I’ve just spent a day driving the new Chery Tiggo 4 super hybrid around Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, and I’ve come away both impressed and a little unnerved.
Prices start at £19,995 (approx. US$27,000 although it’s not available in the US) for the Tiggo 4 CSH, rising to £21,995 (approx. US$30,000) for the range-topping Summit trim I tested.
For that money, you get a full-hybrid SUV producing 204PS and 310Nm of torque, a 0-62mph time of 8.9 seconds, and CO2 emissions of just 120g/km – all without ever needing to plug in.
It shouldn’t be this cheap and feel this good
Step inside and the cabin feels far classier than the price tag suggests. It’s a genuinely posh-feeling space, helped by twin 12.3-inch screens, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and, on Summit models, eco-leather upholstery and a heated steering wheel.
There’s plenty of room for passengers, and the standard equipment list is so generous that even the options barely add anything to the bill.
Then there’s the warranty. Chery backs the Tiggo 4 CSH with seven years and 100,000 miles of cover, plus eight years on the battery. That’s a serious statement of confidence, though I’ll admit I’m curious to see how Chery, and sister brand Jaecoo, actually perform in independent reliability surveys like JD Power. I’ve heard from readers who’ve had problems with their Jaecoo cars that proved frustratingly hard to resolve, so it’s a question worth asking before anyone gets too carried away.
On the road, the Tiggo 4 CSH isn’t going to trouble anyone looking for driving thrills. The steering is vague, and the suspension is fairly basic, though it does the job well enough. Realistically, I don’t think most buyers in this segment will care.
What did bother me was the safety tech. There are so many warning beeps that it becomes genuinely distracting, and the driver attention monitoring system is particularly overzealous – a complaint I’ve had before with the related Jaecoo 8.
The exterior design, meanwhile, is bland to the point of being forgettable, though it’s inoffensive, so I can’t really complain.
Where does that leave European carmakers?
Honestly, it left me worried. I struggle to see how established European brands compete with something this complete at this price. We still win on design, on more innovative tech, and on driving refinement – but not on price, and in today’s market, price matters more than it ever has.
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