Styling
The Tiggo 8 is, amazingly, even more anodyne in the styling stakes than the smaller Tiggo 7. They're not quite visually identical save for the additional metal in the midriff of the former, with subtle differences to their light clusters, front grilles, bumpers and so on to be pointed out, but the easiest way of telling the two apart (aside from taking in the boot badging, of course) is looking at the D-pillar treatment of the lower window line. On the 7, it kicks up in what might almost be called an 'interesting' flourish of the designer's pen; on the 8, there's no such aesthetic whimsy.
Again, though, and rather like the Tiggo 7, while the 8 is entirely derivative of SUVs we've seen countless times before from a wide range of rival manufacturers, it's not actively ugly or ill-proportioned. It's just... a bit bland, is all. Even sitting on the elegant 19-inch wheels which are fitted to all models, there's not much about the Chery Tiggo 8 which stands out. Oh, and if you're wondering, it's exactly the same width as a Tiggo 7 (1,842mm without including the mirrors), but it's 220mm longer overall (4,720mm) of which 40mm is incorporated into a stretched wheelbase (2,710mm). That growth in stature is what allows the Tiggo 8 to accommodate an extra pair of passengers
and to qualify as D-segment, although it is weirdly 46mm lower than the C-segment Tiggo 7.
Interior
On first glance, the 8's cabin is even grander and more amenable than that of the Tiggo 7. There's a higher transmission tunnel which separates and simultaneously ensconces the front-seat occupants that bit more emphatically, while interesting patterns on the door cards and seat upholstery help to give the Chery an upmarket feel.
However, it does things differently with the human-machine interface, centring more of its functions (including almost all the climate controls) on the giant 15.6-inch infotainment touchscreen,s at the expense of physical buttons. There's also a smaller 10.25-inch instrument cluster, which includes the next-to-useless 'Last 50km' trip computer readout we last saw in the distantly related
Omoda 9 SHS. It made little conventional sense there and it still doesn't in the Tiggo 8, showing two fuel consumption figures that neither tally with each other nor with what you'd expect considering how you're driving the car. And the less said about the seemingly randomised electrical consumption figure above, the better.
We also couldn't turn off the over-zealous driver monitor system in the Tiggo 8, whereas we could in the Tiggo 7, and in the end we simply concluded that while the bigger Chery SUV's interior might look flashier and be more spacious (the latter point for obvious reasons), we think the smaller model does many things a lot better - including its twin 12.3-inch displays with a proper, resettable trip computer in the cluster.
Practicality
Good news on the seating front, because while we'd still say the Chery Tiggo 8 is more of a '5+2' model than a full-on seven-seater, one six-foot tester managed to get comfortable in the third row of chairs. In order to do that, obviously there has to be some shuffling of the other seats inside the Chery's cabin the will ultimately limit legroom for the lankiest of occupants, but for two adults up front and then five kids in rows two and three, the Tiggo 8 should be more than able to handle the job.
Less impressive is the boot space, because with all seats in use there's just 117 litres of storage behind row three. Fold those rear-most chairs down and almost 500 litres of capacity becomes available, while another feather in the Tiggo 8's cap is that it doesn't lose any cargo litres as a PHEV when compared to the plain-petrol drivetrain offered lower down the model line-up.
Performance
The same two powertrains found in the Chery Tiggo 7 are installed in the 8, and given the bigger SUV's increase in size and also how modest we found the on-road performance of the 147hp 1.6-litre turbo-four Tiggo 7, we'd advocate going for this PHEV drivetrain as the only sensible option for the seven-seat machine.
That's not to say it's without flaws, however, the chief one being that if you flatten the throttle in the Tiggo 8 PHEV and then let go of it, the Chery continues to accelerate for a split-second or two after you've lifted off. Unnerving. It's also saddled with that bizarre and overly complicated three-speed hybrid transmission the Chery group (including Jaecoo and Omoda) has used in its other PHEVs, which is... OK, but nowhere near the best dual-clutch gearboxes you'd find in most other plug-in hybrids out there these days in terms of its overall refinement and shift speed.
