2026 Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid review

Our verdict

The Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid is built for one buyer in particular: the family that wants seven seats, low running costs and a big screen and doesn't want to spend $60K to get there. It delivers all of that with surprising polish. The catch is that it's a confident urban runabout that runs out of talent the moment the roads get interesting.

What does the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid cost in Australia?

Pricing is where this car wins the argument before it even leaves the showroom. The Super Hybrid Urban opens at $45,990 driveaway and the better-equipped Super Hybrid Ultimate lands at $49,990 driveaway. For context, a seven-seat Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is comfortably the wrong side of $65,000.

You're getting a plug-in hybrid, three rows of seats and a 95km NEDC electric range claim for the price of a mid-spec petrol Toyota RAV4. That's the headline and it does most of the heavy lifting in the buying decision.

The Urban is the sharper pick of the two on pure value. The Ultimate adds a panoramic sunroof, heated and ventilated front seats, a powered tailgate and a head-up display, which are nice but not essential. If you can live without the toys, save the $4,000.

What does the Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid look like?

Chery has settled into a design language that's confident without trying too hard. The Tiggo 8 is handsome in a corporate, slightly anonymous way, with a wide diamond-pattern grille, slim LED headlights and proportions that disguise its modest 4.7-metre length. It looks bigger than it is, which is the right trick for a family SUV.

Both grades roll on 19-inch alloys, with LED lighting front and rear and roof rails as standard. There's nothing here that screams budget, and nothing that screams personality either. It's a clean, modern SUV that won't embarrass anyone in the school pickup line.

What is the Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid like inside?

This is where the price tag stops making sense in the best possible way. The cabin is dominated by a 15.6-inch central touchscreen, paired with a 10.25-inch digital driver display, and both are crisp, responsive and bright enough to read in harsh Aussie sun.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, as is a 50-watt cooled wireless charging pad. The 10-speaker Sony stereo in the Urban (12 speakers in the Ultimate) is genuinely good, not just good-for-the-money good.

Material quality is mixed but mostly impressive. Soft-touch surfaces cover the dash, door tops and centre armrest.

The synthetic leather upholstery is a weak point, feeling more like neoprene than hide and the seats themselves are flat with limited side support. On long drives, you'll notice.

The flat-bottom steering wheel is nicely sized, the floating centre console hides useful storage underneath, and the pop-out door handles that deploy as you approach are a small but genuinely lovely touch when your arms are full of kids and shopping.

Less lovely: Chery has dumped almost all physical buttons, so adjusting things like regen braking means diving into a touchscreen submenu labelled "New Energy". You'll get used to it, but you shouldn't have to.

How practical is the Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid?

The second row is the Tiggo 8's strongest practical card. It slides, reclines, and offers serious legroom even behind a tall driver, with air vents, USB-A and USB-C ports, and door bins that swallow large bottles. Two ISOFIX points and three top-tether mounts cover the child-seat brief.

The third row, however, is a kids-only zone. There's no proper floor gap to climb through even with the second row slid forward, no air vents back there and crucially no side curtain airbag coverage for the rearmost occupants. Treat this as a five-plus-two, not a true seven-seater.

Boot space isn't officially quoted for the hybrid, but expect figures close to the petrol Tiggo 8's 479 litres with five seats up and 117 litres with all seven deployed. A tyre repair kit replaces a spare wheel.

One genuine concern: there's exposed electrical cabling under a thin layer of carpet in the third row, and the high-voltage hybrid cabling under the boot floor is similarly accessible. With curious kids in the car, that's worth knowing.

What is the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid like to drive?

This is a fantastic urban car and a mediocre everything-else car.

The powertrain is the star. A 1.5-litre turbo-petrol four producing 105kW and 215Nm works alongside a 150kW/320Nm electric motor and in normal driving it behaves more like an EV than a hybrid. Off the line, there's genuine shove, sometimes too much, with the front tyres occasionally chirping on damp surfaces. The petrol engine joins in seamlessly at highway speeds and the transition is, frankly, better than what some European brands manage.

