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Jae-who?
Sorry, I’m sorry you didn’t know about yet another new Chinese brand that has been introduced in Australia over the last 12 months but this is a ‘2026 Jaecoo J8** designed to demand your attention.
Among others, the Chery sister brand’s premium-leaning large SUV was released last year as a rival to the Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento (the only one with redesigned turbo-petrol engine and five-seat interior) but is available exclusively with an exclusive version of the car’s Turbo-Porrol model.
The way is almost certainly a three-row version and ‘Plug-in hybrid powertrain’, but for the time now J8 lives in largely an exclusive part of the big SUV market that does not offer up to seven seats.
J8 is strong at least on paper, where the J8, which ‘is really good value’. It’s a big Jaecoo, which costs $46,990 drive-away and is similar to if it was the low- or mid–spec medium SUV.
First impressions are either a bit of an illusion or feel cheap, and it doesn’t look or feels like that. A large screen, a lot of chrome and ‘an attractive Mercedes-Benz cabin design’ make the ambience 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?
Originally starting at $49,990 drive-away, the J8 range now begins from $46,990 Drive-Away for the Track 2WD tested here.
| Model | Drive-away pricing | Promotional pricing |
| — | — | — |
| 2026 Jaecoo J8 Track 2WD | $49,990 | $46,990 |
| 2026 Jaecoo J8 Ridge AWD | $54,990 | $51,990 |
Similarly, for example, the new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid starts at $45,990 plus on-road costs; the petrol-fired Mitsubishi Outlander begins at $39,990 and on road (or $ 39,99 drive-away as currently listed) both smaller.
Most basic Kia Sorento starts at $51,380 – that’s for stock of the new V6 FWD base model – while the cheapest Santa Fe 2 is on sale. 5T FWD $54,400 ‘s 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
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What is the Jaecoo J8 like on the inside?
Inside is where the Jaecoo will really wow you, because the presentation is top-notch.
A little over-all leather-look surfaces are accented with flourishes of chrome, wood-looking trim and piano black. Like I said earlier, there’s a very different Benz influence here.
Ahead of the driver is dual 12. A 3-inch display for the driver’s instrument cluster and central infotainment touchscreen sit within one housing, with both good clarity, brightness and response times.
In other Chery models, I’ve complained that the display speed and frame-rate was a bit of an issue for me but it seems like Omoda Jaecoo products get better deal with much faster animations and nicer graphics.
In the Chery brand stable, that’s a bit cheap The J8 still suffers from the laggy tacho and speedometer I’ve seen in other cars.
A nice touch is the graphics and the more configurability of the cluster for the . Even at the base level, it is pretty well-positioned as does the J8’s infotainment suite.
While there is standard navigation, surround cameras and the like, most users will probably just revert to wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
My iPhone 17 Pro Max was a good car for CarPlay, but sometimes I had problems with voice commands and reading out messages which seems strangely similar to many Chinese cars I’ve been on the road recently.
It is fine, however, that the native software’s user interface has a strangely convoluted set of menus and interesting names for functions which appear to be normal translations from Mandarin to English.
It also scores a 12-speaker Sony-branded audio system as standard for both variants, and I had pretty good experience. It’s a very cheap car, but it is impressive to see clear audio playback with depth and good bass.
Just like the dashboard presentation, the Jaecoo’s seats look lovely – with interesting quilting and contrast stitching to add more ambience to its atmosphere. Chinese brand The Chinese says that they’re also real leather.
The eight-way power adjustment is provided to drivers, including thigh support extension (win), while six ways of power adjustments are applied for the front passenger with two-ways leg rest rest.
In the base model, both front seats also have massaging functionality (although it’s annoyingly accessed via the touchscreen). touch-capacitive controls are on the console, although standard heating and ventilation functions (such as a Touch-Capacitor) have their own control over the normal heat and ventilator.
Cheap build quality neither tarnishes nor does the widespread use of soft-touch materials by . Everything is 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.
It’s lots of room for adults, good head, leg and knee room. The floor is flat and the rear bench doesn’t have a noticeably raised centre seat, so that the fifth passenger does not really draw the short straw.
The dual climate zones up front are supported by fan-controlled air vents, and you can also use the side-mounted electric seat controls to open up more space on the passenger side in a very Korean-style way.
In the doors, bottle holders and the usual ISOFIX and top-tether child seat anchors round out the rear seat amenities – map pockets, a fold-down armrest with cupholders, label holders in the door (and other features of maps), or even heat and ventilated outboard rear seats as well as the backwards are heated.
The lack of a third row is likely to be the reason for buyers in this class, but Jaecoo says that there is’very healthy 738 litres of cargo capacity behind the second row and large 2021L with them folded – although it is measured to the roof’.
