New Lepas L8 family SUV to lead brand's arrival in UK
Lepas will be the fourth brand to join the Chery family in the UK, alongside Jaecoo and Omoda...
On sale Autumn 2026 Price from £30,000 (est)
The Lepas L8 will be the first car sold in the UK by the Chinese brand, it has confirmed today.
Designed to appeal to the European market, Lepas will join the Chery family alongside Jaecoo, Omoda and Chery itself, and it’ll focus on plug-in hybrid and electric cars. The name Lepas is said to be a portmanteau of ‘leopard’, ‘leap’ and ‘passion’.
Its flagship L8 is a family SUV that'll act as a premium rival to the likes of the Kia Sportage, as well as the Mazda CX-5 and Toyota RAV4.
The L8 shares its underpinnings with its Omoda and Jaecoo siblings, and in international markets such as Indonesia, it comes equipped with the same plug-in hybrid (PHEV) set-up that's found in the hugely popular Jaecoo 7.
That means it should be powered by a 1.5-litre petrol engine, electric motor and 18.3kWh battery when it eventually arrives here in the UK. In the Jaecoo 7, that battery is good enough for an electric-only range of 57 miles.
With other fuel options available in international markets, we shouldn't be surprised if the L8 receives all-electric and pure-petrol variants in the future.
Inside, the L8 gets similar styling to its Jaecoo sibling, with a portrait-oriented central infotainment touchscreen, a digital driver's display behind the wheel and wireless smartphone charging. However, the Lepas model looks like it benefits from some more physical buttons.
The L8 will go on sale in autumn. While prices haven't yet been confirmed, we'd expect them to undercut family SUV rivals like the Sportage and CX-5 – meaning it could start at less than £30,000.
Further offerings from the brand haven't been revealed yet, but our sister title Autocar previously reported that Lepas will bring its L4 and L6 SUVs here initially, both of which are closely related to the Jaecoo 5, Omoda 5 and Omoda 7. The L4 is pitched as a Dacia Duster-sized small SUV while the L6 will be slightly larger, with both expected to use combustion, plug-in-hybrid and fully-electric power options.
While the Lepas models look distinct from their Omoda and Jaecoo siblings, they bear stronger resemblance to the Chery Tiggo models launched here in the UK over the last year, with their soft-edged design. However, Chery International president Zhang Guibing has said that the Tiggos will take on new, chunkier styling to move them onto a different path compared with the Lepas models.
Omoda and Jaecoo have recorded a strong start for sales here in the UK since their launches, having sold 48,087 new vehicles in 2025, representing 2.38% of the market, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). With Chery, all three brands combined accounted for 2.65% of the new car market last year – beating the likes of Mini and Tesla.
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