BIG VALUE TIG (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Chery's Tiggo 7 five-seat SUV certainly offers a lot of metal for the money. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 36

The Chery Tiggo 7 is a family five-seat SUV that's spacious and brilliant value, but you'll need to be realistic about what you're getting. As long as you are, this car is worth a long look.

Backgroundword count: 141

In a refreshing move, the market is redefining the price customers should pay for an affordable spacious family SUV. In early 2025 Dacia's value-based Bigster set the trend for this, priced from launch from around £25,000. Now, new market entrant, Chinese maker Chery, reckons it has done even better with the car we look at here, its Tiggo 7, offering better equipment levels than the equivalent Bigster but much the same low £25,000 starting price. The Tiggo 7 has been around in world markets since 2016, with a second generation model introduced in 2020. That MK2 design was facelifted in 2023 to create the car that was launched in the UK in Summer 2025, alongside this five-seat SUV's slightly larger seven-seat stablemate the Tiggo 8. So is there more to this '7' than just sheer value? Let's take a closer look.

Engines and Tech Specword count: 273

The Tiggo 7 shares its base 1.6-litre TDGI turbo petrol engine not only with the Tiggo 8 but also with other closely related Chery group models like the Omoda 5 and the Jaecoo 5. Unlike these two cousin crossovers though, it's not available with a full-electric drivetrain. Instead, your other powerplant option with a '7' is the 'Super Hybrid' PHEV powertrain used by the Tiggo 8 and (in a similar form) by the Jaecoo 7. As we told you in our Tiggo 8 review, if you can afford its necessary premium, the 'Super Hybrid' set-up is the one to have. As that name suggests, the unit used by this Plug-in Hybrid variant is quite advanced. It's a 1.5-litre petrol engine assisted by two electric motors (one on each axle) which are energised by an 18.4kWh LFP (lithium-ion phosphate) battery supplied by CATL. Combined output is a healthy 201bhp with 365Nm of torque. And 0-62mph occupies a reasonably rapid 8.5s en route 112mph. It goes 56 miles without troubling combustion power and with that engaged, total range is up to 745 miles. As usual with hybrids, you have to have an automatic gearbox, in this case, Chery's single-speed 'dedicated hybrid transmission'. As on all Tiggo models, only the front wheels are driven. If budget restricts you to the rather inefficient 1.6 TDGI un-electrified base unit, there's 147PS, 275Nm of torque and 0-62mph in 9.4s. Budget family crossovers like this don't offer much in terms of steering feedback or driving enjoyment - and this one certainly doesn't. But you should find ride and refinement to be acceptable. There are 'Normal', 'Eco' and 'Sport' drive modes.

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