2026 Jaecoo J8 review

Jae-who?

I’d forgive you for not knowing about yet another new Chinese brand that has arrived in Australia within the past 12 months, but the 2026 Jaecoo J8 has been designed to demand your attention.

The Chery sister brand’s premium-leaning large SUV was released last year as a rival to the Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento, among others, but is offered exclusively with a turbo-petrol engine and a five-seat interior.

A three-row version and a plug-in hybrid powertrain are almost certainly on the way, but for now the J8 resides in a pretty exclusive part of the large SUV market in not offering up to seven seats.

Where the J8 is really strong, at least on paper, is on value. Priced from $46,990 drive-away, the big Jaecoo can be had for similar money to a low- or mid-spec medium SUV.

It doesn’t look or feel cheap on first impressions either. Big screens, lots of chrome, and a conspicuously Mercedes-Benz-inspired cabin design all elevate the ambience to feel more expensive than it really is.

But is it all style and little substance? Read on to find out…

How much does the Jaecoo J8 cost?

The J8 range originally started from $49,990 drive-away, but currently kicks off from $46,990 drive-away for the Track 2WD tested here.

For reference, the new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid starts from $45,990 plus on-road costs, while the petrol-fired Mitsubishi Outlander starts from $39,990 plus on-roads (or $39,990 drive-away as currently advertised), both of which are smaller.

The most basic Kia Sorento starts from $51,380 – and that’s for remaining stock of the soon-to-be-axed V6 FWD base model – while the cheapest Santa Fe 2.5T FWD is $54,400. These prices also exclude on-road costs.

Other similarly sized rivals include the Skoda Kodiaq (from $56,990 D/A), and Volkswagen Tayron (from $48,950).

To see how the Jaecoo J8 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What is the Jaecoo J8 like on the inside?

Inside is where the Jaecoo will really wow you, because the presentation is top-notch.

Leather-look surfaces just about everywhere are accented with flourishes of chrome, wood-look trim and piano black. Like I said earlier, there’s a distinct Benz influence in here.

Ahead of the driver are dual 12.3-inch displays for the driver’s instrument cluster and central infotainment touchscreen, sitting within one housing, with both offering good clarity, brightness, and response times.

I’ve previously complained about the speed and frame-rate of the displays in other Chery models, but it seems the Omoda Jaecoo products get the better deal, with much quicker and smoother animations and nicer graphics.

That said, the J8 still suffers from the laggy tacho and speedometer that I’ve noticed in other vehicles within the Chery brand stable, which feels a bit cheap.

I do like the graphics and the greater level of configurability for the cluster, which is a nice touch. The J8’s infotainment suite is also pretty well featured, even from the base level.

There’s standard navigation, surround cameras and the like, but most users will likely just revert to wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

CarPlay generally worked well with my iPhone 17 Pro Max, though on occasion I had issues with voice commands and reading out messages which seems to be a curious commonality among a number of Chinese cars I’ve tested lately.

The user interface of the native software is fine, but there’s still the odd convoluted set of menus and interesting names for functions which seem to be average translations from Mandarin to English.

Both variants also score a 12-speaker Sony-branded audio system as standard, and my experience was pretty good. Clear audio playback with depth and good bass is impressive for such an affordable car.

Like the dashboard presentation, the Jaecoo’s seats look lovely, with interesting quilting and contrast stitching to elevate the ambience further. They’re also actual leather, according to the Chinese brand.

Drivers are treated to eight-way power adjustment including thigh support extension (win), while the front passenger gets six ways of power adjustment including a two-way leg rest.

Both front seats also get massaging functionality even in the base model, though it’s annoyingly accessed via the touchscreen. The standard heating and ventilation functions get touch-capacitive controls on the console, though.

The expansive use of soft-touch materials isn’t tarnished by cheap build quality either. Everything feels pretty well screwed together, and any physical switchgear you use has a nice, solid feel to the action. I just wish there wasn’t so much gloss black to catch finger prints and smudges.

Being a large SUV, the rear seat is positively massive, and well-featured to boot.

