2026 Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid review

Our verdict

The Tiggo 4 Hybrid is for the buyer who wants hybrid frugality and a long feature list without spending Toyota money. It nails value and surprises with its urban shove, but the ride and steering give away its budget roots, and the petrol version remains the smarter buy for most.

What does the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid cost in Australia?

Chery keeps the hybrid range simple with two grades. The Hybrid Urban opens at $29,990 drive-away, while the better-equipped Hybrid Ultimate on test here lands at $32,990 drive-away after a recent $2,000 trim to sharpen its appeal.

The hybrid commands a $6,000 premium over the equivalent petrol Tiggo 4, which is a meaningful chunk of change for a buyer shopping in this part of the market.

Even so, against established hybrid rivals the numbers look strong. A Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid, Hyundai Kona Hybrid or MG ZS Hybrid all sit several thousand dollars north of the Chery once you factor in on-road costs. As a pure entry price into hybrid motoring, nothing undercuts it.

What does the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid look like?

Chery has done a tidy job making a cheap car look like it isn't.

The Tiggo 4 wears crisp LED headlights, clean surfacing and a confident face that punches above its price bracket. It's roughly Mazda CX-30 sized on the outside, but the boxy, upright silhouette gives it more visual heft than the dimensions suggest.

The Ultimate rolls on 17-inch alloys wrapped in 215/60 R17 tyres and adds red brake calipers, gloss-black detailing, sequential indicators and a small sunroof. Park it next to a base Haval Jolion and the Chery looks the more cohesive, more expensive thing.

There's nothing here that screams budget, which is exactly the trick Chery is pulling.

What is the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid like inside?

This is where the car earns most of its showroom appeal.

Slide in and you're greeted by twin 10.25-inch screens under a single pane of glass, leather-look trim with contrast stitching, and a layout that apes pricier European cabins.

First impressions are genuinely impressive for the money.

Spend longer with it and the cracks show, mildly. The screens look sharp but the refresh rate lags behind your inputs, so the speedo and power meter occasionally feel a beat behind reality. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard and welcome, though the connection can be temperamental. The piano-black centre console is a fingerprint magnet, and the clock-radio-style climate readout feels lifted from a different, older car.

Ergonomics are mostly sound.

You sit high with a commanding view, the wheel adjusts for reach and rake, and storage is plentiful with deep door bins, a console shelf and a covered cubby. The Ultimate adds a 15W wireless charger, heated power front seats and ambient lighting. The catch is the front seats themselves, which look plush but skimp on under-thigh support, and you can't tilt the base cushion to compensate. Taller drivers will notice on a longer run.

How practical is the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid?

Practicality is a quiet strength. The tall, square body liberates benchmark rear-seat space for the class with proper head, knee and leg room for adults on the outer pews. There's a fold-down armrest with cupholders, a single directional rear vent and ISOFIX and top-tether points for child seats.

Boot space is quoted at 470 litres measured to the roof, which flatters the figure a little, but the opening is wide and the load floor usable for the weekly shop, the dog or a friend who overpacks. The Ultimate gets a space-saver spare under the floor, where the Urban makes do with a repair kit. Worth knowing if a puncture on a country road is the difference between an inconvenience and a tow truck.

What is the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid like to drive?

Start moving and the hybrid justifies itself. The electric motor's 150kW and 310Nm do most of the work and the instant torque makes standing starts smooth and genuinely brisk. Where the turbo-petrol version feels boosty off the line, the hybrid just goes. The 1.5-litre petrol engine hums in the background topping up the battery, well isolated bar a faint vibration when it fires.

It comes unstuck elsewhere. The steering is light but vague, with a numb patch around centre and little sense of the front wheels. Push on and there's body lean, expected given the tall body, though more composure than you'd think. The bigger gripe is the ride, which can feel busy and fidgety over patchy surfaces. Tolerable around town, acceptable on the freeway, but never properly resolved.

The brakes take learning too with light pedal assistance that sees your first stop overrun. Refinement is good, the cabin is quiet at a cruise and for gentle urban duty it's competent. Just don't expect the cosseting little runabout the hybrid badge implies.

Driver assistance is mixed. Adaptive cruise works cleanly and the 360-degree camera earns its keep in tight carparks, but the lane-centring tugs at the wheel and hugs one side of the lane. Switch it off and the car is far more pleasant, and the attention monitor is less hawkish than older Chery efforts.

How efficient is the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid?

Chery claims 5.4L/100km combined, and real-world results cluster around that figure rather than beating it dramatically. Expect mid-to-high fives in mixed driving with the high fives and low sixes more likely if your commute is freeway-heavy. That's a clear improvement over the petrol Tiggo 4's eight-to-nine-litre habit, but it falls short of the segment's frugality champions, which dip well under four litres. The 51-litre tank runs on cheap 91 RON and you won't get near the headline 1000km range claim.

Ownership costs are a highlight. The Tiggo 4 is covered by a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty with matching roadside assistance, and servicing is genuinely cheap.

That's strong peace of mind for anyone nervous about taking a punt on a challenger brand.

Is the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid safe?

This is the asterisk. The petrol Tiggo 4 holds a five-star ANCAP rating from 2023, but the hybrid variants are currently unrated and the original score leaned on data from the larger Tiggo 7. Make of that what you will, but it's worth knowing the hybrid hasn't been independently crash-tested in its own right.

The kit list, at least, is comprehensive. Standard across the range you get seven airbags, autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-keep and lane-centring assist, adaptive cruise, traffic jam assist, driver monitoring and front and rear parking sensors. The Ultimate adds the surround-view camera. The local recalibration work shows, with the systems more refined and less shouty than Chery's earlier attempts, though the lane-keep still needs the occasional telling-off.

What are the main competitors to the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid?

The MG ZS Hybrid is the Chery's most direct rival and the one to beat. It costs a touch more in top spec but rides on a newer platform with a fresher cabin, and it feels every bit the more modern car. Cross-shop it if outright value and a current-generation feel matter more than the lowest sticker.

The Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid is the efficiency benchmark, sipping under four litres where the Chery hovers near five and a half. It's pricier and smaller inside, but its resale, reliability reputation and frugality make it the safe-money pick for high-kilometre buyers.

The Hyundai Kona Hybrid is the class sales king and the all-rounder of the group. It's notably more expensive once on-road costs are added, but it counters with sharper dynamics, a polished interior and a hybrid system that's both smoother and thriftier.

The GWM Haval Jolion Hybrid is the closest like-for-like value play and the Chery's natural budget rival. It's marginally more efficient on paper, but the Tiggo 4 feels the more cohesive, better-finished package inside, which is where most buyers will make their call.

Should I buy the Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid?

If your heart is set on a hybrid and your budget is tight, the Tiggo 4 Hybrid makes a compelling case. It's well equipped, surprisingly quick around town, spacious and cheap to own thanks to that warranty and servicing program. As an entry point to electrified motoring, nothing undercuts it.

But be honest about the maths. The $6,000 hybrid premium takes years to recoup at these efficiency figures and the Ultimate's extra $3,000 over the Hybrid Urban buys nice-to-haves rather than essentials. If fuel savings aren't the priority, the cheaper petrol Tiggo 4 is the more charming, better-value buy outright.

The hybrid is the most accomplished version of the Tiggo 4. It just isn't always the smartest one.

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