Around town, this car is in its happy place. The ride is comfortable, the turning circle is tight, visibility is goodcand the steering is light enough to make car parks effortless. Refinement at suburban speeds is excellent, and the cabin stays impressively quiet.

Take it onto a country road and the cracks show. The suspension is underdamped over bigger hits, taking several oscillations to settle after a single pothole. Push into a corner with any commitment and you'll meet predictable understeer and a chassis that clearly isn't interested in playing. The steering, while accurate, is too light and feedback-free to inspire confidence at speed.

Wind and tyre noise also creep up at highway pace, which is a shame given how quiet the drivetrain is. The takeaway: if your weekly drive is school runs, supermarket trips and the occasional motorway stint, you'll love it. If you regularly attack twisty B-roads, look elsewhere.

How efficient is the Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid?

This is the other reason the Tiggo 8 makes sense. Chery's 95km NEDC electric range claim is optimistic, as NEDC numbers always are, but real-world EV range sits closer to 65 to 70km, which still covers most Australian daily commutes without burning a drop of petrol.

Once the 18.4kWh battery is depleted, the series-parallel hybrid system settles into around 5.5 to 6.1L/100km in mixed driving, which is genuinely impressive for a 1.9-tonne seven-seater. Combined range from a full battery and full tank comfortably clears 1,000km.

The Tiggo 8 supports DC fast charging up to 40kW which is unusual at this price point, taking the battery from 30 to 80% in about 20 minutes. A 10-amp household plug will refill it overnight. 95 RON minimum is required.

Ownership is covered by a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty with an eight-year warranty on the battery and hybrid components. Servicing is every 12 months or 15,000km and capped-price plans are reasonable for the segment.

Is the Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid safe?

The Tiggo 8 carries a five-star ANCAP rating dated 2025 applying to all variants including the Super Hybrid. Category scores are solid: 82% adult occupant protection, 86% child occupant, 80% vulnerable road user and 82% safety assist.

Standard kit includes nine airbags (with a front centre airbag), AEB with car-to-car, vulnerable road user, junction, backover and head-on coverage, lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and a 360-degree camera.

One asterisk for families: ANCAP confirms there are no top-tether anchorages in the third row and child restraints back there are not recommended. Treat this as a five-plus-two. The driver assistance calibration is more refined than earlier Chery efforts, though the lane-keep still argues with you occasionally.

What are the main competitors to the Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid?

The MG QS is the closest direct threat, now starting from $45,990 driveaway and matching the Tiggo on price almost dollar for dollar. It is petrol-only though, which is where the Tiggo claws back ground for buyers who want plug-in running costs and EV-only commuting.

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV remains the polished benchmark in this segment, offering AWD and a proven plug-in platform, but at over $65,000 driveaway it is in a different price bracket entirely. The Tiggo undercuts it by nearly $20,000.

The BYD Sealion 8 has just landed in Australia from the low $60,000s driveaway. Expect a more premium cabin and a more polished drive, but you are paying a serious premium over the Tiggo for it.

The Kia Sorento PHEV plays well above this bracket, into the $80k range, so it is a different buyer entirely.

If seven seats are not essential, the Chery Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid is cheaper, drives almost identically, and is the smarter pick if you can live with five seats.

Should I buy the Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid?

If you need seven occasional seats, want plug-in hybrid running costs and have a budget that stops well short of $60K, the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid is almost in a category of one. It's not the sharpest steer, the third row is borderline tokenistic and a few safety question marks remain. But the powertrain is genuinely excellent, the equipment list is enormous, and the value is impossible to ignore.

Buy the Urban, charge it nightly, keep it mostly within the suburbs, and you'll have one of the most cost-effective family SUVs in Australia. Just don't expect it to be a back-road hero, because it isn't trying to be.

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