Yet another new name for Australian buyers to grapple with, Jaecoo is one of three sub-brands from the Chinese Chery brand.

Chery is the leading exporter of Chinese vehicles worldwide, with Australian sales more than tripling over the past 12 months.

Marketed as the group’s premium brand, Jaecoo was launched here in March 2025 with the J7, a mid-sized SUV powered by either petrol or plug-in hybrid powertrains.

It was joined recently by our test vehicle, the J8 family-size SUV.

Although they are built on different platforms, they do share many of the same design elements, most noticeable being what Chery describes as its Waterfall Grille with 20 vertical chrome and piano black bars and the Jaecoo name in the centre.

The J8 differs in that it only comes with a single power option, a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine although it seems likely that a PHEV will follow.

Although J8 is significantly larger in all dimensions than the J7, both are five-seaters.

It’s highly likely that a third row will be added later to allow it to compete against similarly-sized vehicles like the Hyundai Santa Fe, Nissan X-Trail, Kia Sorento and Toyota Kluger.

Jaecoo J8 comes with two variants: the Track 2WD priced at $49,990 and the AWD $54,990 Ridge.

Both prices are driveaway.

STYLING

Chery’s design team, headed by a former Mercedes-Benz stylist, have done an impressive job with its two Jaecoo vehicles.

Both have an understated but stylish appearance, one that proved to be real head-turners wherever we drove, invariably followed by the need to explain that Jaecoo was the upmarket version of the Chinese carmaker Chery.

The 320mm extra length of the J8 over the J7 is the most obvious difference between the two siblings, with its stretched, slightly tapering roofline just crying out for that extra row of seats.

There’s LED lighting all round, both external and internal, with a light bar connecting the tail lights.

INTERIOR

The quality and premier feel of the Jaecoo J8 extends into the cabin.

The front seats are heated and ventilated with massage function and four-way lumbar support.

The Ridge variant adds heating and ventilation to outer second row seats.

The driver gets an eight-way powered seat with extended thigh support, four-way lumbar support and memory function.

The front passenger has 6-way power adjustment.

The rear seats get their own air conditioning controls and a folding centre armrest.

There’s even an in-built fragrance system in the Ridge that uses replaceable cartridges, located below the dashboard to release a choice of scents of through the interior of the vehicle.

One feature that we haven’t encountered are speakers built into the front seat headrests.

Boot space is a huge 738 litres expandable to a van-like 2021 litres with the rear seatbacks folded.

Both variants come with a full-sized spare wheel.

ENGINES / TRANSMISSIONS

The Jaecoo J8 is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine that produces 183kW of power and 385Nm of torque from 1750rpm.

It is paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission and comes in either front-wheel drive in the Ridge and all-wheel drive in the Track.

The engine requires a minimum of 95 RON premium unleaded fuel.

SAFETY

Jaecoo J8 was yet to be tested by ANCAP, however given that it shares all of its safety features with the J7 which was tested in May 2025 and received the maximum five-star rating, that would seem to be assured.

Track has eight airbags including front centre and driver’s knee.

Ridge adds side airbags for the outside rear seats.

Both variants get Chery’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) package that includes forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, traffic jam assist, integrated cruise assist, blind spot detection, rear collision warning, rear cross traffic alert and braking, lane departure prevention with emergency lane keeping, driver monitoring system, and tyre pressure monitoring.

The Range variant adds extra drive modes, torque vectoring, and continuous damping control.

There are also four lane deviation and three driver inattention/speed limit monitoring systems.

All can be turned off temporarily although, fortunately, they are nowhere near as intrusive as others we have come across.

One thing that impressed us with both the Jaecoo models that we’ve tested was that the vehicle will not move unless the driver’s seatbelt is fastened.

Such an obvious safety but one that very few other manufacturers have adopted.

We understand that ANCAP may add to its testing regime in future.

INFOTAINMENT

In contrast to the portrait format of the Jaecoo J7’s infotainment screen, the J8 reverts to the conventional landscape design.

The touch screen is 12.3-inch and is butted up against a driver’s information cluster of the same size to display as a single, panoramic screen.

Both screens are crisp, clear and easy to access.

There’s inbuilt satellite navigation that can be displayed on both screens.

There are USB-A ports at both front and rear with fast-charge USB-Cs in both locations.

12-volt power outlets are located in the front and in the boot and there is a 50W wireless charger in both variants.

Audio is through an impressive 14-speaker Sony surround sound system.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both wireless.

DRIVING

As is rapidly becoming the norm, almost all vehicle functions are accessed through the touchscreen rather than using physical controls.

While these are among the many important safety features in the vehicle, and no doubt many drivers will appreciate them, they can be quite intrusive and frequently require the driver to look at the touchscreen instead of the road ahead.

They can be turned off.

Another problem we found was the location of the gear selector on the right-hand steering wheel stalk.

Typically, that is the location of the right turn indicator or windscreen wiper controls.

The drive experience from the Jaecoo J8 is predictable enough for a large boxy and relatively heavy vehicle, but that applies equally to most vehicles in the medium SUV field.

It does what the typical family owner wants and does it well.

It provides a smooth, quiet and comfortable ride both around town and on the motorway.

Steering is light.

Note that, unusually for a relatively large vehicle, J8 does not have any towing rating.

Both variants get an adjustable head-up display.

SUMMING UP

Although the Jaecoo brand doesn’t have the badge prestige of European vehicles of similar size, the J8’s driveaway price starting from just under $50,000 offers incredible value for money.

The standard Jaecoo warranty covers eight years and unlimited kilometres.

There’s also 12 months of complimentary roadside assistance, that can be with the opportunity of extending for the full warranty period provided that the vehicle is serviced throughout at authorised Jaecoo dealers.

Another Jaecoo initiative is a “Future Price Promise” that guarantees a minimum resale value subject to specific conditions being met including the aforementioned servicing criteria.

The Jaecoo J8 certainly gets our nod as one of the best offerings yet from China, certainly the best SUV.

The combination of its excellent interior space and comfort, safety equipment, and pricing make it well worth checking out.

RATINGS

Looks: 9/10

Performance: 7.5/10

Safety: 8/10

Thirst: 7/10

Practicality: 8/10

Comfort: 8.5/10

Tech: 8/10

Value: 8.5/10

SPECIFICATIONS Jaecoo J8 Ridge 2.0-litre turbo-petrol AWD five-door wagon

STANDARD WARRANTY:

Eight years/unlimited kilometres