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JAECOO only entered the UK market in January 2025 yet it already has models in the top 10 sales charts; the electric JAECOO E5 looks like a Range Rover, but prices start from just £27,505 – so is there a catch?
JAECOO (a brand of Chinese parent company Chery International) only entered the UK market in January 2025 yet it already has models in the top 10 sales charts. There’s no getting away from the fact that the JAECOO E5 looks like a Range Rover, especially from the rear, but prices start from just £27,505. In comparison, prices for the Range Rover Evoque currently start at £44,430, and you can’t buy an all-electric model yet. JAECOO is yet another Chinese manufacturer coming to the UK and massively undercutting European manufacturers on price. It all sounds too good to be true, so what’s the catch?
We can’t produce a review of the JAECOO E5 without talking about its design, because the E5 looks like a Range Rover, particularly around the rear three-quarters area. The front of the E5 doesn’t look as similar, being very ‘blocky’ in terms of its design. However if you look at the E5 as a whole, the proportions are different to a Range Rover, and it has relatively small 18-inch wheels. So the result is that if you’re familiar with the appearance of a Range Rover, in comparison the E5 looks slightly strange in terms of its proportions.
Range Rover doesn’t have an all-electric model on sale at the time of writing, so the JAECOO scores a point there, but the E5 definitely doesn’t have any off-road capability, being front-wheel drive only.
The JAECOO E5 compact SUV shares its platform, including the 61 kWh Lithium-Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery pack, with the Omoda E5. The JAECOO measures 4,380mm in length, with five seats, but rear legroom isn’t particularly spacious. There’s a decent 480-litre boot, with space under the floor, and 1,180 litres with the rear seats folded. There’s also a front trunk (‘frunk’) offering 35 litres of space, ideal for storing the charging cable.
With prices for the JAECOO E5 starting from just £27,505, you’d imagine that there would be some compromises in terms of the driving experience. Well, the E5 certainly isn’t as premium to drive as any Range Rover model, but for the price (£30,505 for the ‘Luxury’ trim of our test car), the driving experience is probably fine overall for many motorists wanting a good value electric SUV.
The key thing to be aware of is that before you try any off-roading, the JAECOO E5 is front-wheel drive only. This means that you won’t get far off the beaten track, but because of the torque from the electric motor, it also means that the E5 has the potential for the normal front-wheel drive EV traits of wheelspin and torque steer.
Other than that, handling is what you would expect from a compact SUV, and ride quality is comfortable on most roads – the relatively high profile tyres help in this department.
One area where a Range Rover and a JAECOO E5 differ is refinement – road noise is a feature of the E5 on some motorway surfaces.
Performance is sufficient, with 204 PS of power and a 0-62 mph time of 7.7 seconds. There are three driving modes – Eco, Normal and Sport – with Eco being the default mode when you start the E5. Drive modes can be selected using one of the three physical buttons on the dashboard under the touchscreen.
Like most Chinese EVs, gears are selected using the right-hand stalk, but there are no physical controls to adjust the level of brake regeneration; regen braking levels of low, medium and high – along with virtually all car controls – have to be adjusted in the Vehicle menu on the central touchscreen (but unlike many Chinese EVs the E5 has physical mirror controls, which is much better than having to use the screen to do this, and there are even physical controls for the lights).
The driver display is small and narrow, but there’s a large 13.2-inch high-definition central touchscreen; the portrait format helps when looking at the route ahead on the satnav.
One issue with the E5 is that when Apple CarPlay is on the screen, you lose access to the climate controls. You can swipe up from the bottom of the screen to view the basic climate controls, but it would be more user-friendly to have them visible and accessible at all times. There’s also no media volume control for front seat passengers.
And as with most Chinese EVs, there’s lots of beeping from driver assistance systems, as well as steering intervention from the lane departure warning system. To banish these interventions you need to go through the very long ADAS screen and switch off lots of things. Overall, there are too many car controls that are buried in the touchscreen.
The JAECOO E5 has an official WLTP combined electric driving range of 248 miles, which is below average for most new EVs. After a week on test, the real-world range averaged 222 miles. Consumption (WLTP) is 3.7 miles/kWh.
The E5’s maximum DC rapid charging rate is 80 kW, which is much slower than most rivals (it promises a 30% to 80% charge in 27 minutes). The E5 also has an 11 kW AC on-board charger, allowing a 0% to 100% charge in around eight hours. A single-phase 7 kW wallbox should deliver a full charge in under 10 hours.
The charging socket is on the driver’s side front wing, which seems to be one of the more inconvenient locations for a charging port. There’s an almost invisible black button in the black charging socket that you need to press to close the charging cover automatically.
The JAECOO E5 has Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) functionality, enabling users to power external electrical devices.
JAECOO E5 prices start from £27,505 for Pure trim and £30,505 for Luxury trim (as tested). Luxury trim adds features such as a panoramic roof, dual-zone climate control, electrically adjustable heated and ventilated front seats, an eight-speaker SONY audio system, wireless phone charging and a fridge.
The E5 has a ‘pet mode’, which enables you to set the temperature of the cabin to keep pets cool when parked (as per a 10-year old Tesla Model S), however we tried this on a number of occasions and it never seemed to work.
The JAECOO E5 is available in five exterior colours: Granite White (no cost), and Zircon Grey, Lazuli Blue, Copper Green and Basalt Black, all of which cost £500.
The JAECOO E5 comes with a 7-year/100,000-mile warranty (whichever comes first) with no mileage limit for the first three years, and an additional 8-year/100,000-mile warranty on the battery.
The JAECOO E5 looks like a Range Rover but prices start from just £27,505. The E5 is also electric, something that Range Rover doesn’t offer at the moment. At this price you might imagine that there are compromises with the driving experience, but most motorists are likely to be fine with the way that the E5 drives. However the E5 is front-wheel drive not all-wheel drive, the driving range is less than some rivals, and the 80 kW DC charging speed is slow. And the normal smallprint about most Chinese EVs applies: virtually all car controls are on the touchscreen, with no separate climate controls, which some people seem to be happy with, but others may not find this particularly user-friendly. The big picture is that the JAECOO E5 is one of an increasing number of EVs from Chinese manufacturers that are appearing on sale in the UK, and UK drivers seem to be buying them, while in contrast the UK motor industry appears to be fighting for a reduction in the speed it has to move to EVs.
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Paul Clarke, GreenCarGuide Editor
