Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid review Australia
This is the cheapest three row plug-in hybrid SUV in Australia. It’s the Cherry Tigo 8 Super Hybrid. And honestly, it actually deserves super as part of its name. Because this thing stacks up so well from a value for money perspective, from the tech that’s on board, and also because of the powertrain. I’ll tell you all about it in this review, show you through this car in detail, and also tell you some great alternatives that you might be able to consider. Right, let’s check it out, shall we? Tigo 8 super hybrid time. There are two different versions of the Cherry Tig8 Super Hybrid on sale and this is the entrylevel version. It’s called Urban and it starts at $45990 Driveway, which is such good buying for a car that’s got almost 100ks of EV driving range and a pretty amazing efficiency number. We’ll get to those numbers later on in this review, but let me tell you what you’re getting as standard in this grade. The urban model has 19inch alloy wheels. You get LED lighting around the car. There’s also smart unlocking and you don’t have to even push a button on the inside. You just sit in the driver’s seat and it starts the car for you. There’s also a 360° surround view camera system, a wireless phone charger, selectable ambient lighting. You’ve also got a 10- speakeraker sound system, a 10.25 in driver info screen, a 15.6 6in LCD infotainment touchscreen system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You’ve got plenty of safety technology as well and a powered driver’s seat is standard. So for $46,000 drive away, you are getting so much SUV for your money. In fact, you can get two of these for the price of one Kia Sarrento plug-in hybrid. Wow. Right now, let’s talk about the topsp spec version, which is only a few thousand more. It’s cold ultimate and it does have extra features that you might really appreciate, including heated and ventilated front seats. There’s driver’s headrest speakers. You get a head-up display, a panoramic sunroof with a power sun shade. There’s also privacy glass on the rear doors and tailgate, a sixway power adjustable passenger seat with massage function. You don’t get massage function on the driver’s seat in the topsp spec version. That’s a bit strange, but you also get illuminated scuff plates. So, this does seem like amazing value for money straight off the bat, but what about some alternatives that you might want to consider? Is there anything that comes close on price? Full credit to Cherry Australia. They have positioned this in a currently unbeatable spot for a plug-in hybrid 7 seat SUV. There will be more plug-in hybrid 7seaters coming soon. BYD is going to be launching one soon. Can’t wait to tell you what the price will be. Can’t wait to drive it as well. But if you’re looking for a mainstream option, well, you’ve got the Mazda CX80 from about $75,000 before on-road costs, or the Kia Sarrento plug-in hybrid, which is currently only available in GT line spec at $85,000 or so before on-road costs. Neither of them make that much sense to me for that kind of money. And the other one that I always tend to recommend is the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid. Now, it starts at about $70,000 for one with seven seats. So, again, it’s just not even close when it comes to the pricing, but it is a very compelling thing in its own way. It’s comfy and it’s practical and it’s thoughtful, too. And there’s an update coming for it very soon. But what about if you don’t need seven seats? Well, you should go and have a look at the BYDC Lion 6 cuz it’s a plug-in hybrid SUV with a very affordable price point. $43,000 starting price with about 90ks of EV driving range and plenty of standard spec and tech. But what would you do? Would it be a sevenseater from the other brands? Would it be a 5-seater plug-in hybrid at a lower price? Or would it be this? I’d love to hear from you. Have you say in the comments? You’ll be able to pick this one compared to the petrol versions cuz it does look a little bit different. Not dramatically. Does have different wheel designs and that’s a bit of a giveaway. and so are the door handles. They are pop out handles now rather than the conventional ones on the regular version. And you do have two filler caps on the back as well. One for petrol, one for power. Now, I’m going to put the dimensions on your screen and tell you a little bit about the fact that it now has towing capacity as well. So, there is a maximum 750 kilo capacity for towing. And speaking of capacities, I’ll put the weights on your screen now for this SUV, including the payload. Now, let’s have a look at the back end. It is a pretty piece of design. I think it still looks pretty bloody good. Um, there’s no badging at the back to tell you that it’s the plug-in hybrid. Um, that might be an issue for some. This one has a standard tailgate, and you can see there that there’s a good amount of cargo capacity behind those third row seats. And I think that’s going to be handy for backpacks and maybe some small suitcases. And you can lower the seats pretty easily just by pulling those levers at the top and pushing them down. They’re not too heavy. And it’s actually a very amenable five-seater if that’s what you need with a fair few good features in the third row for the occupants as well. I’ll show you some of those when we get in there and I show you the space. But I want to call out this. Um, you don’t have a spare wheel under there. There’s