Styling
The Tiggo 9 looks a lot like its 7 and 8 brethren, only stretched a little bit more in all directions. It's better to reference the 9 against the 8, rather than the 7, as the latter Tiggo is a five-seater only - whereas the two bigger SUVs from Chery are both seven-seaters. The Tiggo 9 is 83mm wider and 41mm taller than the Tiggo 8, while it is also 90mm longer, all of that stretch found in a wheelbase which is now standing at 2.8 metres precisely in a body that is 4,810mm from tip to tail.
Like the Tiggos 7 and 8, the 9 isn't exactly striking in the looks department, but maybe it's just that we've got used to Chery's corporate styling by now, or maybe it's something to do with those retrotastic 20-inch alloys in the arches - they look like sort of wall decorations you'd find in the escalator wells of provincial department stores in the 1970s, which we perversely kind of like - but we find ourselves more predisposed to this Tiggo 9 than either of its forebears. It's still quite an anonymous and 'safe' design, you understand, but its enhanced size just gives this Chery SUV a little more presence and proportionality than the other two models. We like it, and we're sure others will too.
Shame that it's only available in yet another limited and rather dull palette of colours. There are just five finishes available for the Tiggo 9, with the standard and only no-cost hue being Arctic White Mist. From there, Eclipse Black, Slate Grey and Forest Green (the nicest choice) are all £500 apiece, while Nightfall Ice Grey (a matte-effect finish) will set you back £750. One of these upgrade paints, by the way, is the only thing that will increase the cost of the bells-and-whistles standard spec of this Chery SUV.
Interior
An improvement in finishing and attractive design on some of its forebears, in all three strands of the Chery Group, the cabin of the Tiggo 9 is a pleasant place to be, even if the quality of the materials used isn't exactly flawless across the board. The interface is run by a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and a large Snapdragon-powered 15.6-inch central infotainment touchscreen, and in the main this set-up works rather well, even if there's too much reliance on the latter item to run ancillaries. Also, Chery: please put all your ADAS functions in one place on the system, rather than in separate menus. Thanks.
Other tech includes wireless support for both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a standard-fit 14-speak 'immersive' Sony sound system, the 'Hello Chery' voice-controlled virtual personal assistant, and a cooled and wireless 50-watt charging pad for smartphones on the central console. All very nice. Except for the bloody trip computer in the driver's cluster.
It's one of those useless 'Last 50km' systems that isn't resettable, but worse is that its readouts are completely contradictory and therefore next to useless. As an example of what we mean about this infuriating digital invigilator, here's what it showed after our 44-mile test drive in the car. There are three symbols: a battery for the electric portion of the drivetrain; a petrol pump for the 1.5-litre turbo petrol's exertions; and then what looks like a line-graph symbol to presumably show the combined efforts of the PHEV system. And the Chery reckoned it had done a remarkable 3.9mi/kWh for the first part, a ridiculous 117.7mpg for the second, and then a far more feasible 38.7mpg for the last.
But you can see that the electrical consumption is being augmented by the assistance of the petrol part of the drivetrain, as 3.9mi/kWh is a remarkably low level of battery use, while 117.7mpg is similarly augmented by the sections where the electric motors are either running the show or assisting the petrol. So both these two pieces of data are, effectively, rendered irrelevant. The only one that matters is the last, where we achieved 38.7mpg while driving the Tiggo 9 briskly on a mix of extra-urban country and trunk roads, plus a bit of high-speed cruising on a dual carriageway. Gah. Just give us a regular, resettable trip computer, would you please?
Practicality
The appeal of the Chery Tiggo 9 is that it is a PHEV SUV, and yet it retains its seven-seat status. Rivals like the Skoda Kodiaq and Volkswagen Tayron offer seven seats if you need them, but
not in conjunction with a PHEV powertrain; you have to make do with five chairs in that instance. Therefore, the Tiggo 9 has an advantage on its dearer, less-potent rivals, even if we'd still say the third row is more of a case of '+2' seating rather than the Chery being a full-on seven-seater. Really, only kids and small adults will be happy sitting in pews six and seven of the Tiggo 9.
Further counting in its favour, though, is a big boot. With all seats in use, there's 147 litres behind the third row, which is enough for a few overnight bags or the haul you'd get from a quick trip to the supermarket (maybe not the £150-plus weekly shop, though) - but fold the rear-most chairs away and a huge 819 litres of cargo capacity is liberated, while the Chery's outright figure of 2,021 litres in two-seater format is a truly remarkable number.
Performance
The Tiggo 9 might, at casual glance, look way too similar to the Tiggo 8, but if you peruse their drivetrain data then you soon see where the gulf in class appears. Where the Tiggo 8 uses a 204hp/365Nm version of the 1.5-litre set-up, with just a single motor for front-wheel drive and a smaller 18.3kWh battery pack, this Tiggo 9 borrows a slightly detuned version of the powerful drivetrain in the distantly related
Omoda 9 SHS.
