Jaecoo J7 PHEV

[Tianmo]

On 5/2/2025 at 11:49 AM, Terence2112 said:

When I test drove, it’s seamless. Can’t hear the engine switching to and fro. The engine also charges the battery at the same time, and it caps the SOC at 15%, which means there’s never a time where the car is just lugging a dead battery. 

I believe thats how all PHEV works. It will never run the battery totally flat, keeping 10-15% for the car to function as a HEV. Thats why I am interested to know how it drives as a HEV. But guess we wont know until we get on the highway at speeds beyond the EV range. 

PHEV is also my preferred choice, but selection quite limited. 

[Stary]

On 5/2/2025 at 12:00 PM, Terence2112 said:

Yeah, that’s why I’m sold at it. And the 60L fuel tank and 18.7kwh battery offers a range of 1300km. 
 

that’s like 3 weeks plus of my routine driving.

btw, I’m not a paid sponsor from jaecoo

Enjoy ur new drive bro. A lot of car for the money and save lots of fuel!

Good to see this car more often on SG roads in the future. 👍

Edited May 2, 2025 by Stary

[steveting99]

@Terence2112 My main concern on the Jaecoo J7 PHEV (and PHEV in general) is the battery pack degradation due to the constant charge / discharge experienced under normal every day use. With a battery pack capacity of 18.3kWhr, the J7 PHEV battery is around 1/4 the size of what I would expect on a pure EV and hence will experience 4x more charge/discharge cycles. 

A few BMW PHEV owners have found out the hard way on sevre battery degradation after 5 years of use as advised by eleong in his post on the BMW owners thread here: 

 Unfortunately both the distributor for BMW in Singapore and its dealer (BMW Asia and PML) are running away from BMW's stated battery warranty of 6 years / 160,000 kms. This is all to avoid the costly replacement of the battery pack.   

Understand that Jaecoo J7 PHEV uses a more robust LFP chemistry on the battery cells - which can withstand 2x more charge/discharge cycles compared to NCM/NCA battery cell type. Would suggest to get a minimum State of Health (SoH) (also referred as battery pack capacity) that Chery/Jaecoo guarantees on the battery pack and ask for a full replacement if the SoH drops below this level after 10 years or what ever kms its rated for in writing. Also get the battery degradation curve to check against as time goes by as proof that the batteries are not defective.  

[Kar_lover]

On 5/2/2025 at 11:49 AM, Terence2112 said:

When I test drove, it’s seamless. Can’t hear the engine switching to and fro. The engine also charges the battery at the same time, and it caps the SOC at 15%, which means there’s never a time where the car is just lugging a dead battery. 

Yes i considered the J7 and even joined the SG Owners FB page. 

 

The reason it is seamless is because at ALL times, the wheels are driven directly by the motor. What changes is whether the battery and/or the engine that is powering the motor (which turns the wheels). Hence although it has an engine, it doesn't have a multi-speed gearbox (it uses those single speed gear like normal EVs) and therefore does not directly turn the wheels.

 

 

[Terence2112]

On 5/2/2025 at 12:52 PM, Kar_lover said:

Yes i considered the J7 and even joined the SG Owners FB page. 

 

The reason it is seamless is because at ALL times, the wheels are driven directly by the motor. What changes is whether the battery and/or the engine that is powering the motor (which turns the wheels). Hence although it has an engine, it doesn't have a multi-speed gearbox (it uses those single speed gear like normal EVs) and therefore does not directly turn the wheels.

 

 

I see. Did you eventually get the Jaecoo? 

[Kar_lover]

On 5/2/2025 at 1:00 PM, Terence2112 said:

I see. Did you eventually get the Jaecoo? 

For my own personal reasons I ended up with a pure EV. Nothing to do with the car. Wondering why u didn't wait until this Saturday EXPO to sign? Maybe got additional promo offers?