some electronics and hardware stuff happening underneath there. And there’s no spare underneath the body of the vehicle either. So, it might not suit everyone’s needs, but it’s still going to be a fairly practical sevenseater in terms of the boot space. Now, let’s jump inside and see what it’s like. Rightyo people, this feels so different to the existing Tigo 8 in terms of the interior design here. There’s been a major major update because well, it gets this big 15.6 6in touchscreen media system which is a massive improvement over the already pretty decent screen that was in the last one. This one is actually very very good. It’s quick to react and it does have a number of different controls so you can change the display if you wanted to. And you’ve also got a number of different settings and menus and easy adjustability to the things that you might hope to turn off if you don’t like them. But thankfully the safety tech is actually not that annoying. Now you do have a drop- down menu from the top there as well. It will work when you’ve got Apple CarPlay active. The drop- down menu which works. It might take a little bit of fiddling to get it to work properly. You’ve also got on this screen a number of different controls. So you can turn between EV and hybrid power mode. You don’t have to do it on screen. You can do it with that little toggle switch there. You’ve also got drive mode controls there which are doubled up there as well. So if you do want to change the drive mode, it will talk to you each time it changes. Eco mode, sport mode. Yeah. Okay. Um, so you get the idea. It changes with a voice prompt. Anyway, u, you’ve also got lane departure prevention over there, too. You can adjust your wiper sensitivity on screen, which um is a bit peculiar. And you’ve also got right here a volume scroller and a brightness scroller. So, that is pretty neat, I got to say, to be able to use the screen to do lots of those functions and turn stuff off that you don’t want. But there’s one thing that is a bit strange here. Your electronic park brake is a button on the screen. I don’t really like that. Um, now if you are looking to get into your climate stuff when you’ve got CarPlay, as you see, just scroll up and then you can do that. Or you could say, “Hello, Cherry.” You can tell me temperature to 23°. Okay, there we go. You’ve got that tech there if you want to use it. You’ve got um the onscreen controls for your fan. So, you do have to sort of get used to how it all behaves. Um if you are one of those people who doesn’t like touchscreen controls, you might not necessarily like this screen and the way that it all behaves, but um yeah, you just tap it and then you’ll be able to go back into the screen. You don’t have to muck around with the vent controls on screen. They are actual physical vents, which is great. Um, and you’ve also got some buttons like your research and your demyisters on the screen there, too. Now, in terms of the other controls for the settings of the car, as I said, there’s plenty of different adjustability in here. You can keep an eye on your energy management stuff. Uh, see how much range you’ve got left, for instance. Change drive settings if you want to change between modes. Um, and there’s also a quick controls panel there if you do want to make some adjustments. you do have to do the um mirrors through the touchdown screen. Well, you don’t have to do it through there, but you can. Um so, if you want to adjust your side mirrors, you can do that. Uh but look, you’ll get used to this screen. It’s actually far more intuitive and snappy than the existing screen, and it makes a big difference to the experience in here, I’ve got to say. Now, in front of the driver, there is another screen, as you can see right there. There is no bloody way it’s 30° outside, people. It’s about 15. Uh, but it is a pretty simple screen to get your head around. Down here, you’ll see you’ve got your total driving range or your petrol driving range and then also your EV battery range. And you can configure this screen to show you a few different bits of information as you can see there. Um, and it’s pretty easy to get your head around. I like it. Now, I don’t like some of these controls. For instance, um, these piano black finishes on the steering wheel. They’re not great. Uh, and yeah, it’ll just take some getting used to in terms of like how you use the cruise control, for instance. And you’ve also got a gear selector on the stalk, which is a bit peculiar if you’re wondering. You’ve got light controls down there if you want to use them and a petrol filler cap button. Um, and on this side, you’ve got some wiper controls, too, and your blinkers. So, um, yeah, it does take a little bit of getting used to, but you’ll be fine. There’s a wireless phone charger here as I showed you. Drive mode and EV HEV mode. You can turn off some elements of the air con there as well if you want to and decent sized cup holders. A decent size center console bin down there. In here you’ve got some stuff and a center console bin. You’ve got a glove box which is a decent size as well. Bottle holders in the doors. Nice finishing on the doors too. Soft materials there. Soft up the top. this same sort of neoprene finish here and the seat finish. I mean, you might not love this uh particular finish, but I think it’s pretty comfy and it feels nice under the buttock. Uh now up here, we’ve got vanity mirrors with drop down lighting situations. Um so that’s good. It means it should stop you