Written by Matt de Prez Published: 10 September 2025

Overview

Should you buy the Chery Tiggo 8?

If the prospect of spending almost £50,000 on a Hyundai Sante Fe fills you with dread, then the Chery Tiggo 8 might be the answer to all your prayers.

As more brands have moved upmarket, the prices of typical family cars have soared. Chery is hoping to reverse that trend with the new Tiggo 8, which is available from £28,545 – considerably less than a mid-spec Vauxhall Astra.

For the money you get plenty of kit, seating for seven and a comprehensive seven-year (100,000-mile) warranty.

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What’s new?

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Chery is the latest Chinese car brand to arrive on the UK market and it’s doing so at rapid pace. The Tiggo 8 arrives, alongside the smaller Tiggo 7, as part of an initial four car line-up. The larger Tiggo 9 will arrive in the winter, while the smaller Tiggo 3 will launch early next year.

Chery is part of the Chery Group – the one behind the Omoda and Jaecoo brands – and is a pretty big deal in China. You can, then, think of Chery as the ‘mothership’ marque, a bit like Volkswagen. Sales will be supported, initially, by a dealer network with 26 sites. A further 24 are poised to open imminently and, within 18 months, Chery plans to have more than 100 retail sites in the UK.

The Tiggo 8 is a seven-seat family SUV that competes with cars like the Kia Sorento, Nissan X-Trail and Skoda Kodiaq. As we’ve already mentioned, Chery has priced the car extremely aggressively. It’s £14k cheaper than a Sorento and almost ten grand cheaper than a Kodiaq.

Unlike the Kodiaq, or a Volkswagen Tayron, plug-in hybrid versions of the Tiggo 8 still comes with seven seats.

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What’s it like inside?

Surprisingly plush. Chery has thrown everything it has into the Tiggo 8 to make life on board as pleasurable as possible. From the imitation leather upholstery to the soft touch plastics, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything that feels low-rent inside.

Space in the first two rows is plentiful, but don’t expect to fit seven adults inside comfortably. The third row is best kept for occasional use only, as there’s almost no legroom for those furthest back. With no indent in the floor, third row passengers should be prepared to get up close and personal with their kneecaps.

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With all seven seats in use boot space is pretty useless, at 117 litres. For comparison, the Kodiaq manages 340 litres, while the Santa Fe has a mighty 628-litre boot with all its seats in place. The Tiggo 8’s third-row seats fold flat into the floor, giving a more practical 494 litres of space.

There’s not much in the way of switchgear, just a large 15-inch touchscreen that sits at the centre of the dashboard. You don’t even get a volume knob, there’s just a couple of buttons that fall to hand on the centre console for the window defrost, hazard lights and drive modes.

The screen has crisp graphics, but an underwhelming user interface. Most people are likely to use the wireless Apple Carplay or Android Auto functionality, but using those means the climate controls disappear from the screen and it’s a bit of a faff to get them back.

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Chery Tiggo 8 engines

The entry-level Tiggo 8 uses a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine, paired with a seven-speed automatic gearbox. It serves up 147hp, with 275nm of torque, and accelerates the SUV from 0-62mph in 9.8 seconds. Top speed is 118mph and official fuel economy is 36mpg

Chery expects the majority of buyers to opt for its Super Hybrid powertrain, which combines a 1.5-litre petrol engine with an electric motor. As a plug-in hybrid, you can recharge the battery at home for an electric-only range of 56 miles. It costs an extra £5,000, over the petrol.

In normal driving the electric motor does most of the work, with the engine firing up in the background to keep the 18.4kWh battery charged. With a full tank of fuel, and Chery says the car can travel a total driving range of 745 miles. In hybrid mode, the official fuel consumption figure is 47mpg.

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What’s it like to drive?

While the Tiggo 8 is relatively large car, it feels light on its feet and not too daunting to park. That said, compared to rival models, like the Skoda Kodiaq, it doesn’t deliver a particularly impressive drive.

Comfort is the Tiggo 8’s wheelhouse. Super soft suspension and sensibly sized wheels with relatively chunky tyres give a floaty, cosseting ride. Combined with efforts to soundproof the interior, which include double-layered windows, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were travelling in a far more expensive car.

That softness is also the Tiggo 8’s downfall, unfortunately. It exhibits too much lean in the corners, which will lead to unhappy passengers. While the suspension keeps you isolated from all the imperfections on the road beneath, the steering is equally numb.

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It is very light and quite vague, which makes manoeuvring and parking straightforward. But once you’re carrying speed it lacks precision and makes cornering a bit of a guessing game.

We’ve not driven the Tiggo 8 with a petrol engine, yet, but based on our experience of the powertrain in the smaller Tiggo 7, we’re not convinced it’s gutsy enough to haul a fully laden car without feeling noticeably sluggish.

The Super Hybrid suits the car much better. With a beefier output, power delivery is much stronger and the engine, when running, is far quieter and more refined.

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What models and trims are available?

The Tiggo 8 can be had in two trim levels: Aspire and Summit. The Aspire comes loaded with equipment such as LED headlights, heated front seats, a Sony audio system, dual zone climate control and a 540-degree surround view camera system. There’s also a proximity-based keyless entry system that allows you to access and start the car while keeping the key in your pocket.

Summit versions cost £3,000 more and gain an electrically opening and closing tailgate, heated steering wheel, ventilated front seats and heated rear seats, a panoramic sunroof and a head-up display.

A full suite of driver aids comes with all Tiggo 8 models and includes adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring and automatic braking if the car senses an imminent collision.

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What else should I know?

Curiously, the exterior styling of the Tiggo 8 is dependant on which engine you choose. The petrol model has a smaller front grille and a larger lighting array. The headlights are separated from the daytime running lights, occupying a lower position in the bumper.

At the rear, the petrol model integrates the Chery lettering into the light cluster and places the numberplate on the bumper. Super Hybrid models have all their front lighting integrated into one unit and a larger grille, while the rear tailgate incorporates the rear numberplate.

Now, click through to for our ratings to to help you decide whether you should consider buying a Chery Tiggo 8 now that it’s on sale in the UK. You can find out more about how we test on Parkers via our dedicated explainer page.