New Chinese car brands unveil models including cheaper version of Range Rover Evoque

New Chinese car brands Omoda and Jaecoo – part of China’s Chery automotive group – have unveiled a new model each at the Shanghai Motor Show, just a year after their launch in the UK.

Jaecoo, the more premium of the two brands, has unveiled the new Jaecoo 5 – a battery electric vehicle that will also be available as a petrol model.

The Jaecoo 5 looks like a scaled down version of the Jaecoo 7, a car with a striking resemblance to the Range Rover Velar. So it’s no surprise that the car looks very much like the Velar’s smaller sibling, the Range Rover Evoque.

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While the look of the Jaecoo 5 might be like an Evoque, the price won’t be – we’d expect it to be around the £35,000 mark. That puts it slightly above the price of the Omoda 5, with which the new Jaecoo shares its tech.

That tech sharing means we can expect a 61kWh battery and a range of around 250 miles, making it competitive against some similarly priced rivals, although behind the likes of the new Skoda Elroq and newly crowned World Car of the Year, the Kia EV3.

As with the Omoda 5, the Jaecoo 5 is also expected to be available with a 1.6-litre petrol engine with a hybrid also possible in due course. Our guess is that the petrol Jaecoo will cost around £27,450 – putting it between the Omoda 5 petrol and cheapest Jaecoo 7 model.

Although the styling of the Jaecoo 5 is very similar to the Jaecoo 7, the front end is slightly more aerodynamic making it look even more like a Range Rover. Inside, the look is very generic with a portrait-orientated touchscreen sat above twin wireless charging pads on the centre console. A second digital display sits in front of the driver.

Following a very similar theme, the new Omoda 7 is bigger than the Omoda 5 and shares its tech with the Jaecoo 7. That means a plug-in hybrid system that Omoda calls intelligent super-hybrid technology with a small battery and 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine for a claimed total range of 745 miles on a full tank and full charge.

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Design-wise, the Omoda 7 looks very much like a slightly stretched version of the Omoda 5, but with additional LED lighting at the front, a more pronounced kick up of the window line towards the back at the side, and a longer rear overhang for a bigger boot.

We’d expect the Omoda 7 to be priced just below the Jaecoo 7 that comes with the SHS (Super-Hybrid System) so a starting price of around £32,500.

Both the new Jaecoo 5 and Omoda 7 will be in showrooms in August, but they’ll be beaten by a new flagship Omoda model that wasn’t at the Shanghai Motor Show.

The Omoda 9 is already shown on Omoda’s website with a starting price of £44,990 for a model that also uses the SHS plug-in hybrid system. Little else is known about the new car other than the price, its claim of 93 miles of EV range, its massive 660-litre boot capacity, 4.7 metre length and 700 mile-plus total range. It can be ordered now in a choice of five colours and is set to arrive before the other newcomers in June of this year.