2026 Chery Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid long-term review: Part one

The Drive garage is now home to the Chery Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid Ultimate. For the next few months, we’ll be living with this top-of-the-range long-termer, which packs a whole lot of value into its $38,990 drive-away price tag (before premium paint and options).

On paper, it’s pitched as an ultra-economical plug-in hybrid combining a 60-litre petrol tank with an 18.4kWh battery capacity. Together, they attempt to deliver a claimed 1200km of range on a single tank and charge. I am still getting to know the system, but initial impressions of the 'super hybrid' powertrain are good. I've been charging it roughly three days a week, allowing me to handle my 50km commute almost entirely on EV power alone.

Even when I haven’t been able to plug it in, the system smartly hovers around a 25 per cent battery reserve using regenerative braking, returning a highly impressive real-world fuel consumption between 4.5 litres per 100 kilometres and 5.5L/100km.

As with any new car, first impressions count, and the Ultimate trim leaves few boxes unchecked. It comes loaded with the usual suspects you’d expect from a flagship model, including a panoramic sunroof, heated and ventilated front seats, and a 360-degree camera.

Up front, the sun visor vanity mirrors are easily the best I have seen. They feature bright LED-framed borders and a slick magnetic closure, perfect for a quick, “What horror movie villain do I look like today?” check before walking into the office.

However, for all the expected features it packs in, the Tiggo 7 isn't without its flaws and quirky idiosyncrasies. For starters, the electronic handbrake is automatically tied to your seatbelt. Theoretically, this isn't an issue because you just put your belt on. But it becomes a tedious exercise when you just need to shuffle the car forward a tiny bit to reach a charger or to adjust your parking.

Then there are the safety lights on the inside of the rear doors, which flash red to warn passengers if a vehicle is passing. It's a great feature, though I won't lie: the plastic grilles over the lenses look remarkably like hard-skin removers for your feet.

I found the proximity keyless entry to be a bit too enthusiastic for its own good. The system can be quite glitchy, occasionally triggering the car alarm for no obvious reason. It also possesses a rather ridiculous range. While I’m upstairs working in the office, colleagues have noted that the Tiggo 7 unlocks itself downstairs just from me walking around.

We also ran into a frustration with the manual tailgate on our specific test car, which requires an almighty slam to ensure the boot latches properly. Thankfully, Chery has updated models manufactured after July 2025 with a powered tailgate, but it's an important detail to keep in mind if you're shopping around for used, runout or demo models.

Now, this next point might seem minor to some, but this car has taught me to always pay close attention to the indicator noise during a test drive. Don't just accept it as 'working'. Give it a proper listen to ensure you can actually live with it. The unique 'blink-blonk' of the Chery is definitely… different. You can turn the volume down, but a completely silent indicator is just as off-putting as an odd one.

Out on the open road, cabin refinement could use a little polish. Road noise becomes quite pronounced at freeway speeds, and when it's raining, the sound of water rushing around the bodywork is surprisingly loud. At one point, I genuinely checked the seals for leaks once I had stopped.

Space-wise, the Tiggo 7 nails the medium SUV brief. It has plenty of room in the back row; in fact, my niece and nephew have enough separation between them that there haven’t been any fights back there... yet.

So, on first impressions, the Chery Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid is doing exactly what it says on the box by saving fuel and offering plenty of family space. However, it is still early days in our garage.

Time will tell if this plug-in hybrid can grow on me enough to overlook its eccentricities, or if we've only scratched the surface of the quirks that might eventually remove my rose-tinted glasses. Stay tuned.