There’s heaps of room for adults, with good head, leg and knee room. The floor is also flat and the rear bench doesn’t have a noticeably raised centre seat, so the fifth passenger doesn’t really draw the short straw.

Rear air vents with fan controls bolster the dual climate zones up front, and you can also use the side-mounted electric seat controls to open up more space on the passenger side in a very Korean-esque way.

Map pockets, a fold-down armrest with cupholders, bottle holders in the doors and the usual ISOFIX and top-tether child seat anchors round out the rear seat amenities – and if you go for the flagship Ridge, you get heated and ventilated outboard rear seats as well.

While the absence of a third row is likely to be lamented by potential buyers in this class, Jaecoo does quote a very healthy 738 litres of cargo capacity behind the second row, and a sizable 2021L with them folded – though this is measured to the roof.

Regardless, it’s a big boot and nicely square, and there’s even room for a full-size spare wheel under the boot floor.

To see how the Jaecoo J8 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What’s under the bonnet?

Both variants of the Jaecoo J8 currently on sale in Australia are powered by the same 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine – the base Track grade is front-drive only.

While launching such a large vehicle with only a petrol engine amid tightening local emissions regulations seems odd, Jaecoo has indicated it plans to bring in a ‘Super Hybrid’ version with a plug-in powertrain.

The J8 SHS (Super Hybrid System) PHEV is powered by a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and two electric motors for total system outputs of no less than 450kW and 915Nm.

It’s a version of the same system that underpins the related Omoda 9 SHS, which offers 395kW of total system power and up to 169km (NEDC) of EV driving range from its massive 34kWh nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery pack.

To see how the Jaecoo J8 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

How does the Jaecoo J8 drive?

My week with the Jaecoo J8 was pretty uninspiring in the sense that it was very much just a week of daily commuting with one extended stint out of town on the highway.

But while that may sound boring for a keen driver, it’s very much the sort of life most Jaecoo J8s are likely to have, so it was the perfect test for the big Chinese SUV.

My commute from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs to the CarExpert office in Docklands is roughly 25km in total, with two-thirds of that being on the M3 Eastern Freeway and the rest trying to get into and around the city.

The turbocharged engine has more than enough punch to get the 1.8-tonne J8 FWD moving at a decent clip, and the eight-speed auto is generally pretty smooth and intuitive.

However, there’s a bit of turbo lag off the line, and occasionally the auto can be slow to downshift when you need a sudden blast of acceleration. Every now and then there also seemed to be some laziness at low speeds as well between gears, though it doesn’t feel like it wants to light up the front tyres every time you set off.

Mild powertrain and performance quibbles aside, I was quite impressed with the J8’s ride comfort and insulation from the outside world.

The suspension is refreshingly soft even on 20-inch wheels, though there were times when going over high-speed successive undulations that body control was a touch wobbly, taking one or two more movements to settle than I’d like.

It also translates to a bit of lean in the bends, and combined with light, lifeless steering, the Jaecoo J8 isn’t really a vehicle you’ll enjoy driving. The vague steering feel also means you often find the need to add more lock than you initially expected when performing lower-speed manouevres.

Engine noise and wind noise are very well suppressed, with road noise kept to acceptable levels even on rougher patches of bitumen like country highways.

The driver assistance systems are a bit of a mixed bag.

Adaptive cruise control works fine, though it can be quite conservative with lead distance. Lane-keep assist generally works well too, but at times it can be both too heavy-handed and too vague.

Then there’s the Integrated Cruise Assist, something of a semi-autonomous highway mode meant to combine said aforementioned features. I have not tested a Chery-Omoda-Jaecoo product in which this works reliably.

Activate this mode – which the car will occasionally prompt you to do – and it favours one side of the lane and regularly jerks the steering wheel out of your hand even if you’re just following the lane markings.

Turn ICA off and everything works fine, and thankfully a long press of the corresponding steering wheel button is all you need to switch it off.

Sadly, just about every other feature and related settings are buried in the touchscreen, which really requires you to stop to toggle rather than trying to do it on the move.

One of those you might want to turn off is the driver monitoring system, which can be a little too keen to tell you you’ve been distracted, as well as the audible overspeed alert.

