Chery Tiggo 9 review

Need a car to cheer you up? The Chery Tiggo 9 seven-seater might be able to do just that. The name of the brand, Chery, derives from the word ‘cheery’ (in a bid to sound friendly and upbeat), while the name of the car itself, Tiggo, is a combination of the words ‘tiger’ and ‘go’. The 9 then signifies it as the largest SUV in the Chinese firm’s line-up.

This might sound rather unusual, but when you consider the names of its closest rivals, the Hyundai Santa Fe, Skoda Kodiaq and Volkswagen Tayron, the Tiggo 9 is in good company for funny names. There’s also the more conservatively-named Mazda CX-80 and Peugeot 5008 to contend with. 

Despite the nomenclature, the Tiggo 9 means business. Chery, which owns the ever popular Omoda and Jaecoo brands, is one of China’s biggest car companies, with operations in more than 80 countries. It’s fast growing in the UK, too; it only launched in the summer of 2025 and it already has 35 dealers up and running, with the aim of reaching 100 by the end of 2026.

But what about the Tiggo 9? Well, it’s a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) seven-seater that focuses on premium quality at a bargain price, much like its siblings, the Chery Tiggo 7 and Chery Tiggo 8. We’ll also examine other areas of the Tiggo 9 in this review, including how it stacks up for performance, practicality and buying costs.

What’s new?

- December 2025: First UK drives of the Chery Tiggo 9

- October 2025: Chery Tiggo 9 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) seven-seat SUV revealed for the UK and European markets.

- August 2025: Chery launches in the UK with the Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 SUVs.

How fast is it and which engine is best?

The Tiggo 9 has just one PHEV engine option, but we suspect there will be few complaints about its performance. The system, dubbed the ‘Chery Super Hybrid’ (CSH) system, combines a 1.5-litre petrol engine with two electric motors to produce a whopping 422bhp. This means it can dispatch 0-62mph in just 5.4sec, which is considerably faster than the PHEV versions of the Kodiaq, Santa Fe and Tayron.

The CSH works differently to the hybrid systems in those cars, because it operates more like an electric car than a petrol one. The dual electric motors drive all four wheels directly (making it four-wheel drive) most of the time, with the engine only stepping in during hard acceleration, motorway driving or when the battery needs recharging. The engine itself is connected to a three-speed automatic gearbox.

Is it agile and is the ride comfortable?

The Tiggo 9 is a tall, seven-seat SUV, so agility isn’t a priority. It leans a bit in corners – about the same as a Santa Fe – but it’s hardly excessive. Still, the Kodiaq and Tayron feel more composed when tackling bends. The bigger issue is steering; it’s very light in the standard Comfort setting, yet switching to the heavier Sport mode gives it an elastic, artificial feel. In either mode, there’s a clear dead spot on-centre that requires a significant amount of input before the front wheels respond. It makes driving the car on a twisty road trickier than the Kodiaq, which has quicker, more naturally weighted steering. 

Unfortunately, the Tiggo 9’s ride isn’t great, either. There’s a constant fidget from the suspension, which means you’re jostled around in your seat as you go over even light imperfections. The Kodiaq and Tayron do a much better job of soaking up lumps and bumps, making them more comfortable cars to travel around in. 

Is it quiet and how easy is it to drive smoothly?

The Tiggo 9 is impressively hushed. The engine chimes in and out seamlessly, and when it’s running, it’s super smooth. It’s even quiet under hard acceleration, making it a lot more refined than the engine in the Kodiaq, which becomes noisy and coarse when you press on. Along with this, not much wind and road noise enters the interior at speed, making it ideal for long motorway stints.

Despite its vast power output, the Tiggo 9 delivers its power in a linear fashion. The brake pedal has a nice, progressive feel to it at high speeds, but lower down it becomes more sensitive, making smooth stops more difficult. You can adjust the pedal-feel sensitivity through the touchscreen, but unfortunately it doesn’t make much of a difference.