from doing your makeup and trying to see over the wheel while you’re driving or something like that. or even I’ve seen it bloke shaving in this car which is gross. Um these also slide which is excellent. You don’t get a overhead grab handle for the driver but you do for the other seats which is great. Um but there’s one thing that just needs to change with this car just needs to. The reality is it just needs to change. It’s this mirror. So what are you supposed to see out the rear view mirror um the back of the car and further beyond? Well, you can’t really see through this. Honestly, it’s pretty bad. Um, you can see sort of the faces of those sitting in the back, but not much more. And it sort of feels like that is designed to be a passenger view mirror rather than a proper actual rear view mirror. It’s the biggest letdown of this cabin, and that’s saying something. It’s a pretty bloody nice cabin design. Cockpit feel is excellent. There’s no head-up display. Does that matter? I don’t think so, personally. But let’s jump into the second row and see what the space is like for a grown-up behind another grown-up. Rightyo. This seat is set for me at 6′ tall. Um, I’ve got plenty of space here, people. Lots and lots of leg room. Decent foot room as well. Knees are a little bit up, but that’s okay. It’s not too bad. And the headroom back here is really, really good. Now, the high-grade version does get the big panoramic glass roof with a shade. This base model still gets a nice light finish, which does make it feel a bit airy. I like that about it. You’ve got grab handles up the top. There are lights as well, which is a nice bonus on the outsides as well, which is good. There’s little hooks here for your coats if you want to put them there. And there are mat pockets on the seatbacks. There are bottle holders in the doors. There are soft finishes on the doors as well, which is nice. And directional air vents, too, as you would expect. So, two vents there. There’s a little storage area down below with some USB ports, too. And these seats also slide. So, if you need to make a bit more space for someone behind, you can. You can get into a much more uncomfortable second row position or a much more comfortable third row position. Now, let me show you some of the other inclusions in the back here. You do have a flip down armrest with some cup holders, which is nice. And you’ve got ISOIX points here. Three top tethers on this seat. And they are a 60/40 split. So you’ve got the 60% side on here. That one can slide forward and aft as well. And this one can well do a neat trick to help you get into the back row. Let’s do that now. So there is this little lever up the top here. So if I pull that, it will tilt forward and it will slide. It does take a little bit of heft, but you will be able to get it done. Now let me jump into the third row here and see what the space is like. Before I do, you can see there no ISOIX points. So, might not be ideal for those who are actually going to plan to use their sevenseater with lots of kids in it. But hey, let me jump in and show you what the room is like for a grown-up. So, with this seat set to a position where the person ahead of me would either have to have very little legs or no legs at all, um it would be reasonably comfortable back here. But, as you can see, when it’s set to a more generous position, uh leg room is going to be quite tight for someone my size at least. Like if you’ve got a little kid who doesn’t need to be in a booster seat, they’ll fit here fine. There are no ISO fix points. As I said, no top tethers either. And there’s also a few things missing in terms of the amenities. You don’t get any vents in the back. That’s not unusual, but it is probably a bit frustrating. And there are some um storage points on the sides here. That’s a nice hard thing to rest your elbow on. There’s also back there a 12volt power socket, which is for the boot, but you could use it for the back seat. and a little bag hook, which I didn’t show you in the boot section. But yeah, the view out is okay. Not terrible, but not terrific. And headroom is tight, I would say. So, you probably could consider this a sometimes sevenseater, but if you need the bonus seats, at least you’ve got them, right? Or you could have a big five-seater. Think of it that way. Under the bonnet of this super hybrid SUV is a 1.5 L 4-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, which offers up a decent amount of grunt in its own right. And it’s teamed up to a single-speed dedicated hybrid transmission. That’s what they call it. And it’s got front-wheel drive, too. Now, it’s also got an electric motor integrated into the mix to offer you up 150 kW and 310 new m of EV power. And that all combines to give it a very, very good amount of grunt. Uh, no combined power and torque figures though, which is a bit of a shame. But let’s talk about range and charging, cuz this one stacks up pretty well. On the passenger side is your petrol filler cap. On the other side is your electric charge port. And yes, it does have AC and DC charging. I’ll put the AC charging rate on your screen now, and that is pretty decent, I would say, for this kind of car. And DC, well, it’s up to 42 kW, and it should mean that you’ll be able to do a 30 to 80% charge in a reasonably short amount of time if you need to do that at a public charger. It’s pretty good in terms of that. Now, it does have an 18 or so kWh LFP battery pack, which is good for a claimed 90ish kilometers of EV driving