Jaecoo 7 SHS - long-term review

How fast can you fast-charge a Jaecoo 7? This is, I am fairly sure, a question that very few Jaecoo 7 owners – quite possibly zero Jaecoo owners – shall ever ask.

This 7 is, after all, a plug-in hybrid, not a full EV. So its owners will, I suspect, only e-charge it with cheap electricity from a home wallbox, where the limiting factor will be how quickly the electrons can arrive, not how fast the car can accommodate them. A supply side issue, if you will.

If those owners are out on the road and in need of extra range, I’d guess they’ll opt to top up with petrol rather than electricity, what with it being far quicker and – from most public providers at least – cheaper.

But Top Gear prides itself on answering the questions no one ever asked, even if the reason they never asked the question was basic common sense. So, ever at the very forefront of investigative journalism, I plugged the 7 into a public fast charger, to see how fast it would charge.

And the answer is… not hugely fast? Despite Jaecoo’s claims of 40kW capabilities, the best I saw from a 150kW charger was a speed of 30kW. That means, at best, it’s adding around 1.5 miles of electric range each minute. Which might be handy, just about, if you can find somewhere to charge while you’re off doing your weekly Big Shop. If you’re in need of an emergency splash’n’dash, you’re best off sticking to petrol instead. As you were, Jaecoo owners!

But at least the 7 can accept DC fast charging: many PHEVs are limited to AC charging alone. And, beyond the 7’s modest electron-ingesting abilities, I’ve been enjoying its pure EV abilities. In the past, I’ve been dismissive of PHEVs, which always seemed to me an inelegant solution: lugging around an entire extra powertrain for the benefit of a couple of dozen miles of additional electric range.

But the Jaecoo is a genuinely useful EV in its own right. It boasts 18.3kW of useable battery capacity, which, given I can average close to 3mpkWh, means an all-electric real-world range of around 50 miles. If you can charge overnight at home, that should be more than enough for your day-to-day – with 60 litres of petrol range in reserve if that day involves an unexpected detour via Inverness.

I realise I am literally regurgitating the dictionary definition of ‘a plug-in hybrid’ here, and I also realise the 7’s electric-only range is far from groundbreaking among new PHEVs. The Omoda 9, from Jaecoo’s sister brand, offers almost double the 7’s battery capacity.

But for me it’s a (possibly belated) relevation: the advancement from the 20-mile range of the old generation of PHEVs to 50-odd miles makes – for my motoring requirements at least – the PHEV logic click together far more neatly.

And, as a full EV, the 7 is perfectly pleasant. Its electric motor generates two hundred horsepower in its own right, which is sufficient shove even for motorway stuff. If you’re loaded to the brim and tackling big hills, you’ll be thankful for the ICE back-up, but for day-to-day bimbling, battery power will do the job a treat. Just don’t rely on public fast-chargers to fill it up.