Jaecoo 5

FIRST DRIVE Second model from affordable Chinese brand offers familiar SUV styling and loads of space for the money

- Paul Barker

YES, it’s another new Chinese brand offering a confusing array of names and numbers, but Jaecoo is worth paying attention to.

Along with sister firm Omoda, and its parent company Chery, Jaecoo is making serious inroads into the UK, with the Jaecoo 7 SUV - its first model — among the UK’s top 10 sellers in August. Now the company’s range is expanding with the Jaecoo 5, a more traditionally shaped SUV version of the Omoda 5 crossover, which is already on sale.

Coming either in full-electric E5 form or with the 1.6-litre petrol driven here, the 5 sits neatly between rivals: bigger than a Nissan Juke or Skoda Kamiq, but not as big as their Qashqai or Karoq brothers.

On paper, things look impressive. The top-spec £28,000 Jaecoo 5 Luxury costs only a touch more than a mid-spec Juke N-Connecta and undercuts the Kamiq SE L by almost £3,000. Confusingly, the Jaecoo is priced very close to the Omoda 5, with which it shares its underpinnings and powertrain, so picking between the two comes down to whether you want the Omoda’s swoopy styling or the Jaecoo's more upright, traditional SUV look.

The Jaecoo 5 also offers an entry-level Pure trim at just £24,505 if you can do without a few niceties. But even at this price, you still get 18-inch alloys, a 13.2-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and a suite of safety kit.