[Terence2112]

On 5/2/2025 at 1:03 PM, Kar_lover said:

For my own personal reasons I ended up with a pure EV. Nothing to do with the car. Wondering why u didn't wait until this Saturday EXPO to sign? Maybe got additional promo offers?

They claimed the offers now are already the expo offers. Haha. 

[Theoldjaffa]

On 5/2/2025 at 11:48 AM, Terence2112 said:

EV range is about 80. Actually, yes, the bugbear is when the battery is not charged and the ICE engine lugs the empty battery which then affects fuel economy. 
 

but this one abit different. The battery is never discharged to more than 15%. When that happens, the hybrid petrol engine will take over and at the same time, charges the battery. so the SOC is always going up and down. 

At low speeds up to 40km/hr, it’s pure EV mode. 
 

when I test drove it and speed it at 70 to 80, I couldn’t hear the engine growling. So either their technology is superior or the car is equipped with 20 times of acoustic glass.

 

Good to know. Thanks for sharing.

Im not here to be confrontational or anything ah, pls dun misunderstand.

what I hope to learn is, what’s the USP of PHEV vs a normal hybrid that made you choose it?

cos to my knowledge, a normal hybrid also can operate at pure EV mode up till a certain speed, and its self charging which removes the “inconvenience” of having to plug in to charge and pay fees.

[Terence2112]

On 5/2/2025 at 1:34 PM, Theoldjaffa said:

Good to know. Thanks for sharing.

Im not here to be confrontational or anything ah, pls dun misunderstand.

what I hope to learn is, what’s the USP of PHEV vs a normal hybrid that made you choose it?

cos to my knowledge, a normal hybrid also can operate at pure EV mode up till a certain speed, and its self charging which removes the “inconvenience” of having to plug in to charge and pay fees.

Sure, no problem. We are all here to learn with one another. 

what got me sold is the range. It’s rather wicked for a full tank and single charge. So I have chargers at my work place, and I can pluck it in to charge, which on paper could get me 2 days of driving in full EV. 
 

I calculated. Based on the size of the battery, a full charge is at about $8 to $9. So I can have a full tank of petrol, charge twice a week at about $18 in total, and just pump petrol once every 2 mths. 

[inlinesix]

On 5/2/2025 at 1:34 PM, Theoldjaffa said:

Good to know. Thanks for sharing.

Im not here to be confrontational or anything ah, pls dun misunderstand.

what I hope to learn is, what’s the USP of PHEV vs a normal hybrid that made you choose it?

cos to my knowledge, a normal hybrid also can operate at pure EV mode up till a certain speed, and its self charging which removes the “inconvenience” of having to plug in to charge and pay fees.

PHEV can be charged via EV charger while Hybrid cannot.

Based on Malaysia brochure, pure EV range is 106km.  After 20% discount (pluck from the air), it will be about 80+km. 

The car can be charged every 2 - 3 days at about $12 to run it in pure EV mode.

Petrol maybe 1 - 2 months pump once.

 

Edited May 2, 2025 by inlinesix

[Kar_lover]

On 5/2/2025 at 1:30 PM, Terence2112 said:

They claimed the offers now are already the expo offers. Haha. 

Yeah many ADs already started pre-EXPO sales including mine and some more got extra discount and good trade in lol

[Voodooman]

On 5/2/2025 at 12:52 PM, Kar_lover said:

Yes i considered the J7 and even joined the SG Owners FB page. 

 

The reason it is seamless is because at ALL times, the wheels are driven directly by the motor. What changes is whether the battery and/or the engine that is powering the motor (which turns the wheels). Hence although it has an engine, it doesn't have a multi-speed gearbox (it uses those single speed gear like normal EVs) and therefore does not directly turn the wheels.

 

 

That is the same Nissan's e-POWER system which uses a small gasoline engine to charge a battery, which then powers an electric motor that drives the wheels? I thought that is a rather LPPL concept. 

With a small battery, that is a lot of charge and discharge cycle.  

I can imagine the drive which i presume will be steered towards efficiency. 

