OMODA 9

Chinese newcomer claims to offer an Audi Q5 for Skoda Kodiaq money

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Calling a car 'premium' is tricky these days, isn't it? After all, by objective measures, the new Omoda 9 is undeniably premium. At 4.75 metres long, it's lavishly spacious in the front and the back, it has LED lighting and sleek surfacing and it's brimming with standard technology including autonomous parking, a head-up display, heated and cooled seats in the front and back and more. It also has a whopping claimed electric range of 93 miles.

By any quantifiable benchmark, then, the 9 is a premium D-segment SUV that's equally as upmarket as the Volvo XC60, Audi Q5, Mercedes-Benz GLC, BMW X3 or Lexus RX.

And yet... Omoda was established by Chinese firm Chery only three years ago as a dedicated luxury brand to sell outside of its home country. As a result, the 9 could be fitted with a retractable chandelier and yet many buyers would perhaps understandably struggle to view it as 'premium'.

Omoda is perfectly aware of this, of course, and it's making up for it with the price. You can only get the 9 with a four-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid powertrain, badged Super Hybrid System (SHS), and the only cost option is paint colour. Everything else is included for £44,990, which makes it roughly £10,000 cheaper than the less generously equipped premium SUVs that we've already mentioned.

But that list price - and PCP finance prices of just under £600 per month after a £5000 deposit over a four-year contract - still puts the 9 in contention with alternatives like the Skoda Kodiaq, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, Peugeot 3008 and Volkswagen Tayron. All of which are from brands that have spent the past decade or so moving inexorably upmarket. As we said, this 'premium' classification is getting very messy.