First Drive: Jaecoo’s J7 announces this brand’s UK arrival

As we’ve seen with other new Chinese brands, Jaecoo has introduced the J7 with some eye-catching technology and a value-orientated approach which it hopes will put it in good stead alongside accepted rivals such as the Nissan Qashqai and Volkswagen Tiguan. We’ve been behind the wheel to see what it’s like.

Prices start at £29,435, rising to the £35,065 plug-in hybrid model that we’re driving here. All come loaded with equipment, too, with features such as heated front seats and interior quiet-boosting laminated glass all equipped as standard, regardless of model.

The plug-in hybrid model is front-wheel-drive-only, too, so you’ll need to opt for that 1.6-litre petrol if you’re after better poor-weather traction. It runs through a single-speed gearbox, contrasting the seven-speed dual-clutch setup that you’ll get on ‘standard’ petrol version.

Ask for more acceleration and the 1.5-litre engine roars into life – this is a car which is far better suited to low-speed driving and unhurried performance. However, what lets the side down is the steering – light, lifeless and lacking any real feeling of connection between the driver and the front wheels, it leads the J7 to feel vague around bends. The suspension also seems to struggle to maintain its composure; high-speed bumps cause the car to wobble about, yet at slower speeds, the J7 searches out imperfections that you didn’t think were there. On a basic level, this makes the J7 tricky to drive smoothly and will no doubt contribute to quite a bit of car sickness from those sitting in the back.

You’ve got five exterior colours to choose between ranging from Amazonite Black to Greenstone, while the ‘flush’ door handles which pop out to meet you as you approach the car help to preserve the J7’s long side panels. It’s a good-looking car overall – to our eyes, at least.

Up front, the J7 does the job practicality-wise. The two large cupholders are ideally placed and, because the gear selector is on the steering column, your bottles or cups don’t get in the way of a gear change. In terms of boot space, the PHEV offers 412 litres, which is some way off the 500 litres you’ll get in standard petrol versions. Opt for those if you’re after the best possible practicality.

Luckily, the screen to switch many of the assistance systems is easy enough to locate. You need to do this each time you restart the car – as is mandated by law – but you need to do it, as many of them are quite distracting. Bizarrely enough, the driver awareness monitor is hyper-sensitive and will activate whenever you look away – which you need to, in order to perform simple tasks like adjusting the car’s temperature, something which wouldn’t be the case if there was a rotary knob or dial instead. Petrol version do, in fairness, get physical controls for many aspects, so why have they been removed from the PHEV?

There are plenty of positives to take from the Jaecoo 7. It’s well equipped, efficient and very spacious inside while its boxy looks help it to stand out from the crowd. There’s an impressive seven-year warranty, too, and for the money the 7 gets a great level of standard equipment. The standard petrol makes the most sense price-wise, mind you.

But it feels – in this plug-in hybrid variant, at least – that technology is being used to disguise some sub-standard driving dynamics. Coupled with some rather odd ergonomics and an interior setup which favours screentime too much, the J7 ends up feeling off the pace of the wider segment.