Chery Tiggo 8 Review

The floodgates have opened, and now a number of Chinese car brands are landing on UK shores. You might’ve noticed some BYD, Omoda and Jaecoo models on the road. The last two are particularly relevant here, with Chery being the parent company of Omoda and Jaecoo.

Chery (inspired by the word ‘cheery’ but pronounced ‘cherry’) has now launched cars with its own branding. The Tiggo 8 is the bigger of the two models that have arrived so far – it’s a seven-seater whereas the Tiggo 7 seats five.

And the likes of the Skoda Kodiaq, Volkswagen Tayron and Peugeot 5008 are going to be worried. Even with seven seats as standard, plus a premium interior with eye-catching screens, the Chery Tiggo 8 starts at around £28,500. That’s a whopping £10,000 less than the cheapest seven-seat Kodiaq, and the saving is even greater versus the VW and Peugeot.

The much smaller Dacia Jogger is cheaper than the Tiggo 8, but its no-frills interior feels sparse compared to the plush Chery. And the Chinese car’s Euro NCAP safety rating is far better than the Jogger’s.

Chery is a powerhouse in China and in other markets – it’s one of the oldest carmakers in its homeland and sold over 2.6 million cars globally in 2024. Chery’s PR team told us that the company’s motto is ‘in somewhere, for somewhere’, which means a full, rounded offering in each market. There’s going to be a research and development centre in the UK eventually, as well as 25 dealers already – with plans for 100. A seven-year warranty and an overnight parts supply should give buyers confidence.

We went to the launch presuming that the Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 would be pretty much identical, besides the third row of seats in the latter. Yes, they share a platform, but the proportion of steel used in each car is different, the Tiggo 8 has more airbags, and the interior is completely different.

In fact, the Tiggo 8 looks different whether you pick the petrol or the plug-in hybrid engine. The plug-in hybrid CSH model looks conventional, while the pure petrol gets a slimmer ‘tiger eye’ light with a headlight cluster hidden underneath.

It’s surprising how different the interior of the Chery Tiggo 8 is compared to the Tiggo 7, too. There’s a massive Tesla-like 15.6-inch infotainment touchscreen, plus a standalone 10.25-inch digital driver’s display. The gear shifter sits on the steering column, freeing up space on the centre console for a pair of phone trays (one of which offers high-power wireless phone charging).

The touchscreen controls the majority of features within the car, so it’s stacked with menus and settings. While the home and app screens are easy to work out, it’s worth spending a little bit of time diving through the vast and varied settings menu.

Chinese drivers love their tech, and the Tiggo 8’s touchscreen delivers. It’s really responsive and quick to load, and has clever features like a slick 3D view monitor that can make the car transparent on the display – letting you see rocks and obstacles in your blind spots.

There’s also a voice control system that’s properly linked to the car. Like a smart home, you can ask the voice assistant to open the sunroof or the boot, and it’ll actually carry out your request.

It’s said that 78% of the materials within the Tiggo 8’s cabin are soft-touch. While we have no idea how that could be verified, it’s clear that the interior is plusher than the Kodiaq. There’s leather-effect seats, some light wood trim across the dash and metallic-feel switches. We’d rather physical buttons on the steering wheel in place of the touch panels, mind. The interior seems well-built and durable, with no squeaks or rattles when we poked the surfaces like an inquisitive toddler.

Even though the Tiggo 8 is very affordable for a seven-seat SUV, the entry-level Aspire trim includes 19-inch alloy wheels, LED lights all round, a panoramic wide-view reversing camera, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Plus a full set of driver assistance tech and, thankfully, some of it is turned off by simply swiping down from the top of the screen and pressing a button.

Top-spec Summit trim is a £3,000 upgrade, but is even more luxurious. There’s a panoramic sunroof, an electric boot lid, a heated steering wheel, heated and cooled front and middle-row seats, a head-up display and a 12-speaker Sony sound system.

In the Summit model, your passengers will be fighting over who’s the front-seat passenger. Because the seat offers the full business class experience – there’s a powered foot rest that comes up, the seat can recline all the way to flat, and it has a selection of massage programmes.

Up front, there are lots of useful storage areas – including a big glovebox, a deep, air-conditioned centre armrest cubby and even a handy storage area underneath the centre console.

Like a lot of seven-seat SUVs, the Chery Tiggo 8 is best used as a five-seater, with the two extra seats for occasional use. In this configuration, rear-seat passengers get acres of legroom and plenty of headroom. You’ll need to slide the middle row forward to give those in the rearmost seats enough legroom.

Access to the third row is tight, even with the ‘easy access’ seat on the right-hand side that tips forward. It’s bizarre that it’s easier on one side than the other, and having it on the right for UK cars means your passengers will be getting in next to the traffic, and not next to the kerb.

Once you’ve shimmied yourself in and pushed the middle row forwards a little, there’s just enough space for an average-sized adult to sit – although they won’t want to be back there for too long. Seven adults can fit in the Tiggo 8, but it’ll feel claustrophobic.

With all seats up, you’re limited to 117 litres of boot space. Enough for two or three rucksacks, but that’s it. As a five-seater, you’ve got 494 litres to fill, which is much more usable – even if the Skoda Kodiaq and Kia Sorento offer even more space. Plus, the folding front passenger seat and 4.7-metre length allow you to carry long items when needed.

The engine choice is simple – there’s a standard petrol engine, or a plug-in hybrid that’s called the Chery Super Hybrid (CSH). No superhero cape, unfortunately. If you can’t plug in, the 1.6-litre turbo petrol offers decent enough performance, and a quoted fuel economy of 36mpg, which is just about reasonable in a big car like this.

The plug-in hybrid is both more economical (assuming you often charge the battery) and more powerful. A full charge enables 56 miles of EV range, and we’re told that the total range with both power sources is 750 miles.

What’s impressive is how EV-biased the system is. More often than not, the e-motor is providing the propulsion, and you can get up to motorway speeds – and sit there comfortably – without waking the petrol engine up.

The Tiggo 8 is properly comfortable. There’s a noticeable amount of body motion as the surface of the road changes, but impacts are shaved off to an impeccable smoothness. You could drive this down a very pockmarked country lane and feel like you’re driving on freshly laid European asphalt. It’s very impressive.

We haven’t yet driven the petrol Tiggo 8, but the CSH version shares its quick steering with the Tiggo 7 CSH. The sense of sports car agility isn’t matched by the big, tall body, so it makes the car feel top-heavy in fast corners. If the Tiggo 8 matches the Tiggo 7, the petrol one will have slower steering that makes it feel more composed.