range. And I’ll tell you what I achieved in the efficiency and EV range section a little bit later on in this video, so stick around. I think probably one of the hardest things to get used to with this car will be the fact that you don’t have a button to press. And you know, lots of cars now have a button that you press to start it or turn the key, but in this car, you just sort of sit in the driver’s seat, put your seat belt on, and as long as your foot’s hard on the brake, you’ll be able to select a gear and go. And I think I mean, that might take some getting used to. It might actually make you feel like you’ve forgotten something when you first do it for the first couple of times, cuz that’s sort of how I felt. And my gut feeling is I won’t be alone there. But don’t beat yourself up. There’s a lot happening in your life. You’re a parent clearly if you’re considering this car. And look, you’re not going crazy. Anyway, let’s talk about the drive experience. Uh, this is pretty bloody good. I’ve got to say, for the money, I am impressed. I’m not saying that it’s the best sevenseater that you could buy in terms of the drive experience. If you want that, maybe go and have a look at a Scoda Kodiak or something like that. You just have to pay more money to get a far more enthusiastic drive experience. But this is not unenthusiastic. It’s just not super duper thrilling. I don’t think it needs to be though. Quite frankly, it is doing exactly what it needs to do, and that is to be comfortable, to be relatively predictable in terms of the driving dynamics, but also to have the EV setup sorted. And it does like I drove in EV mode from the Sydney airport area all the way up to the mid central coast in fully electric mode and that was about 70 something kilometers of EV driving in a mix of different traffic situations and it did it all fine. There was only one time where we were going up a steep hill, one of those steep hills, you know, if you’ve driven up the uh motorway from Sydney, there’s a steep hill there and uh it kicked the engine into life. But I put it back into EV mode and it just sort of did what it was supposed to do after that. Now, the car can drive up to 120 ks an hour in full EV if the battery is over 30% charge level, which is pretty impressive. Then, if it isn’t, the petrol engine will kick into life. You do have regen braking that can help you recuperate some potentially lost energy to feed back to the battery pack, too. So that’s a nice bonus. Now the thing is that you do have selectability with those modes. So you can pick between EV and HEV or hybrid and that is promising in its own way. And I just think that you are getting a very very smooth and refined and enjoyable driving experience for this car whether it’s in EV mode or hybrid mode. I’ve driven in both and I’ve actually found that it’s very very quiet when the engine is running. Like super duper quiet. Um so that’s a plus in its own right because it means that you don’t have to feel like you’re frazzled when you get where you’re going. Apart from maybe the winging kids in the back. But look, it is very very enjoyable for the most part. Extremely likable. And while it’s not necessarily the biggest and best SUV in this segment, it’s not the greatest thing to drive, I don’t think it really needs to be. And one of the things that you might struggle to come to terms with, though, is the steering. It’s a little bit difficult to judge in some situations and seems to be even more so depending on the mode that you’re in. I found it to be okay. It’s just for uh higher speed open road driving. You might not be able to feel like it’s a dynamic tool. It’s fine around town and that’s probably where it’s going to spend most of its time and it does turn around pretty quickly as well. So, you do have a good turning circle. The other thing I like about it, Continental tires as standard. So, that is a nice inclusion. They have great grip and they’re quiet too, which is another bonus. The ride comfort is very, very, very good. I am impressed. It does feel like it’s made for family requirements. And while there is a little bit of body roll, who cares because it’s comfortable, right? That’s my whole thought process with this car. Um, it is comfortable and it’s really likable as I keep saying. And another thing that gives me the big thumbs ups is the safety systems in this car. They are not too annoying. In fact, they’re barely even noticeable. And that is a huge tick of approval for me because well in a lot of other cars I have to get in and turn everything off like the lane keeping assistance like the speed sign recognition like the driver monitoring camera system. In other cars those technologies can make the drive experience feel terrible in this car because they are done well. It doesn’t feel terrible. In fact it’s very enjoyable this car to drive on the freeway. Uh the speed sign system doesn’t bing and bong at you can turn off the volume if you want it off and it will stay off. And also the lanekeeping assist feature well when it’s on cruise control and it does push you around a little bit. I didn’t like that all that much, but if you don’t want that on, you don’t have to have the lane keeping on and it means that you’re getting a better drive experience as a result. And the driver monitoring camera system, well, it’s not annoying either because it actually offers you some leniency. So, if you are sitting here playing on the screen, maybe you’re just doing something. There you go. So, it