Thankfully, we didn’t have any issues with the performance of the J8’s blind-spot monitoring or surround camera systems. The latter offers excellent clarity as well as a helpful 3D vehicle projection.

To see how the Jaecoo J8 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What do you get?

Two grades of Jaecoo J8 are available in Australia.

Jaecoo J8 Track equipment highlights:

• Eco, Normal and Sport drive modes
• Idle stop/start
• 20-inch alloy wheels
• 245/50 R20 Maxxis Victra Sport 5 SUV tyres
• Full-size spare
• Hill descent control
• Proximity entry with push-button start
• Built-in dashcam
• Power-retracting door handles
• Roof rails
• Automatic projector LED headlights
• Automatic high-beam
• Puddle lights
• Rain-sensing wipers
• Power-folding, heated exterior mirrors
• Panoramic sunroof
• Auto up/down power windows
• Power tailgate
• 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster
• 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Satellite navigation
• Apple CarPlay – wireless, wired
• Android Auto – wireless, wired
• Voice assistant
• Head-up display
• 12-speaker Sony sound system
  • incl. driver’s head restraint speakers
• 2 x USB-A outlets (1 x front, 1 x rear)
• 2 x USB-C outlets (1 x front, 1 x rear)
• 2 x 12-V outlets (1 x front, 1 x boot)
• 50W wireless phone charger
• Quilted leather upholstery
• 8-way power driver’s seat
  • Thigh support
  • 4-way power lumbar
  • Memory for seat, mirror position
• 6-way power passenger seat
  • 2-way leg rest
  • Auxiliary controls
• Massaging front seats
• Heated and ventilated front seats
• Leather-wrapped steering wheel
• Tilt and telescopic steering wheel adjustment
• 60:40-split folding rear seats
• Dual-zone climate control
• Rear air vents, fan speed control
• LED interior lighting

J8 Ridge adds:

• All-wheel drive with torque vectoring
• Continuous Damping Control
• Snow, Mud, Sand and Offroad drive modes
• Michelin tyres
• Semi-autonomous parking assist
• Rear privacy glass
• Electronic interior door release buttons
• Heated and ventilated outboard rear seats
• Fragrance system
• Colour-adjustable ambient lighting
• Black suede headliner
• Auto-dimming rear-view mirror

To see how the Jaecoo J8 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

Is the Jaecoo J8 safe?

The Jaecoo J8 remains unrated by ANCAP.

Standard safety equipment includes:

• 8 airbags
• Adaptive cruise control
• Autonomous emergency braking
• Blind-spot monitoring
• Driver attention monitoring
• Lane-keep assist
• Emergency lane-keep assist
• Surround-view camera
• Tyre pressure monitoring

J8 Ridge adds:

• Rear-side airbags – 10 in total

The Ridge AWD flagship also includes second-row side airbags, bringing the tally to 10.

To see how the Jaecoo J8 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

How much does the Jaecoo J8 cost to run?

The Jaecoo J8 is backed by an eight-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.

To see how the Jaecoo J8 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

CarExpert’s Take on the Jaecoo J8

The Jaecoo J8 offers premium presentation and strong value for money, combined with competent on-road manners.

At the current promotional price of $46,990 drive-away, the J8 is more car for the money than most, and offers the presentation and space of a vehicle costing almost twice as much. That alone could be the selling point for you.

However, persistent gripes with models from Chery and many other new Chinese brands remain, particularly around active safety tech integration as well as inconsistent steering feel and response.

I also reckon it’s a glaring omission to launch a large SUV without an electrified drivetrain in today’s hybrid-heavy market, and without the option of three rows of seating. It leaves the J8 with holes in its armour alongside popular competitors from legacy brands, especially when Chery’s PHEV system is actually quite good in daily driving.

So, while the J8 is a lot of car for the money, I’d suggest waiting for the more efficient PHEV version or a seven-seater if you can. But if you don’t want either of those and you really like the look, the base model has plenty of kit for $5000 less than the AWD flagship.

Interested in buying a Jaecoo J8? Let CarExpert find you the best deal here

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MORE: Explore the Jaecoo J8 showroom