Chinese brand Jaecoo has arrived in the UK and has set ambitious sales targets for its range of petrol, hybrid and electric models. It’s a name you may not have heard about just yet, but that’s set to change.
Jaecoo is the second car brand from Chinese giant Chery to launch here in the UK over the last 12 months, following the launch of Omoda last summer. The two brands are working in tandem, targeting different customers but building a joint dealer network across the country.
While the company describes Omoda as being a ‘fashion forward’ brand that competes with other mainstream names, Jaecoo is positioned as a more premium offering, with brands like Land Rover firmly in its sights and off-roading prowess considered to be a higher priority. As of right now (May 2025), each brand only has one SUV-style model available, so this strategy may not yet be evident. It should become more clearly defined, however, as more models join the two line-ups later this year.
So who or what is Jaecoo?
If you follow the car industry, you may have heard of Jaecoo’s parent company, Chery, which is a state-owned car manufacturer that has been around for about 30 years and has been China’s largest car exporter for most of that time. As with China’s other big car companies, it operates a number of subsidiary brands in different markets around the world – as well as Omoda and Jaecoo, it has Aiqar, Exeed, Exlantix, iCar, Jetour, Lepas, Luxeed and Rely, as well as Chery itself.
Jaecoo and Omoda don’t exist in China itself, being purely export brands. The same cars offered here are sold under different brand names in their home market. It’s not the first time a major car company has done this – Japanese giant Toyota launched its Lexus luxury brand in the late 1980s, but didn’t start selling Lexus-branded cars in Japan until the mid-2000s. Honda launched its American-focused premium brand, Acura, at about the same time but still doesn’t sell Acura in Japan today.
Jaecoo has only existed for about two years, but is being steadily introduced to a number of markets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The brand is also sold in Russia, which is obviously controversial as most Western car brands have withdrawn from the country since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Like most of the Chinese car industry, Jaecoo is heavily invested in electric vehicle technology. But unlike most of the other Chinese brands arriving on these shores, Jaecoo’s first UK model, the Jaecoo 7, is only available in petrol and plug-in hybrid forms. This will change quickly, however, with more models on the way that will include EVs.
Although it only has one model from each of its two new brands on sale to start with, Chery still expects to sell 35,000 Jaecoo and Omoda cars in 2025. Sales of the Jaecoo 7 have started strongly, prompting local execs to call up Chery HQ in China and ask for more cars. By 2027, Omoda & Jaecoo UK wants to build up to 50,000 sales a year, which would put the combined company above many famous-name European car brands
When did Jaecoo launch in the UK?
Jaecoo arrived very recently in the UK – January 2025. Following Omoda’s launch last year, it already has a network of dealers in place and a pipeline of new models on their way over the first 12 months.
Because the brand is paired with Omoda (the company is referred to as “O&J” within the industry), which arrived about six months ahead of Jaecoo, there was plenty of preparatory work already in place before the first cars arrived.
What models does Jaecoo have and what else is coming?
Jaecoo launched with one model in the UK – its mid-sized Jaecoo 7 SUV, which is available in petrol and plug-in hybrid forms. The plug-in hybrid is a particularly advanced system, with more emphasis on the electric motor than in many rivals. The petrol engine has specifically been developed to work in conjunction with the electric motor, rather than the company just hooking up an existing engine. This means that the electric motor does more of the work, with the petrol engine playing more of a supporting role, which gives better efficiency and fuel economy.
Jaecoo’s ambitious plans for UK sales success aren’t just based on one model, however. Two more SUV models are known to be on the way this year, with further new models coming next year but with further details under wraps for now.
The first new model to arrive will be the smaller Jaecoo 5 – a range that will include both petrol and electric powertrain options. This range serves as a more premium alternative to the Omoda 5 and E5 range. While UK pricing and specifications are yet to be announced, the 5 is expected to arrive in UK showrooms by the end of 2025.
We had the chance to drive this car at an exclusive preview in China last month, and initial impressions were favourable. But this new model will be entering the UK’s most hotly contested market sector, so we’ll see how it stacks up once it gets here.
The second is the Jaecoo 8, which is a large seven-seat SUV and will become Jaecoo’s flagship model. It’s currently expected to also make it here before the end of this year, but we’re not sure exactly when just yet.
Jaecoo has said that off-roading capability is a key part of its brand, even if most of its customers don’t need it, so any future models are also likely to be SUVs.
Where can I try or buy a Jaecoo car?
Since setting up shop in the UK in early 2024, Omoda and Jaecoo have established 72 dealerships across the UK, thanks to agreements with large motoring groups like Arnold Clark, Listers and Endeavour. Chery has further expansion plans, and intends to expand its Omoda-Jaecoo dealership network to 130 different outlets by the end of this year. That will make it one of the larger dealer networks in the UK.
The company has key finance partnerships in place with established lenders, with BNP Paribas providing consumer finance and Arval UK providing leasing solutions.
The brand has no plans to offer direct online sales at this time, with the company aiming to grow its two brands through its dealer network and fleet programmes.
What’s particularly significant about Jaecoo?
Unlike the rest of the new wave of Chinese car manufacturers heading to Europe, Jaecoo plans to offer petrol and plug-in hybrid models alongside the inevitable electric vehicles.
As with Omoda, Jaecoo has a wide range of potential vehicles it can pull from the wider Chery family, so it can react quickly to UK demand for models of any size, shape or fuel type. Initially, the line-up will all be SUVs, but that could change over time.
Jaecoo models come with a seven-year/100,000-mile new car warranty, which is one of the best in the industry.
What’s in a name?
The name Jaecoo doesn’t come from the company’s founder, or some piece of ancient Chinese wisdom, or anything remotely meaningful. The reality is a bit more formulaic.
It’s a portmanteau of the German word Jaeger, meaning ‘hunter’, and the English word cool. So “Jaecoo” is supposed to mean “a cool hunter”. This appears to be a common practice for Chinese car brands attempting to Anglicise their names. For example, sister brand Omoda gets its name from O – the chemical symbol for oxygen – and the Italian word moda, meaning ‘fashion’.
It’s another lesson the Chinese car manufacturers seem to have learned from the Japanese – Lexus, Acura, Infiniti and Eunos were all made-up names for fledgling premium car brands that were supposed to sound important and meaningful in English…
Jaecoo doesn’t have a logo as such, simply a wordmark with the brand name proudly set in capital letters inside the grille and across the tailgate of each car.
Summary
It’s quite easy to get lost in the flood of new Chinese brands looking to carve out a piece of the UK market – Aiways, BYD, GWM, Leapmotor, Nio and Skywell are some of the other new names from China. Jaecoo, however, is a name that is likely to stick.
Chery is one of China’s largest car companies, building more than 2.6 million cars last year. By comparison, the entire UK car industry built less than a third of that number…
The company has already made a significant investment to build its two brands across Europe, with at least one more brand likely to be joining Omoda and Jaecoo next year. It has a choice of cars from the wider Chery family that it can choose to bring to the UK with either of its brands to react to market trends, and has built a network of more than 70 dealers already.
So you may not have heard much about Jaecoo before now, but you’re likely to see plenty more of its cars on your local streets before long.
Additional reporting by Sean Rees
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