was a few seconds before it went, “Hey, mate, you should probably be paying attention.” And hey, I like it for that. I’m actually pretty grateful for the fact that it’s not annoying. All of that makes it stack up so well in my mind. But let’s talk about the fuel consumption and EV range that we need to because well, that’s the decision maker here, right? The EV driving range claim for this three row plug-in hybrid SUV is 95 kilometers. Now, that is based on well, a relatively lenient combined driving cycle. And surprisingly, I got relatively close to that, just over 70ks on this test. Now, that’s not the usual sort of driving I do when I test these vehicles cuz I’m on a launch event for the plug-in hybrid to go 8. And look, I think if you can get 70, 75, 80, even 85ks of EV driving range, which I think is definitely possible in this car, then you’ll be very happy with it. Now, beyond that, um the fuel consumption number is well, one of those rather unbelievable low numbers for this vehicle. So, the claim is 1.3 L per 100ks. That is hard to believe and I would say very hard to achieve. That might be possible for the first 100 km of driving, but for the next 100, well, you’re going to have to rely more on the petrol engine, and you won’t have a full battery to take advantage of. But over this test drive, I’ve done another 100ks, and I’ve seen a pretty impressive number. You’ll see it on your screen now. And for a three row hybrid SUV, that is better than acceptable. In fact, I would say it’s exceptional for this kind of car. But you need to keep in mind the fuel requirement is 95 ron premium unleted. So yeah, it needs the good juice. And the fuel tank capacity is on screen now. But you should be able to achieve, if the numbers are right, uh about 1,200 ks from a full tank and a full charge. Pretty impressive, isn’t it? Cherry hasn’t confirmed whether there is a five-star ANCAP rating for this model just yet, but for the petrol version that came before it, it had five stars. And this one does have a lot of carryover technology and equipment as standard. So, you’ve got autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection. There’s lane keeping assistance and adaptive cruise control. You can do intelligent cruise assist if you want. So, it can do some stopping, starting, and steering for you if you wish. That speed sign recognition system is not shitful. It’s actually very agreeable. And there’s also a driver monitoring camera system which doesn’t get on your nerves unless you’re actually distracted. So that’s actually really bloody impressive. Now there’s other things like blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert with braking. There’s parking sensors all around the car. You get a surround view camera standard as well. And that is just a lovely plus for a vehicle like this that’s made for families. It means that it will be safe and feel safe as well. And when it comes to the airbag coverage, you’ve got heaps. There’s dual front, there’s front center airbag, there’s front side airbags, there’s second row side airbags, and there’s curtain airbags that go almost all the way to the very back. Almost. Cherry Australia offers a 7-year unlimited kilometer warranty for its model range. And if you choose one of the plug-in hybrid or EV models, you’re getting an 8-year unlimited kilometer battery warranty as well. Now, the servicing stuff, let’s talk about it. The service intervals are on your screen now, and I’ll also throw up there the average service price over the cap price plan. Now, the servicing cap price plan is 7 years, which is pretty promising. And if you service with Cherry, you’ll also get up to 7 years of roadside assistance included, which is not bad at all. Not only is the super hybrid version of the Tigo 8 amazing value for money, but it’s also practical and thoughtful and really comfortable to drive. So, it could be a great choice for those who are looking for this type of car and they want EV driving range as part of their mindset. And look, if that’s you, I reckon it’s well worth a test drive. Tell me if you like it. Tell me if you’d buy one. Thanks for watching. Thanks for subscribing. I’ll see you when I see you.
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That’s my advice until there’s a better option, because frankly, the Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid is UNBEATABLE right now.
No other SUV on the market has three rows of seats and a plug-in hybrid powertrain like this for this kind of money. In fact, you could get 2 of these for the price of a Kia Sorento PHEV!
As it stands, Chery has this space all to itself on the budget end of the 7-seater PHEV SUV scale. But that will change! More are coming soon…
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ALTERNATIVES:
Kia Sorento PHEV – https://youtu.be/7TtwodfXHII
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – https://youtu.be/SLTKe8Bqqaw
BYD Sealion 6 (yes, it’s only a five-seater!) – https://youtu.be/c9DZekeHF3E
MORE: PHEVs – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBy4fvI8Hf_TPEGY0lt4DN_eX7D6XwlzN
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00:00 Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid
00:33 Is it the right price?
02:28 What are the best alternatives?
03:54 Is it the right size?
05:43 Interior
15:04 Under the bonnet
15:47 Range and charging
16:40 Driving
22:26 Efficiency and EV range
24:12 Is it safe?
25:27 Ownership
26:04 Verdict
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