Best Chinese hybrid cars 2026

Best for: Surprising classiness

If you tell your friends that you’ve just bought a new Chery, many of them will probably wonder why you’re boasting about your cake decoration skills. Plenty of people will not yet have heard of Chery, even though it’s one of the biggest and most successful of all of China’s car makers. That will probably start to change fast, though, not least because this Chery Tiggo 8 SUV was good enough to stroll away with the top prize at the 2026 Carwow Car of the Year awards. Yes, really — the Tiggo 8 also took home a Hybrid Hero award on the night too.

It’s the hybrid-engined Tiggo 8 that you should definitely be taking home. The basic petrol engined version is pretty much just there to create a temptingly low price point — not that the hybrid is exactly over-priced. The petrol-only model just can’t compete with the really quite strong performance of the plug-in hybrid. 

You not only get the benefit of a potential 56 mile electric range on a full charge, you also get very decent performance and it’s not — as many plug-in hybrids can be — all that thirsty on a longer run. We scored an overall average of better than 52mpg during our test, which is very good indeed.

The Tiggo 8’s big win is to be found inside, though. Yes, there’s the usual big screen and yes it could do with a few proper physical controls to make life easier (the smaller Tiggo 7 does; why not the 8?) but overall quality is excellent, almost up to Audi and BMW levels, and that’s truly impressive. It’s roomy, too with seats for seven (although using all the seats does leave you with only a tiny boot). 

A Tiggo 8 also makes a better effort than many Chinese cars with its driving experience. No, it’s not one for keen drivers, but it’s comfortable enough. Refinement at motorway speeds could be better though, and it’s not at all good on a twisty road.

Best for: Beating Toyota

When it comes to small hybrid hatchbacks, the Toyota Yaris pretty much rules the roost, in spite of the efforts of the Renault Clio and Honda Jazz. Well, it did until the MG3 Hybrid+ came along and blew it out of the water with sharper pricing and an extra 75hp. Yup, this humble, affordable, hybrid small hatchback is packing a hot hatch-like 191hp.

Sadly, the MG3 Hybrid+ doesn't sound like a hot hatch. Most of that power comes from the car’s electric motor, not its engine, and because it’s all set up for economy, hard acceleration just means the engine roars and whines its way along in an unappealing manner. It’s not even that frugal, which is a bit frustrating, and a Yaris will generally be around 10mpg more economical, in any given set of conditions.

So why do we like the MG3 Hybrid+? Well, partly because it really is very affordable, but it’s also roomier than the benchmark Yaris in the back seats and boot. The touchscreen is a bit of a dud, but in general the MG3’s cabin is just fine, even if you can all-too-easily see and feel where the costs have been cut.

It’s well-equipped too, with adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping steering, although you’ll want to quickly turn off some of the more annoying (and very loud) warning buzzers.

On top of which, it’s actually good fun to drive. If you can ignore the noisy engine and the limitations of the three-speed automatic gearbox (which works with the electric motor to provide, theoretically, limitless gears) the MG3 has sharp steering and a chassis that enjoys being chucked along a British back road.

That's only appropriate for a car wearing the sainted MG badge, after all. The suspension, which can feel a bit too jiggly around town, really comes into its own when you’re asking it some difficult cornering questions, so the MG3 definitely has some thoroughbred blood in its veins.

Best for: Surprising classiness

If you tell your friends that you’ve just bought a new Chery, many of them will probably wonder why you’re boasting about your cake decoration skills. Plenty of people will not yet have heard of Chery, even though it’s one of the biggest and most successful of all of China’s car makers. That will probably start to change fast, though, not least because this Chery Tiggo 8 SUV was good enough to stroll away with the top prize at the 2026 Carwow Car of the Year awards. Yes, really — the Tiggo 8 also took home a Hybrid Hero award on the night too.

It’s the hybrid-engined Tiggo 8 that you should definitely be taking home. The basic petrol engined version is pretty much just there to create a temptingly low price point — not that the hybrid is exactly over-priced. The petrol-only model just can’t compete with the really quite strong performance of the plug-in hybrid. 

You not only get the benefit of a potential 56 mile electric range on a full charge, you also get very decent performance and it’s not — as many plug-in hybrids can be — all that thirsty on a longer run. We scored an overall average of better than 52mpg during our test, which is very good indeed.

The Tiggo 8’s big win is to be found inside, though. Yes, there’s the usual big screen and yes it could do with a few proper physical controls to make life easier (the smaller Tiggo 7 does; why not the 8?) but overall quality is excellent, almost up to Audi and BMW levels, and that’s truly impressive. It’s roomy, too with seats for seven (although using all the seats does leave you with only a tiny boot). 

