Jaecoo’s J7 SUV will be joined soon by the larger J8 at a red-hot $49,990 driveaway.
But it will only be available in five-seat form, at least for the foreseeable future.
Overseas, J8 also comes with seven seats.
The Chinese Jaecoo is a subset of Chery in much the same way as Omoda is, but while Omoda is marketed under the Chery name, Jaecoo is positioned as a luxury, standalone brand.
Building on the success of the recently released J7, Jaecoo says the new J8 takes sophistication and performance to the next level, delivering features and technologies typically reserved for premium vehicles.
It’s basically a rebadged version of the Chery Tiggo 9.
Sitting on 20-inch machine-finished alloys, J8 is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine, with 183kW of power and 385Nm of torque.
It’s paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission, with drive to the front or all four wheels.
There’s two versions from which to choose: Track and Ridge; the first is front-wheel drive, the latter all-wheel drive with torque vectoring.
Standard features include synthetic leather trim, rear air controls, LED headlights, built-in navigation, head-up display, 12.3-inch instrument and infotainment screens, wired Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto plus premium 14-speaker surround sound.
The front seats are heated and cooled (so are the rears in Ridge), with massage for the driver seat and a power operated tailgate.
Ridge also adds automatic parking, suede headliner, auto-dimming mirror, heated and cooled second row seats, rear privacy glass, ambient lighting and an air freshener dispenser.
J8 will be launched in June, with Track priced from $49,990 and top grade Ridge from $54,990 driveaway.
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