Power and torque are reduced slightly from that car's 449hp/700Nm, but figures of 428hp and 580Nm for the Tiggo 9 are not to be sniffed at, which is why it is fully 3.1 seconds quicker to 62mph than a Tiggo 8, with a 5.4-second sprint versus the lesser model's 8.5-second run. The Tiggo 9 is also all-wheel drive, because it has two electric propulsion motors (technically, it's a tri-motor PHEV as there's another e-motor in the weirdly complex, three-speed Dedicated Hybrid Transmission fitted to the Chery) and therefore can send grunt to all four wheels of the vehicle.
It's certainly way quicker than it probably needs to be, then, but in a good way. Throttle response is sharp and immediate all around the dial, as the electric motors have more than enough oomph to deal with the Tiggo 9's kerb weight on their own. But even if you do wake the 1.5-litre turbo four and ask it to go reaching for its redline, the Chery never becomes too coarse or vulgar. It also appears like the three-speed DHT has been refined since we first tried it in the Omoda 9, where it felt slightly jerky and hesitant at times. No such problems in the Tiggo 9, as the gearbox was completely imperceptible in operation and simply sent a seamless wave of power from the engine/motors to the wheels in double-quick time. Nice.
A quick word on the electrical side of the powertrain. A 34.46kWh battery is gigantic in PHEV terms, which is why Chery can claim the Tiggo 9 will go up to 91 miles on electric power alone, while its combined resources can take it up to 650 miles in one hit. But it's the charging which really catches the eye. Not the 6.6kW AC rate, which is frankly poor; no, it's the fact the Tiggo 9 can replenish its battery at a whopping 71kW DC. That's a greater level of rapid charging than even a full EV like the
Suzuki e Vitara can manage, and it should see the Chery push its battery from 30-80 per cent in just 18 minutes, if required.
Ride & Handling
Chery also seems to have got a handle on, well, handling. We're not about to say the Tiggo 9 was a thrill to chuck about, but for such a big and heavy machine with a priority on transporting big families around in comfort first and foremost, it's more than capable enough in the twisty stuff. Body lean is well controlled and the steering even has a bit of interest to it, while the Chery can also deploy its power cleanly on corner exit - there's no scrabbly wheelspin nor wash-wide understeer to report here, unless you're really,
really provoking it.
The best news is how refined and comfortable it is for simple, everyday driving duties. Aside from a few occasions where its low-speed primary ride can become a tad unsettled on poorer surfaces - the Tiggo 9 can sometimes thud through manhole covers with less grace than is strictly ideal - it can generally smooth off the worst of what the tarmac throws at its 20-inch wheels, while all of wind, tyre, engine and suspension noise are restricted to background considerations; thank the 'Silent Glass' fitted to the SUV for that level of refinement. It's easily the plushest-feeling and most assured Chery Group product we've tried so far, when it comes to the sophisticated manners it can summon up while it's on the move. It's definitely a lot closer to its established competitors, from a dynamic perspective, than either the Tiggo 7 or Tiggo 9, that's for sure.
Value
For its other two models, Chery has an Aspire and Summit trim-level hierarchy, but for the Tiggo 9 it is simply sold in the upper, generously equipped specification. That means all of the sorts of items that might be cost-options on some rivals are fitted from the off here, including highlights such as the 20-inch wheels, a '540'-degree camera system, full LED exterior lighting including dynamic indicators, front seats which are electrically adjustable (12-way driver, six-way passenger), heated, ventilated and massaging, heated and ventilated seats in the outer positions of row two, a heated steering wheel, puddle lamps, eco-leather upholstery, an electrically powered tailgate, the panoramic sunroof, a top-end 14-speaker Sony sound system, and wireless smartphone charging.
Verdict
Showing how quickly Chinese car manufacturers can respond to critical appraisal of their vehicles, the Chery Tiggo 9 appears to represent a step up from previous models from all three companies in this particular fold; it has better driving manners, slicker performance, superior interior quality and a generally more polished air than any Chery, Jaecoo or Omoda we've tried previously.
Sure, the Tiggo 9 is still not perfect - the styling is anonymous, some of the onboard tech is a faff to use (and the less said about its trip computer, the better), and the final row of seating remains an occasional-use affair. But this is easily the most convincing effort at luxury the Chery Group has served up so far, and bookended by the equally likeable (yet instead focused on great value)
Jaecoo E5 at the opposite end of the organisation's product portfolio, the Tiggo 9 shows that Chery is taking big steps in the right direction for European customer tastes. In short, this is an excellent seven-seat PHEV SUV, that won't break the bank to buy and run, which is more than capable of taking the fight to the leading lights of the establishment in this market sector.
