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Jaecoo 7 SHS - long-term review - Report No:5

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Jaecoo 7 SHS - long-term review - Report No:5 | Top Gear

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Or: how can you trust the sticking power of a newbie car company?

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Jaecoo 7 SHS - long-term review - Report No:5

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Or: how can you trust the sticking power of a newbie car company?

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Or: how can you trust the sticking power of a newbie car company?

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Jaecoo 7 SHS - long-term review - Report No:5

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Jaecoo has existed for a mere 18 months. It’s been selling cars in UK for less than half that time. It is, in automotive terms, a mewling newborn.

So, if you’re considering buying a Jaecoo 7 – or indeed the upcoming Jaecoo 5, the SUV with a face like Action Man’s nether regions – how can you be certain the company’s actually going to stick around, and not simply vanish into the ether?

It’s a question equally applicable to any of the other upstart (mostly Chinese) brands launched in the UK recently: Leapmotor, Skywell, Xpeng, some others I may have forgotten. When your car needs servicing three years down the line, or a new headlight assembly after six years, how can you be confident the service network and parts will be there to keep you running?

I quizzed Jaecoo in search of answers, and here’s what I found. You can indeed have some faith Jaecoo won’t dissolve into thin air, because they’ve spent – to use the technical financial term – an absolute shed-ton of money putting down UK roots.

Jaecoo’s not some fly-by-night start-up. It’s a sub-brand of Chery, the Chinese megacorp that – across its various marques – sold 2.6 million cars globally in 2024. Chery has dropped well in excess of £30m solely on the aftersales element of establishing Jaecoo and sister brand Omoda in the UK. Total UK investment is many times that figure.

I was going to say ‘you don’t spend that sort of money unless you’re sure you’re going to stick around’, but modern corporate history is full of companies spending that sort of money and entirely failing to stick around. Still, ploughing in a serious nine-figure sum up front can’t harm the stickability, right?

A chunk of that cash has been spent going dealer-crazy. Jaecoo only started selling cars in the UK until February 2025, but already they’re up past eighty dealerships: more than Subaru, Tesla or Alfa Romeo. Jaecoo bosses are keen to point out they’ve not teamed up with dinky independent mom-and-pop local dealerships, but big national and international operations. Tough for those to vanish overnight unless something’s gone spectacularly wrong at a thermonuclear level, and in that case getting your PHEV serviced is going to be low down your list of worries.

Also in the name of inspiring confidence, the J7 gets a chunky seven-year/100,000-mile warranty. Jaecoo highlights that – unlike some manufacturer warranties – theirs covers the infotainment system. Which is good to know: so touchscreen-dependent is the Jaecoo that, if the infotainment goes down, what you’re left with is an especially weighty desk ornament. Jaecoo’s also built a vast new parts warehouse in Rugby. However you feel about the arrival of Chinese state money into the UK car market, you can’t deny the Chinese state money is getting properly stuck in.

Of course, none of this investment guarantees longevity. We live in volatile times. The future is unknown, though it’s likely to involve a whole load more unpalatable humans somehow assuming positions of great power. But whatever the next decade brings, I suspect Jaecoo’s more likely to be around at the end of it than a number of far longer-established brands.

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Jaecoo has existed for a mere 18 months. It’s been selling cars in UK for less than half that time. It is, in automotive terms, a mewling newborn.

So, if you’re considering buying a Jaecoo 7 – or indeed the upcoming Jaecoo 5, the SUV with a face like Action Man’s nether regions – how can you be certain the company’s actually going to stick around, and not simply vanish into the ether?

It’s a question equally applicable to any of the other upstart (mostly Chinese) brands launched in the UK recently: Leapmotor, Skywell, Xpeng, some others I may have forgotten. When your car needs servicing three years down the line, or a new headlight assembly after six years, how can you be confident the service network and parts will be there to keep you running?

I quizzed Jaecoo in search of answers, and here’s what I found. You can indeed have some faith Jaecoo won’t dissolve into thin air, because they’ve spent – to use the technical financial term – an absolute shed-ton of money putting down UK roots.

Jaecoo’s not some fly-by-night start-up. It’s a sub-brand of Chery, the Chinese megacorp that – across its various marques – sold 2.6 million cars globally in 2024. Chery has dropped well in excess of £30m solely on the aftersales element of establishing Jaecoo and sister brand Omoda in the UK. Total UK investment is many times that figure.

I was going to say ‘you don’t spend that sort of money unless you’re sure you’re going to stick around’, but modern corporate history is full of companies spending that sort of money and entirely failing to stick around. Still, ploughing in a serious nine-figure sum up front can’t harm the stickability, right?

A chunk of that cash has been spent going dealer-crazy. Jaecoo only started selling cars in the UK until February 2025, but already they’re up past eighty dealerships: more than Subaru, Tesla or Alfa Romeo. Jaecoo bosses are keen to point out they’ve not teamed up with dinky independent mom-and-pop local dealerships, but big national and international operations. Tough for those to vanish overnight unless something’s gone spectacularly wrong at a thermonuclear level, and in that case getting your PHEV serviced is going to be low down your list of worries.

Also in the name of inspiring confidence, the J7 gets a chunky seven-year/100,000-mile warranty. Jaecoo highlights that – unlike some manufacturer warranties – theirs covers the infotainment system. Which is good to know: so touchscreen-dependent is the Jaecoo that, if the infotainment goes down, what you’re left with is an especially weighty desk ornament. Jaecoo’s also built a vast new parts warehouse in Rugby. However you feel about the arrival of Chinese state money into the UK car market, you can’t deny the Chinese state money is getting properly stuck in.

Of course, none of this investment guarantees longevity. We live in volatile times. The future is unknown, though it’s likely to involve a whole load more unpalatable humans somehow assuming positions of great power. But whatever the next decade brings, I suspect Jaecoo’s more likely to be around at the end of it than a number of far longer-established brands.

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Or: how can you trust the sticking power of a newbie car company?

# data.relationships.field_cars_group.data.meta.links.help.meta.about
Usage and meaning of the 'virtual' resource identifier.