But it’s a big boot and nice square, even though that has room for – under the boot floor – if there is.
| Dimensions | Jaecoo J8 |
| — | — |
| Length | 4820mm |
| Width | 1930mm |
| Height | 1710mm |
| Wheelbase | 2672mm |
| Cargo capacity | 738-2021L – to roof |
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 that is 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.
| Specifications | Jaecoo J8 Track 2WD |
| — | — |
| Engine | 2.0L 4cyl turbo-petrol |
| Power | 183kW at 5500rpm |
| Torque | 385Nm at 1750-4000rpm |
| Transmission | 8-speed automatic |
| Drive type | Front-wheel drive |
| Weight | 1790kg – tare |
| 0-100km/h (claimed) | – |
| Fuel economy (claimed) | 8.3L/100km |
| Fuel economy (as tested) | 9.9L/100km |
| Fuel tank capacity | 65L |
| Fuel requirement | 95-octane premium unleaded |
| CO2 emissions | 197g/km |
| Emissions standard | Euro 6 |
| Braked tow capacity | – |
Despite the oddness of launching such large car with only a petrol engine under tightening local emissions laws, Jaecoo has said it will introduce ‘Super Hybrid’ version (with plug-in powertrain) model.
A 1 PHEV is used to power the J8 SHS (Super Hybrid System). The total system output of 5 litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and two electric motors was at least 450kW and 915Nm.
A variant of the same system that underpins the related Omoda 9 SHS, which provides 395kW 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 Jaecoo J8 week was pretty suck in the sense that it was very much just one week of daily commute with one long stint out of town on highway.
And for a keen driver, while that may sound boring, it’s very much the kind of life most Jaecoo J8s are likely to have; so this was what test for the big Chinese SUV.
I commute from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs to the childcareman.xyz office in Docklands, about 25km (two-thirds of which are on the M3 Eastern Freeway and the rest trying to get into and around the city).
But the turbocharged engine is more than enough punch to deliver the 1. At a decent clip, 8-tonne J8 FWD is moving at ‘good speed’ and the eight-speed auto generally seems pretty smooth and intuitive.
But that’s a bit of turbo lag off the line, and sometimes when you need an immediate blast of acceleration it can be slow to downshift. And then there was a bit of laziness at low speeds and between gears every time you set off the front tyres, but it doesn’t feel like it wants to light up the top-tire when we put on.
But I was very impressed with the J8’s ride comfort and insulation from outside world, excluding performance quibbles aside, Mild powertrain.
It’s refreshingly soft even on 20-inch wheels, but there were some times when I went over high-speed successive undulations that body control was a touch wobbly (one or two more movements to settle than I’d like me to be).
In the bends it also means a bit of lean and, with light, lifeless steering combined together, the Jaecoo J8 isn’t really – you’ll like to drive. It’s also a vague steering feel that means when you perform lower-speed manouevres, you often need more lock than you initially thought it would be.
This suppresses engine noise and wind noise, with road noise kept to acceptable levels even on more arduous bits of bitumen (such as country highways) patches.
The driver assistance systems are a bit of a mixed bag.
It is fine to useAdaptive cruise control, but can be very conservative with lead distance. In most cases, Lane-keep assist is a good substitute for the work of but sometimes it can be too heavy handed and too vague.
Then there’s the Integrated Cruise Assist, something of a semi-autonomous highway mode designed to combine said features. It’s a Chery-Omoda-Janaecoo product I haven’t tested, and is reliable.
If you’re just following the lane markings, activate this mode – which will sometimes make you do it and favour one side of that Laneway and regularly pulls out the steering wheel from your hand.
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Thankfully, turn ICA off and everything works fine.’ A long press of the button that is used to drive it off (the steering wheel) is all you need to do when turning on an corresponding one.
In the touchscreen, sadly only about every other feature and associated settings are hidden in the screen; this is really what you need to stop toggle rather than try to do it on the move.
The driver monitoring system, which is a little too keen to tell you’ve been distracted and the audible overspeed alert can be one of the things you might want to turn off.
The J8’s blind-spot monitoring or surround camera systems were largely unreliable, but we didn’t have any problems with the performance of their . Its is very clear, and a useful 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.
| Servicing and Warranty | Jaecoo J8 FWD |
| — | — |
| Warranty | 8 years, unlimited kilometres |
| Roadside assistance | 8 years – service-activated |
| Service intervals | 12 months or 15,000km |
| Capped-price servicing | 8 years or 120,000 kilometres |
| Total capped-price service cost | $2952 |
To see how the Jaecoo J8 lines up against the competition, check out our comparison tool
childcareman.xyz’s Take on the Jaecoo J8
The Jaecoo J8 offers premium presentation and strong value for money, combined with competent on-road manners.
J8 is more than the most expensive car to buy for this latest promotion, with a presentation and space of nearly double that cost as well as an automobile at the current $46,990 drive-away price. You could sell that alone for .
However, persistent gripes with Chery and many other new Chinese brands still exist, especially about the integration of active safety tech in China as well as inconsistent steering feel and response.
It’s a very small mistake, I think, for me, to launch – without an electrified drivetrain in today’t hybrid-heavy market if you don’T have the option of three rows of seats. But it leaves the J8 with holes in its armour alongside a host of other legacy brands’ competitors, especially when Chery’s PHEV system is actually quite good daily driving.
But if you can get the more effective version of an PHEV or a seven-seater, while the J8 is’very much car for the money’. But if you’re not in love with either of those and really like the look, then there is plenty of kit for the base model under $5000 less than that of AWD flagship.
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