This makes the Jaecoo J7 the cheapest PHEV in Malaysia to date, and by some margin to boot!
Arriving a little bit later than its initially intended end-2024 local launch, the Jaecoo J7 PHEV has nevertheless finally made its way to Malaysia. And arriving in 2WD form, the big news for this plug-in hybrid Land Rover-esque SUV is for it to come wearing a price tag of RM 158,800, which is over half of the next cheapest PHEV (the RM 338,888 Mercedes-Benz C350e) over here!
And for the curious, here’s the prices for the full Jaecoo J7 range locally:
- ICE 2WD: RM 138,800
- ICE 4WD: RM 148,800
- PHEV 2WD: RM 158,800
Making its maiden arrival into South East Asia with its Malaysian debut, the major distinction with this locally-assembled PHEV J7 relative to its existing ICE counterpart is naturally to be what lies under its hood. Jaecoo is currently dubbing this electrified powertrain of its J7 PHEV the Super Hybrid System (SHS), and it consists of a 1.5 turbocharged petrol four cylinder and front-mounted electric motor pairing, that is then all hooked up to a 1-speed Dedicated Hybrid Transmission.
This electrified setup is currently quoted to output a combined 347 PS and 525 Nm of torque, which is to be a fair bit more than the already more-than-reasonable 197 PS and 290 Nm figure churned out by its purely petrol-powered counterpart. And it is likely thanks to that substantial increase in grunt that the nearly 1.8-tonne J7 PHEV could still shave off over 0.5 seconds in its century sprint time relative to its all-paw ICE sibling, achieving it in a spritely 8.5 seconds.
Though for those who think that horsepower and torque figure is impressive, they really ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Such is as with a massive 18.3 kWh battery pack, Jaecoo is currently quoting that this J7 PHEV can travel up to 106 km (NEDC) on a full charge.
What more is that even if the battery is depleted, its PHEV system can still somehow see for the petrol-powered component to still sip fuel to the tune of 4.77l/100 km. And perhaps most impressive of all is that with a 60-litre fuel tank on board, Jaecoo is currently touting that this plug-in hybrid J7 can travel up to 1,300 km when both its battery and fuel tank are topped up to the brim!
Also, the J7 PHEV is in a rather unique categories of PHEVs that allow for DC fast charging (up to 40 kW), which tops up the battery from 30% to 80% in 20 minutes. At 6.6 kW max AC charging capability instead, a full charge will take less than four hours.
Now moving on from the powertrain to the rest of the vehicle meanwhile, despite having drive sent to only the front two wheels, the PHEV J7 largely follows the (more premium) AWD ICE trim for its kit list. This therefore sees it to net the larger 14.8-inch central portrait screen within, which is to be complemented by a 10.25-inch digital instrument display.
There are however to be a few subtle differences between the PHEV and ICE variant, and here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of them:
Exterior:
- 19-inch Aero Rims
- Aero wing mirrors
- Chequered flag motif on door moulding
- Hidden exhaust tips
- PHEV tailgate emblem
- New two-tone Olive Grey colour
Interior:
- Column-mounted gear selector
- PHEV graphics for digital driver’s display
- Simpler door car design with conventional grab handles (ICE has gun grip-style grab handles)
- Cinema tonneau cover (aka white underside)
- Bigger boot volume (500 l vs 424 l for ICE, due to removal of spare tyre)
Powertrain & Chassis:
- EV-only drive mode
- Softer suspension
The J7 PHEV is currently available in three colours: Khaki White, Carbon Crystal Black and Moonlight Silver. Interestingly though, 100 units of J7 PHEV will be available in Khaki White, after which Jaecoo will subsequently introduce the aforementioned Olive Grey option.
All J7 PHEV SUVs are currently offered with a seven-year/150,000 km vehicle warranty, as well as an eight-year/160,000 km EV component warranty (battery, power motor and power motor controller). The eight-year warranty further provides a 1 to 1 exchange when the state of health (SOH) of the battery falls below 70% during the warranty tenure.
In conjunction with the launch, Jaecoo has further announced a special early bird package which qualifies all existing J7 PHEV bookings and bookings placed up to March 2nd 2025 for a 10-year/1,000,000 km extended warranty for the engine and EV components. All J7 PHEVs sold during this early bird period will also be come with a free V2L cable.
