What’s this new car all about then?
The Jaecoo J7 is a known quantity in New Zealand, with the 2WD EX model and AWD EX+ models of the medium SUV being on sale here for a while now, offering slick looks and good quality at a remarkably competitive price. But now there is a new member of the J7 line up with the addition of the SHS.
What does SHS mean, I hear you ask? Well, it stands for “Super Hybrid System” and is ideally spoken as if it is spelled all in caps and followed by multiple exclamation marks.
Jaecoo is rather proud and excited by its Super Hybrid System, a plug-in hybrid/range extender system that combines a 105kW/215Nm 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine and a 150kW/310Nm electric motor, with an 18.3kWh lithium iron phosphate battery, which the company says endows the J7 with a massive 1200km combined range and up to 90km of pure electric running.
Actually, the company likes to say it has a 106km range, but this is measured using the wildly optimistic ADR 81/02 Australian test, with the more real-world WLTP figure of 90km not looking quite so good in the marketing…
Regardless of this, the SHS offers up an impressive range on either electricity or petrol, adding to the appeal of the Range Rover-lite styling and excellent interior quality that are hallmarks of the rest of the J7 range.
How much is it?
The SHS tops the current J7 range, landing in New Zealand at $49,990, which will give Mitsubishi something to think about at night as it lies awake staring at the ceiling worrying about the fact that the Eclipse Cross PHEV costs between $52,990 and $59,990.
Packing similar levels of standard equipment as the EX+ ICE model, the SHS comes standard with 19-inch alloy wheels, LED lights all around, a panoramic sunroof, a powered tailgate, heated and ventilated synthetic leather seats, dual zone climate control, an 8-speaker Sony audio system, USB A and C charging ports front and rear, wireless phone charging and a full suite of safety and driver assist features.
What’s it like to drive?
Jaecoo’s Super Hybrid System is largely similar to powertrains used in the likes of the MG 3 and ZS, Haval Jolion and Ford Escape, where a small petrol engine is mainly used as a generator to charge the battery and the electric motor handles the majority of the driving duties.
These systems use “dedicated hybrid transmissions” (DHT) that are a mind-scrambling blend of gears (anywhere between one and three), clutches and electric motors which, in the case of the Jaecoo SHS gives 15 different combinations of what you might want to call “gears”, depending on the energy demand.
I can genuinely say it is the best application of the technology I have personally experienced and easily the closest to that EV-like ideal.
The result of these types of setups is an EV-like driving experience, where the electric motors drive the wheels and the petrol engine hums away quietly in the background charging the battery and generally staying out of the way.
Okay, so it doesn’t always work that way, but that is the ideal. Out of the current cars on sale in New Zealand that use systems like this, the MGs do it best, with minimal intrusion from the engine, but the likes of the Haval and the Ford aren’t quite as good with quite a bit of CVT-style flaring and moaning going on when you ask a bit more of them.
However, after driving the Jaecoo at its local launch (albeit in Australia), I can genuinely say it is the best application of the technology I have personally experienced and easily the closest to that EV-like ideal.
While the J7 SHS is specced broadly equivalently to the top-spec J7 EX+, it features a slightly different interior with different door trims and the gear selector moved up onto the steering column. You start it in a very EV-like fashion, with no start button present and simply hopping into it and putting your foot on the brake waking it up, while shifting it into drive is the only other thing you need to do before moving silently off.
And I do mean silently, as not only does the J7 SHS operate solely on electricity when its large 18.3kWh battery is charged above 30 percent, but is ridiculously quiet even when the petrol engine needs to top it up.
The J7's cred as an urban commuter is also pumped up by the superbly EV-like power delivery.
How quiet? Well, we struggled to even hear it kick in when the battery was fully charged, and even after the battery had depleted a way, the low demand on the engine (and some deeply impressive sound deadening) still meant we had to turn the stereo off and accelerate heavily to even hear a faint hum from the ICE.
The J7 SHS handles every bit in the way you would like a medium SUV to handle, in that it is predictable and superbly stable, with only a hint of gentle, progressive understeer if you start getting a bit too carried away.
Its ride quality was a bit of a mixed bag over the roads between Sydney and Killcare on the Boudi Peninsula a few hours away, with the J7 proving to be comfortable and relaxed on smooth roads and pleasingly compliant on rougher B roads, but surprisingly brittle and a tiny bit harsh over the few sections of gravel we came across. Still, given that it will predominantly be an urban dweller, that’s hardly a huge issue.
The J7's cred as an urban commuter is also pumped up by the superbly EV-like power delivery, with the electric motor delivering brisk performance off the line, as well as out on the open road.
What’s the pick of the range?
The SHS is only available as a single FWD model and is your only choice if you want a hybrid J7, with the $37,990 EX 2WD and $43,990 EX+AWD being ICE only, with no electrical assistance in sight.
Even then the SHS makes a convincing case for the extra $6k you would need to spend on top of the EX+ because while you may lose AWD from the mix, the remarkable frugality and superbly refined EV-style driving experience you gain is more than worth it.
What other cars should I consider?
Direct competitors for the Jaecoo J7 SHS include the similarly-sized Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross PHEV ($52,990 to $59,990) and the slightly larger Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV 5 seater ($62,990), as well as the GWM Haval H6GT Ultra PHEV ($58,990) and the Kia Niro PHEV ($55,990 to $69,690).
The slightly larger BYD Sealion 6 ($52,990 to $64,990), Ford Escape PHEV ($62,990 to $68,990) and Hyundai Tucson PHEV ($83,990 to $89,990) could also overlap for buyers.
