or a pair of carry-on sized suitcases. Fold the third row of seats down - as you’ll probably do most of the time - and you liberate a massive 738 litres of space, bigger than the Volkswagen Tayron but not quite up to the 900+ litres of the Peugeot 5008. And that's despite coming with a full-sized spare wheel under the floor - quite a retro touch these days, but reassuring nonetheless.

With all the rear seats down, there’s a cavernous van-like space, though six-seater models don’t get a fully flat floor like the seven-seater. Just another reason to opt for ‘Luxury’ trim.

Jaecoo’s poshest interior yet, with some nice design touches - but the touchscreens are awkward to use

There’s more than a touch of Mercedes flavour to the Jaecoo 8’s interior - the twin screens under one sheet of glass, the square air vents, the door-mounted seat controls and the central control binnacle could have easily come straight from a GLE. That’s not too much of a criticism, because it looks smart.

Material quality is reasonable too, especially for the price. It doesn’t have the rock-solid build of a Hyundai Santa Fe or Volkswagen Tayron, but most of the surfaces you touch feel quite nice. Seat upholstery is artificial leather throughout, which is soft to the touch.

The main issue is that the control layout just isn’t great. You have to do almost everything through the central touchscreen, which is set quite far back on the dashboard and has too many small, awkward-to-press onscreen buttons. Just adjusting the climate is more difficult than it should be - though we’re very pleased to see customisable shortcuts to allow you to turn off some of the driver assistance systems with a single press.

The generous levels of standard equipment go some way to making up for this. The wireless phone pad charges super fast, and the Sony stereo sounds pretty good. Plus, all cars get heated, cooled and massaging front seats as standard, which takes the sting out of long journeys.

Jaecoo’s official claim of hundreds of miles per gallon is a result of the testing procedures - you can pretty safely ignore it. What’s more interesting is that the Jaecoo 8 achieves around 45-50mpg with a totally discharged battery, and should be able to do around 70 miles (versus an 83-mile official figure) on battery power alone when it is charged.

We’ll test this more thoroughly when we get the Jaecoo 8 in for a longer drive, but experience with the same powertrain in the Omoda 9 and Chery Tiggo 9 suggests that a range of well over 600 miles on one tank and one charge is easily achievable. You might not miss your old diesel SUV with that being the case.

Charging up at home is best done overnight, and it's limited to 6.6kW so no taking advantage of faster three-phase electricity. However, the 8 is one of a handful of PHEVs that can fast-charge at up to 70kW, so if you are doing a longer journey you can top up at a service station and put some meaningful juice in the massive 34.5kWh battery in the time it takes to get a coffee. Public charging is still a bit pricey to make this worth it for most people, though.

As the Jaecoo 8 costs more than £40,000 in all forms, it’s subject to the expensive car supplement on the first five years of VED. The super-low CO2 emissions mean it’s a cost-effective company car, though, and if you can charge up at home on an off-peak rate you might be able to go weeks at a time without burning any petrol whatsoever.

The Jaecoo 8 hasn’t yet been tested by Euro NCAP, but the mechanically-similar Omoda 9 as well as the smaller Jaecoo 7 both scored full five-star ratings. Other Chery/Omoda/Jaecoo products have scored between four and five stars, which is a good track record.

All the usual safety equipment is installed but you can easily turn off the more annoying features thanks to customisable shortcuts on the drop-down infotainment menu.

It’s far too soon to tell if the Jaecoo 8 will be reliable, and neither Jaecoo nor its sister brands have appeared in the Driver Power owner satisfaction survey just yet. The only two Chinese brands that appeared in the 2025 survey - MG and BYD - ranked last and next-to-last, which isn’t a great sign. Still, we’ll reserve judgement for now - and Jaecoo does offer a long seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty to cover any issues that should arise.