Edited May 2, 2025 by Voodooman

[inlinesix]

On 5/2/2025 at 1:41 PM, Terence2112 said:

Sure, no problem. We are all here to learn with one another. 

what got me sold is the range. It’s rather wicked for a full tank and single charge. So I have chargers at my work place, and I can pluck it in to charge, which on paper could get me 2 days of driving in full EV. 
 

I calculated. Based on the size of the battery, a full charge is at about $8 to $9. So I can have a full tank of petrol, charge twice a week at about $18 in total, and just pump petrol once every 2 mths. 

On 5/2/2025 at 4:16 PM, Voodooman said:

That is the same Nissan's e-POWER system which uses a small gasoline engine to charge a battery, which then powers an electric motor that drives the wheels? I thought that is a rather LPPL concept. 

With a small battery, that is a lot of charge and discharge cycle.  

I can imagine the drive which i presume will be steered towards efficiency. 

Based on Malaysia Brochure, it has 4 mode:

1. Pure EV

2. ICE charge battery

3. Electric + ICE

4. Pure ICE.

[Kar_lover]

On 5/2/2025 at 4:16 PM, Voodooman said:

That is the same Nissan's e-POWER system which uses a small gasoline engine to charge a battery, which then powers an electric motor that drives the wheels? I thought that is a rather LPPL concept. 

With a small battery, that is a lot of charge and discharge cycle.  

I can imagine the drive which i presume will be steered towards efficiency. 

I think 3 differences being that (i) e-power doesn't have a battery and therefore (ii) has no EV-only mode at all and (iii) it doesn't really have the EV-like performance. Look at X-Trail specs vs the J7 - not nearly as much combined power not torque. So same same but different.

[inlinesix]

On 5/2/2025 at 4:50 PM, Kar_lover said:

I think 3 differences being that (i) e-power doesn't have a battery and therefore (ii) has no EV-only mode at all and (iii) it doesn't really have the EV-like performance. Look at X-Trail specs vs the J7 - not nearly as much combined power not torque. So same same but different.

Nissan e-power is similar to BEV with REV, except Nissan e-power does not have a charging port.

With a small battery, Nissan e-power will constantly need engine running to charge.

 

[Heartlander]

I have always regarded PHEV as best of both worlds, but changed my mind after reading about the unfortunate experience of a BMW owner who experienced badly degraded PHEV battery after few years due to frequent charging. With daily charging, the charge cycle would be easily 5 to 6 time that of a pure EV, so 5 years usage would be equivalent to 25 to 30 years of usage. I do not think any EV battery is expected to last so long, so heavy degradation is reasonable to be expected 

But if I cannot charge my PHEV battery frequently then I might as well just get a hybrid car.

[Theoldjaffa]

On 5/2/2025 at 1:50 PM, inlinesix said:

PHEV can be charged via EV charger while Hybrid cannot.

Based on Malaysia brochure, pure EV range is 106km.  After 20% discount (pluck from the air), it will be about 80+km. 

The car can be charged every 2 - 3 days at about $12 to run it in pure EV mode.

Petrol maybe 1 - 2 months pump once.

 

But pure EV is only until 40kmh.

which means above 40kmh, it’s using petrol. During expressway driving, it’s using petrol. On normal roads at normal speeds, it’s using petrol.

to me that’s as good as using more petrol than electricity and a hybrid does the same sans the need to charge.

[Theoldjaffa]

On 5/2/2025 at 4:16 PM, Voodooman said:

That is the same Nissan's e-POWER system which uses a small gasoline engine to charge a battery, which then powers an electric motor that drives the wheels? I thought that is a rather LPPL concept. 

With a small battery, that is a lot of charge and discharge cycle.  

I can imagine the drive which i presume will be steered towards efficiency. 

Ya this is a good point also.

small battery, lots of charge/discharge cycles.

And not much use in real world driving since we go above 40kmh anyway after which the combustion engine kicks in.