A Tiggo 8 also makes a better effort than many Chinese cars with its driving experience. No, it’s not one for keen drivers, but it’s comfortable enough. Refinement at motorway speeds could be better though, and it’s not at all good on a twisty road.

Best for: Confusing the neighbours

Park this SUV on your driveway and, unless they’re regular Carwow readers, your neighbours will almost certainly be convinced that you’ve upgraded to a new Range Rover. 

It’s true — the Jaecoo 7 (Jaecoo being a sub-brand of the massive Chery company, and the name is supposed to sound a bit like the German word ‘jäger’ or hunter) has been nicknamed ‘The Temu Range Rover’ and the resemblance to a Velar is quite striking. You’re less likely to confuse the two from the front, where the Jaecoo’s massive grille is a giveaway, but around the back and down the sides? Twins…

Inside, the Jaecoo continues the impersonation with solid quality levels and mostly plush-feeling materials. There’s the usual issue of the big touchscreen having to cope with too many controls — which makes it tricky and distracting to use when driving — and the fact that there’s nothing as simple as a volume knob for the stereo is an annoyance. 

Still, the Jaecoo 7 is roomy — there’s space for six-footers in any of its seats — and has a decent, if not class-leading, 500 litres of space in the boot.

As with so many cars on this list, the Jaecoo 7 makes a good hybrid choice because the basic petrol version is so rubbish. With a 56 mile claimed electric range on a full charge, the Jaecoo 7 can be potentially hugely frugal, and the combination of a 1.5-litre petrol engine and an electric motor means that performance is thoroughly decent. 

When it comes to driving, the Jaecoo 7 feels good around town, although the suspension gets very noisy when coping with bigger bumps. It’s neither great on motorways nor twisty roads, though — there’s too much noise for high-speed cruising, and the steering’s too light for back roads. 

Still, when you consider the value for money offered by the Jaecoo 7, and the fact that it combines a bargain price with those Range Rover-y looks, it’s not hard to see why it’s been such a big hit with British buyers.

Best for: Painless value

Everyone’s pretty much heard of BYD by now (rather undermining the early claim of it being the ‘biggest car maker you’ve never heard of’) so buying one seems like less of a leap of faith, perhaps, than some of the other lesser-known Chinese brands. Some BYDs — the Seal saloon, the Dolphin Surf hatchback — have quite striking, even daring, styling but the Sealion 5 is clearly aimed at the customer who’s having none of that.

This is a style-free zone, and the Sealion 5 could easily be confused with about a hundred other medium-sized SUVs. That’s okay though, because what it’s good at is providing value for money.

The Sealion 5 is very reasonably priced, but it’s also roomy in its cabin (there’s stretch-out space for grown-ups in the back) and even its boot is slightly bigger than that of BYD’s own larger and more expensive Seal U SUV.

Then there’s the plug-in hybrid system, which doesn’t have the headline-grabbing electric range of some others, but which is refined and economical in everyday use, which is really what buyers want.

To drive, the Sealion 5 is as bland and dull as its styling — it’s too hard over bumps, but the steering is too light for it to be any fun — but literally no-one who buys one will care. The idea here is simple value for money, and at that the Sealion 5 excels.

Best for: Electric range

One thing this Geely Starray does very well indeed — aside from confusing you about just how many letter ‘r’s there needs to be in its name — is driving on electric-only power. The top-spec Ultra model comes with a whopping 28kWh battery (bigger than the battery of an original Nissan Leaf) which gives you a claimed 80 miles on electric power alone. If you want to save a few pennies, there are more basic Pro and Max models with a smaller battery and a 56 mile electric range, but for boasting rights, you’ll want the Ultra.

Around town, that makes the Starray a star, as it will stay on electric power for far longer than most of its competition, and the soft suspension means that it’s easy-going over the worst bumps too.

The Starray’s cabin quality is very good too, and the materials used belie the price tag a bit. The touchscreen is maddening though — as with so many modern cars, EVERYTHING is controlled by the screen, and it just has too many confusing menus.

Apparently, Lotus had a hand in tuning the Starray’s chassis (the British sports car maker is owned by Geely too) but you’d be hard-pressed to tell. On a twisty road, it’s slightly better than most of its Chinese contemporaries, but that’s a low bar to be honest.

Best for: Refinement and space

The BYD Seal U is one of the more sophisticated Chinese SUVs to look at. Note; we do not say ‘interesting’ nor ‘gorgeous’ — in fact it’s bland as heck, but the big, imposing Seal U does in fairness look like it means business.