What’s the range and efficiency like and how quickly can it charge?

The Tiggo 9 has a 33.46kWh usable capacity battery that delivers an official electric-only range of 91 miles. That’s impressive among rival plug-in hybrid range outputs, beating the Kodiaq (76 miles) and Tayron (74 miles), while more than doubling the Santa Fe’s range (34 miles).

Officially, the Tiggo 9 can average 470mpg, but you’ll have to plug the car in regularly to get anywhere near that figure in real-world use. By comparison, the Kodiaq can average 188.3mpg, the Santa Fe 166mpg and the Tayron 186.4mpg.

As for charging, the Tiggo 9 has a maximum rate of 71kW, which means it can top up from 30-80% in around 20 minutes with a suitably powerful DC public charger. That’s a much higher rate than most PHEVs, which can typically only accept 7kW from an AC home charger. A 0-100% charge with a home charger takes around five hours and 20 minutes.

As standard, the Tiggo 9 comes with vehicle-to-load (V2L) charging, which means you can power various items, such as an e-bike, off the car’s battery. This is a rare feature for a PHEV.

“I was impressed, but also slightly daunted, by the level of adjustability in the Tiggo 9. Along with the hybrid and electric modes, there are six drive modes to choose from. There are also different settings for the regenerative braking, steering and brake pedal feel.” – George Hill, Used Cars Writer

What does the interior look like and is it well made?

Chinese car brands are building a reputation for smart, high-quality interiors – and that’s no exception with the Tiggo 9. The design is minimalist, which means there aren’t many buttons, but it does have a formal, business-like look to it. When you start poking around, the materials are really plush, with a generous helping of soft-touch plastic on the dashboard and doors. Even the door handles have an aluminium finish on them. While it’s not perfect, with some scratchy plastics lower down, the general quality is better than what you’ll find in a Kodiaq or Tayron. It’s not quite as good as the CX-80, though. 

Is the driving position comfortable and is it easy to see out?

The front seats of the Tiggo 9 are super comfortable. They hug you in tightly, while the driver’s seat gets four-way adjustable lumbar support as standard. The seats are electrically adjustable, too, moving 12 ways for the driver and six for the passenger. Even the steering wheel is electrically adjustable, but taller drivers might find it doesn’t pull out quite as much as they would like. The wheel rim also blocks some of the digital driver’s display, depending on your seating position. A standard head-up display helps mitigate this.

General visibility is very good. The high driving position gives you a great view of the road, which is helped by the big side windows and thin windscreen pillars. Rear visibility is pretty clear, too, while aids such as blind-spot monitoring, front and rear parking sensors and a 360-degree reversing camera are offered as standard. 

Are the dashboard and infotainment system easy to use?

The Tiggo 9 comes with a large 15.6in touchscreen which is bright, clear and responsive. It also gets Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as standard. Unfortunately, it does also house most of the car’s controls, aside from a few dedicated buttons on the centre console for your drive modes, air con and window demist. While there are a few shortcut icons on the lower half of the screen, they disappear when you’re using the smartphone mirroring, which means you have to swipe up and then tap to access the climate controls while driving. Ultimately, the touchscreen, rotary control dial and physical climate controls in the CX-80 are more intuitive and less distracting to use on the move.

Behind the steering wheel, there’s a 10.25in digital driver’s display. This is as bright and clear as the infotainment display and is operated via physical steering wheel buttons, which makes it easy to use while driving. While it is configurable, showing functions such as a sat-nav map, the speed is permanently located on the left side of the screen. Depending on your driving position, this can be blocked by the steering wheel rim, though the head-up display does serve as a back-up. 

“I think a physical volume knob should be a standard feature on all cars. As a passenger, I’d find it annoying to have to dive into the touchscreen to adjust the volume, like you do in the Tiggo 9.” – George Hill, Used Cars Writer

How much space does it have for people?

