review Jaecoo J7 PHEV

[modocrat]

Nǐ hǎo.
A friend was buying a demo and asked if I would fly to JHB to have a look at it for him and drive it back. I didn't have anything constructive planned for Friday, ok maybe I did have to go to work but YOLO 🤣

Landed in cold and wet Jozi at 7:35am. Dealer picked me up and took me to their weird dealership located inside The Glen shopping mall, this was a first for me. We try new things everyday

The dealer had allegedly filled R600 worth of juice and gave it an overnight charge. Fuel range was 389km and battery was at 92km. I took the car for a quick drive to ensure all was in order before taking delivery. I took delivery and stopped at the Engen about 1-2km away to connect my devices etc. I wanted to do this before leaving the dealer but the salesman had to walk in the rain to the boom to let me out of the shopping mall

I departed Bassonia with 82km battery range (the test drive was probably only 3km) and headed to Rosebank/Parkwood for breakfast.

Damn Waze took me through some real dodgy areas.



I drove all the way in EV mode, was quite strange not to hear any engine noise. I departed JHB and switched between EV and HEV modes. The car was set to Eco mode all the way.

I got to De Heok Toll Plaza which is +/- 80km from Rosebank and the range was sitting at 333km for fuel and 23km for battery. Fair. I then went full HEV mode.
I was still getting to know the car (mostly the huge iPad) so I wasn't really planting my right foot.

I was monitoring the fuel range and had decided that I will make a fuel stop in Harrismith. It poured really hard so I kept it between 130-140km/h. The 2WD handled the wet roads well and at no point did it feel out of place.

I thought the batteries would charge while in HEV mode but that didn't happen. I called the dealer to confirm and apparently its normal as its a PHEV. The fuel range had dropped significantly and was dropping with every km travelled 😕

About 10km from Harrismith the range of 60km disappeared and it only said, "fuel low - fill up", F*&k me I thought.

I got to Harrismith with an empty-ish fuel tank after only travelling 280km. This doesn't look good. (333km range at De Hoek Plaza). I topped up with around 35lt of fuel, the range jumped up to 728km, yay!
The rain got worse so I took it easy... but the range kept dropping.. At this point I really missed my not-so-planet-friendly-diesel-burning Audi Q5.

I arrived at Marianhill toll Plaza and flicked it into sport mode to enjoy the 255kw of power. Being a PHEV, its very quick and also handled decently with the 19" wheels. I got to my destination some 300km later with a fuel range of..... wait for it..... 300km (I left Harrismith with 728km). WTAF?!

Issues I experienced with the Jaecoo J7:

• I could not select a new destination on Waze while driving. My secondary device is an Android which I use for Waze/Maps etc. while on the road. I had to disconnect the phone from the car, select my new destination on Waze and reconnect my phone. The bluetooth on my (silly Android) phone kept re-enabling and reconnecting to the car during this process which brought out quite a bit of profanities.
• Sony speakers were kak, I had the volume at max but it was still soft.
• I unintentionally pressed a button on the steering wheel and I think the lane prevention kak got activated. It steered the car on the bends for me until I figured out (took me a while) how to turn it off. Not cool!
• The heated seats kept going back to level one. No Jaecoo, my arse was not cooking, it was 12 degrees outside!
• The fuel range; it actually gave me anxiety.
• When approaching a sudden traffic jam, I kept unlocking the car instead of pressing the hazards as the buttons are in the same line - Pic below.
• The gear selector doesn't go straight from R to D or vice versa. It goes into neutral first and takes a few clicks to select the gear you want, very annoying!
• I NEED BUTTONS, not a damn TV screen on the dash.

IMO, these (Chinese 1.5L) PHEVs are meant to be city commuters, keep your ICE for your road trips.













Zàijiàn.

 

[Nastaliq]

Okay,
Top review
This did confirm many of my suspicions with these cars.
I have not driven one, but given my hatred for large TV screens instead of actual buttons for mission critical things I will steer away (excuse the horrible pun) for now.
Eventually however, i think ALL manufacturers will go this way, with them all eventually settling on a happy mix between buttons and screens eventually. Theres a reason new Boeings dont have 52" widescreen touch displays for everything in a cockpit.

 

[QikNish]

Nice review of an actual drivers experience...