The 1.5-litre engine on which this system is based is also, like the 1.6-litre petrol in the base model, a noisy thing when revved, but admirably composed at anything below the 4,000rpm threshold. And that is the zone where it is most likely to be operating in the hands of Chery Tiggo 8 owners, when all's said and done. Further, with 204hp and a meaty 365Nm of system torque served up as peaks by the PHEV drivetrain, the performance is much more acceptable in the Tiggo 8. Vicious circle it might be - add more power with the PHEV powertrain, but also add a load more weight for that additional power to have to overcome too - yet the Tiggo 8 PHEV is almost a second quicker to 62mph from rest than the 300kg-lighter Tiggo 7 ICE, which in turn speaks volumes about how much easier it is to keep up with traffic flow in the hybrid once you're on the roll.
As to economy, the truly baffling trip computer of the Tiggo 8 meant we have no idea what the real-world returns of the Chery were while we were driving about the lanes of Herefordshire on the test route, so we'll at least say the quoted 56 miles of all-electric range for the SUV is a brilliant figure for any PHEV, never mind one at this most affordable end of the market. Even if more like 30-40 miles of zero-emission motoring is more realistic.
Ride & Handling
As a bigger, heavier and seven-seat derivation of the Tiggo 7, the Tiggo 8 feels even more softly sprung and roly-poly in the corners. This, along with feel-free steering and brakes with a spongy amount of dead travel at the top of the pedal's action, dissuades you from any sort of cornering aggression - if you do decide to plough on with things, then you will literally plough on in scruffy understeer, which is all the Chery Tiggo 8 will do when it (easily) relinquishes its grip on the tarmac. Try and power out of these moments, and you'll also find that a front-wheel-drive car like this, from a relatively 'new' manufacturer, which is trying to flow 365Nm through one axle alone has some notable traction issues. Even in the dry.
Therefore, it's far more preferable to drive the Tiggo 8 well within itself, where it's a more than tolerable and agreeable machine. The ride, as on the Tiggo 7, isn't exceptional, as transverse ridges and pothole edges send a big shudder through the superstructure of the Chinese SUV, but for most of the time it is quiet, it is comfortable and it is supremely easy-going. For nothing more than enacting the humdrum process of simply getting from A to B, there's little that's particularly wrong with the Tiggo 8's lacklustre dynamics.
Value
As Chery has already laid claim to 'the cheapest PHEV' in the UK with the Tiggo 7, the bigger Tiggo 8 doesn't quite have that calling card. It does, though, come with an absolute wealth of standard kit in basic Aspire guise, only adding even more luxuries in Summit spec as tested here, and there's the same four-strong range structure for the 8 as there is for the seven: two specs, two engines, any combo of these you like. The same £3,000 price walk to go from an Aspire to a Summit Tiggo 8 is maintained, as is the five grand needed to switch out the 1.6-litre, 147hp ICE drivetrain for this 204hp PHEV. Therefore, the car we tested, a Tiggo 8 PHEV Summit, is not only the most expensive vehicle in the 8's line-up, but also the most expensive vehicle that Chery sells here, full stop. And as it costs just £36,545 in this format, then as seven-seat, plug-in-hybrid SUVs in the D-segment go, the Chery Tiggo 8 remains a verifiable bargain.
Verdict
Slightly less talented to drive and with a vaguely infuriating interior, the Chery Tiggo 8 didn't impress us quite as much as the smaller (and cheaper) Tiggo 7. Despite that, though, it's a capable enough seven-seat SUV and provides an intriguing alternative to the far dearer mainstream elite in this sector. The Tiggo 8 might not be styled very adventurously on the outside and it has some typical 'Chinese manufacturer quirks' within, but there's not much it does terribly wrong for the money. That, we suspect, will be more than enough to garner the Chery Tiggo 8 a decent amount of sales here in the UK - provided the dealer network gets up to scratch as quickly as the company is planning.