It’s big inside too, with huge amounts of rear-seat legroom and an impressive cabin. Quality levels are very good, and there’s lots of standard equipment too. The disappointment in this respect is the boot, which is surprisingly small at 425 litres. It’s the trade-off for all that rear seat space.

The plug-in hybrid system is solid too, with either 50 miles or 78 miles of claimed electric-only range on a full charge depending on which model you choose. Performance is leisurely, but fine (although you can often hear a faint but persistent drone from the engine on a motorway cruise) and all-round economy is actually very good. This is one plug-in hybrid that won’t mug you at the pumps.

However, all of this is let down a bit by the way the Seal U drives. It’s easy-going around town, and smooth on the motorway, but it’s way too soft and vague for a traditional bit of twisting British back-road. Ah well, just sit back and enjoy the armchair-like seats and the lengthy standard equipment list.

Best for: Hybrid power

You won’t find many similarly-priced hybrids with the sheer power of the MG ZS Hybrid+. In fact, at this price and size level, you won’t find any. Maybe it’s an accident, or maybe MG is really trying to live up to its old, sporting image (remember all the tearaway hot MG hatches and saloons of the early 2000s? Or the 1980s?) but the ZS Hybrid+ is packing 190hp when most of its competition is stuck down at the 130-150hp level.

That gives the ZS Hybrid+ some very brisk performance, but it does come at the cost of a noisy engine when you’re accelerating hard, thanks partly to the limitations of the three-speed automatic transmission. The ZS is also strictly front-wheel drive only — there’s no option of four-wheel drive to back up those (quite sleek) SUV looks.

Inside, the ZS is spacious and comes with lots of standard kit that costs extra with other cars, but you will have to put up with some pretty low-rent plastics around the place. This is one Chinese hybrid that doesn’t feel all that plush inside.

It’s just a shame that the ZS doesn’t feel as enthusiastic when it comes to corners as its close cousin, the MG3 Hybrid+ hatchback. It’s not especially bad or anything, just lacking in a sense of fun, which is a shame. After all, power is one thing; control is another.

Best for: Surprising poshness

The Tiggo 9 is Chery’s flagship and it’s a big, posh seven-seat plug-in hybrid SUV that really and truly delivers on the hybrid part. The Tiggo 9 is packing a massive 34kWh battery, which gives it a claimed range on one charge of 91 miles. And you can charge it up fast, from a DC rapid public charger, at up to 70kW meaning that you can almost use this big hybrid like a short-ranged electric car, reserving the petrol engine for emergencies.

When you do need to use the 1.5 litre petrol engine, the Tiggo 9 won’t get next nor near its ridiculous official 500mpg figure, but you should get around 45mpg on a long run, which is acceptable.

Oddly, considering its flagship billing, the Tiggo 9’s cabin isn’t quite as nice, in terms of fit and finish, as those of the Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8. Still, it is quite nice inside by most standards, although again there’s points taken off for an overly confusing touchscreen and a total lack of physical buttons.

There’s plenty of space inside, although the Tiggo 9 isn’t quite as roomy as, say, a Hyundai Santa Fe, and it’s a refined motorway cruiser (just don’t go expecting back-road thrills from the driver’s seat). The 400hp power figure looks impressive, but the engine is so noisy at full beans that you won’t bother going looking for it much.

Best for: Estate value

Forget the Skoda Superb Estate — that’s become a very expensive car of late — if you want a well-priced and roomy estate car, with plug-in hybrid power, look no further than this BYD Seal 6 Touring. It’s affordable, spacious, and well-equipped. Just don’t go expecting it to be exciting, is all.

There’s a decent — if not outrageously big — 500 litre boot, and there’s adequate room for heads and legs in the back seat. Oddly, the Seal 6 Touring’s front seats aren’t great. The driving position feels odd, and there’s not enough under-thigh support on long journeys.

The plug-in hybrid system makes back some of those lost points. Comfort models get a larger 19kWh battery which is good for 62 miles of electric range, and the Seal 6 Touring isn’t too thirsty on long motorway runs either. Reckon on close to 50mpg (doubtless helped by the low, sleek, non-SUV body).

Sadly, the Seal 6 Touring is just no fun to drive. When you’re not being frustrated by the fiddly touchscreen, you’re being annoyed by its thumpy suspension around town, and its total lack of steering feel and feedback on twisty roads. Even cruising on the motorway isn’t all that good — there’s too much wind and tyre noise. You’ll just have to ignore all that and remember how little you had to pay up front.