The Waze thing is a Android auto thing... you have use voice to give it instructions if in motion. Annoying yah.

What did the car fuel economometer thingy say fuel consumption wise? Whats its tank capacity?
Was there opportunity to charge the thing on the way down?

Im struggling to see the point of these cars for long journeys. Seems like a daily commute of what..under 100km ... would be OK to run on battery only. Although charging it again at night at home would cost Eskom or deplete Invertor battery power.

Next time ask your friend to buy a V8 or V10. 🤣

 

[Pisancho]

I don’t like hybrids personally. Either go full EV or full Ice.

 

[Mytfine]

Okay,
Top review
This did confirm many of my suspicions with these cars.
I have not driven one, but given my hatred for large TV screens instead of actual buttons for mission critical things I will steer away (excuse the horrible pun) for now.
Eventually however, i think ALL manufacturers will go this way, with them all eventually settling on a happy mix between buttons and screens eventually. Theres a reason new Boeings dont have 52" widescreen touch displays for everything in a cockpit.

But a Boeing pilot can afford to take his eyes away from looking where he is going as he doesn't have any obstacles around him, and he has a co-pilot.

 

[///M Individual]

Nice review of an actual drivers experience...

The Waze thing is a Android auto thing... you have use voice to give it instructions if in motion. Annoying yah.

What did the car fuel economometer thingy say fuel consumption wise? Whats its tank capacity?
Was there opportunity to charge the thing on the way down?

Im struggling to see the point of these cars for long journeys. Seems like a daily commute of what..under 100km ... would be OK to run on battery only. Although charging it again at night at home would cost Eskom or deplete Invertor battery power.

Next time ask your friend to buy a V8 or V10. 🤣

I agree with this.

My cousin just traded his Fortuner 2.4GD-6 for a Chery Tiggo 8 Plug-in-hybrid. Similar or same setup as the Jaecoo here. He is benefiting as his daily trip is less than 100kms and plugs in every day to charge. Hasn't used any petrol yet since fetching a week ago.

 

[Veedub]

I agree with this.

My cousin just traded his Fortuner 2.4GD-6 for a Chery Tiggo 8 Plug-in-hybrid. Similar or same setup as the Jaecoo here. He is benefiting as his daily trip is less than 100kms and plugs in every day to charge. Hasn't used any petrol yet since fetching a week ago.

And this is the benefit of PHEV...EV for the short, daily runs (~90% of the intended use case)...then ICE for the long drives (just need to accept that it's a somewhat underpowered small capacity ICE and drive it as such). I work 2 days in the office. So those days would be 'free' travel and then I can charge at home, during the day, using solar on my WFH days.

Barring the added complexity, weight and cost...PHEV is the logical compromise for a family vehicle. I just won't keep one after the warranty period (unlike an EV, which I believe will outlast most ICE vehicles).

In the OP's use case, I would've still filled fuel based on a normal ICE vehicle and kept the battery for when I needed extra power for overtaking, uphill sections and the odd race .

I do think that the BYD Shark uses electric only, with the ICE working as a generator to charge the battery. This is different to how the Jaecoo worked. The BYD does struggle to keep the battery topped up when you really pushing it though, but I suppose all EV's have this issue.

 

[modocrat]

Nice review of an actual drivers experience...

The Waze thing is a Android auto thing... you have use voice to give it instructions if in motion. Annoying yah.

What did the car fuel economometer thingy say fuel consumption wise? Whats its tank capacity?
Was there opportunity to charge the thing on the way down?

Im struggling to see the point of these cars for long journeys. Seems like a daily commute of what..under 100km ... would be OK to run on battery only. Although charging it again at night at home would cost Eskom or deplete Invertor battery power.

Next time ask your friend to buy a V8 or V10. 🤣

Average fuel consumption was between 3-4L/100km. The car has a 60lt tank.

So Engen Harrismith/Bergview has a charging station but I don't have the patience for that.

 

[DRCraig]

I NEED BUTTONS, not a damn TV screen on the dash

Agree 100%. Aren't those massive screens distracting at night? Grew up loving the array of buttons that lit up amber in a BMW. Only to later realise amber doesn't effect the eye's adaptation to darkness(pupilmechanism).