There’s loads of space in the front of the Tiggo 9, with even broad six-footers having plenty of head, leg and shoulder room. There’s no shortage of storage space, either, with a big central cubby, a cooled wireless phone-charger, a couple of cupholders and a lower storage tray.

The second row is similarly spacious. A six-footer will have a good amount of head and leg room, even with the front seat slide all the way back. Thankfully, the middle seat is reasonably wide and there’s a flat floor, so fitting three abreast shouldn’t be a problem. If you need, you can tilt, slide and fold the second row in a 60/40 split, which is handy if you want to sacrifice second row space for the third row, or vice versa. Having said that, the Santa Fe and Peugeot 5008’s seats tilt, slide and fold in a more useful 40/20/40 split.

This brings us to the third row, where there are a couple of issues. The first is that the 60/40 split is designed for left-hand drive cars, so the mechanism for accessing the third row is on the driver’s side, which means you’ll have to load up next to passing traffic if you’re parallel parked. The other issue is that, once you’ve climbed into the third row, it feels quite cramped. While head room is average, there’s minimal leg and foot room available (with the battery under the floor), so you’re almost sitting in a squatting position. The Santa Fe and 5008 are better for carrying third row passengers, and while the Kodiaq and Tayron are also better, those cars are five-seat only in PHEV form.

How much room is there for luggage?

With the third row seats folded into the floor, the Tiggo 9’s boot can swallow a massive 819 litres. That’s larger than the PHEV versions of the Kodiaq (745 litres), Santa Fe (621 litres) and Tayron (705 litres). 

The boot itself is a solid square shape with no loading lip. As mentioned, the seats only fold in a 60/40 split, which is less flexible than the 40/20/40 split in the Kodiaq, Santa Fe and Tayron. Unfortunately, there’s no underfloor storage area under the boot floor, which means there’s no dedicated storage area for the charging cable.

“The mechanism for accessing the third row is a bit fiddly. You have to pull a latch on the second-row seat to slide and tilt it all the way forwards, but if you only pull it partially forwards, the seat doesn’t go back down again. It got stuck in the tilt position when I tried it on a couple of occasions.” – George Hill, Used Cars Writer

How much does it cost and what equipment do you get?

The Tiggo 9 is competitively priced against its PHEV seven-seat rivals. It’s similarly priced to the 5008 and Kodiaq, but significantly cheaper than the CX-80, Santa Fe and Tayron. 

The Tiggo 9’s trump card against those cars is its extensive equipment list. There’s only one trim, Summit, but it comes with plenty of goodies: adaptive cruise control, a wireless phone-charging pad, a Sony sound system and a powered tailgate. Other bits include 20in alloy wheels, faux leather upholstery, electrically adjustable front seats, a heated steering wheel and heated first and second-row seats. 

Is it reliable and how long is the warranty?

Chery – along with the Tiggo 9 – are too new to have featured in the latest What Car? Reliability Survey. However, to give you some peace of mind, the car comes with a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty. That’s pretty good, matching Kia’s cover and beating Hyundai’s five-year, unlimited mileage offering. The battery comes with a separate eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

How safe is it and is it easy to steal?

The Tiggo 9 hasn’t been safety tested by Euro NCAP yet, but it comes with loads of safety kit as standard. All versions come with automatic emergency braking (AEB), blind-spot monitoring, speed limit recognition, lane-keep assistance and rear cross traffic alert (with braking).

“The Tiggo 9’s driver assistance features are pretty well-calibrated. I like that they’re easy to access, too, with a simple swipe down on the touchscreen to show the full menu.” – George Hill, Used Cars Writer

Buy it if…

-You’re after a PHEV with a long electric-only range

-You value a high-quality interior

-You want a car with lots of standard equipment

Don’t buy it if…

-You want a comfortable seven-seater

-You need a spacious third row

-You want a user-friendly interior

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