2026 Jaecoo J5 review: International first drive

The Jaecoo J5 hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a new small SUV from the ever-expanding Chery portfolio of products targeting the affordable end of the market. Built on essentially the same underpinnings as the quirky Chery C5, the Jaecoo J5 offers a more traditional and practical SUV profile that, like its larger J7 sibling, unashamedly riffs on traditional Land Rover design cues.

Unlike the C5, the J5 looks set to land with a hybrid drivetrain too, in addition to petrol and full battery-electric offerings, and it’s the HEV we drove on a two-day range test deep into the mountains south of Chery’s Wuhu home.

Mating the C5’s 1.5-litre turbocharged engine with an electric motor and a tiny 1.8kWh battery, the J5 on paper should be a bit more punchy than its lethargic cousin, but it’s in the area of efficiency that it’s looking to make waves.

Expected to significantly undercut rivals like the Mazda CX-30 when it lands early next year, it’ll also bring a decent chunk of standard kit and some nifty tech as well.

Ahead of the launch, Chery hasn’t provided any figures for the J5, but with the Chery C5 opening at $29,990 drive-away without a hybrid drivetrain, we’d expect a premium of around $4000-$5000 on top of that. That would bring it in above the $30,000 mark, close to the base Mazda CX-30's $34,060 (plus on-road costs) price, but with hybrid assistance. 

For that starting price, you can expect to get 18-inch alloys, ambient lighting, a 13.2-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, six speakers, and a whole bunch of safety systems on top. 

Any more premium variants would likely introduce a panoramic roof, powered tailgate, and heated and cooled eco-leather front seats, with the possibility of auto-parking as well.

This is all pure speculation at present, of course, so take it with a pinch of salt, but this is how we’d expect things to play out.

Climb inside and you’ll see the J5 is a significantly different proposition from the C5, and one that takes on a more mature and usable format. Gone are the naff capacitive switches on the dashboard, the integrated dual-screen setup, and the drive-shifter on the centre console. These are replaced by a commanding 13.2-inch vertical touchscreen as the centrepiece. 

Resting up against the top rail, the angled screen removes all but the drive mode, hazard light, and door lock switches from the dashboard, with almost everything else now embedded in the screen.

It’s not as bad as it sounds, with the temperature controls being draggable directly via the toolbar. But, annoyingly, you have to go into the ventilation menu to change the fan speed.

Most other things are relatively easy to find via a drop-down menu, including the on/off button, and the system is quick enough to use, but some will no doubt decry the lack of physical controls. 

Beneath it, there’s a 50W ventilated wireless phone charger and a pair of cupholders, and there are storage options on top and underneath the centre console, as well as space for sunglasses behind the screen itself.

It’s certainly not the most stimulating interior to look at with simple, horizontal lines, an integrated digital instrument cluster, and a lot of black, but materials on the upper surfaces are generally soft to the touch with the hard bits further down.

Seat adjustment is pretty minimal, limited to six-way adjustment on the driver’s seat, but all-round visibility is good.

Nobody in the J5 is going to be complaining about space, with both the front and rear rows offering abundant leg room and quite acceptable base-cushion thigh support in the back. The front seats also benefit from heating and ventilation, and the large panoramic roof also gets an electronic sunblind for our hot summers.

Despite the bags of space for occupants, the J5 still manages an impressive 480 litres of space in the boot, outscoring the Mazda CX-30, Nissan Juke, and Chery C5 by some margin. Meanwhile, the folding second row unlocks up to 1180L.

Coupled with the electronic tailgate, the J5 makes a convincing case for a compact but spacious family mover.

Sharing much of its architecture with the somewhat disappointing C5, you’d expect the J5 to suffer from many of the same issues as the sister car, but it’s clear Chery hasn’t just flipped the badges here.

Instead, the J5 rides with a maturity and conviction you just won’t find in the C5, proving dependable and planted during cornering and braking, and sporting a reasonable amount of steering heft in the process. 

It's not particularly engaging or sensitive – a Mazda CX-30 will make a far greater fist of stirring some kind of emotion – but it at least rides compliantly on poor surfaces and won’t shake your fillings out. It’s also quiet enough at high speed on a wet motorway, with cabin sound insulation quite acceptable for this level under normal loads. 

When pushed, however, it’s a different story. The J5 combines a 1.5-litre turbocharged engine and electric motor on the front axle, as well as a one-speed dedicated hybrid transmission (DHT), to form what Chery calls its Super Hybrid System, or SHS-H for HEV. Much of the time the engine whirrs away without much fuss, but when under load, or in Sport mode, it becomes noticeably intrusive.

Not that the J5 HEV is really a car you’ll want to thrash. This drivetrain rewards a more steady and patient user, sipping fuel like they’re the last drops on Earth. Our test run took us through more than 560km of rainy highway and tight and twisty mountain roads, up and down.

Despite our fuel gauge showing 823km remaining when full, we still had 343km remaining at the end, with average fuel consumption hovering around 4.3 litres per 100 kilometres for much of the drive.

As such, it’s fair to say we could have managed around 950km of total range if we’d exhausted the system without trying particularly hard to save fuel, with efficiency around 30 per cent better than that claimed by the Mazda CX-30.

Don’t expect much in the way of pace, however. A 0–100km/h sprint of 7.9 seconds is leisurely at best, and even when accelerating from 80 to 120km/h in Sport mode, it’s hard to feel any discernible improvement between the modes.

In a world of increasing electrification, it’s easy to think a HEV might not be the most advanced option right now. But with charging at home a difficult task for many, having a product that reduces fuel consumption considerably – while offering all the space and creature comforts one might need – feels like a winning strategy. 

As such, the J5 isn’t a car you’ll likely pick with your heart. It’s not going to stir you from outside or behind the wheel, but it’s very much a product you can choose with a clear head. 

Spacious both for occupants and luggage, well equipped, impressively frugal, inoffensively styled, and with good tech, the J5 is the grown-up option. One made more appealing with an eight-year warranty that helps dispel any badge unfamiliarity. 

If priced as expected when it lands in February 2026, the J5 will certainly warrant a second glance or two from buyers who would automatically go Korean or Japanese, offering quite a bit more for quite a bit less. 

After graduating from the Automotive Journalism master’s course at Coventry University, Mark Rainford embarked upon a career in and around the automotive industry that has taken in the UK, Germany, and now China. Residing in the latter for the majority of the last decade, he is our boots-on-the-ground expert for the world’s most dynamic automotive market.

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