Jaecoo E5 Review & Prices

The Jaecoo 5 is the Chinese brand’s smallest SUV, with clear styling cues to the larger Jaecoo 7 and a similar ethos: lots of space inside, lots of standard kit and the choice of a frugal plug-in hybrid engine. Unfortunately, it’s dreadful to drive in most situations.

Like choosing an off-brand version of your favourite Häagen Dazs ice cream from a budget supermarket chain, you certainly get value for money here, but the Jaecoo 5 reminds you that sometimes it’s really worth spending the extra. There are some far more premium alternatives to choose from at this price point, too, such as the Renault Captur, Peugeot 2008 and Toyota Yaris Cross.

The term ‘Temu Range Rover’ comes to mind, but whereas the larger Jaecoo 7 is akin to the sleek Velar, the Jaecoo 5 is very much an Evoque driving through a hall of mirrors. That’s not to say it’s ugly, but the large grille, somewhat featureless sides and small wheels all look a bit awkward with the smaller silhouette.

Jaecoo E5: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 248 miles
Efficiency: 4.0 miles per kWh
Battery size: 61.1kWh
Max charge speed: 80kW
Charge time AC: 8hrs 10mins (7.4kW)
Charge time DC: 27min (30-80%)
Charge port location: right front
Power outputs: 207hp

Neither is the Jaecoo 5 as posh inside as a real Range Rover, but again it’s easy enough on the eye with an inoffensive, minimalist design - and it’s certainly well equipped for the price. The large, portrait-oriented infotainment system is responsive to use, featuring crisp graphics and some handy shortcuts which help to navigate the (slightly fussy) menus.

Material quality is a mixed bag, but the mix of soft, trimmed surfaces and hard plastics is on par with similarly-priced alternatives.

Interior space is where the Jaecoo 5 impresses most, with masses of space for passengers both front and rear. The driver’s seat could drop down a touch further, but otherwise it’s easy for tall adults to get comfortable on long drives. There are plenty of storage cubbies around the cabin, and the 480-litre boot is pretty much top of its class for a small SUV.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the oily bits under the skin, the Jaecoo 5 begins to unravel. There’s a sole petrol engine offering - though you can opt for the superior, electric, E5 EV instead. Even if you’re not a keen car enthusiast the motor will get on your nerves, because it’s noisy, slow, hard to drive in a smooth manner and not particularly efficient.

It’s not very comfortable to drive around town, either, with the suspension struggling to remain composed on bumpy, uneven city roads. It settles down enough on the motorway, but the moment you head on to a country lane the Jaecoo’s tendency to lean around bends and vague steering rob you of any confidence.

Verdict

There’s a lot to like about the Jaecoo 5, and if your budget stretches a bit to the electric E5 it’s a much better all-rounder. But if you want to stick to combustion power there are plenty of excellent other cars you should shortlist ahead of this – the MG HS, Renault Captur, Ford Puma and Toyota Yaris Cross to name a few.

Interested? Check out the latest Jaecoo E5 deals and E5 lease deals available through Carwow. You can also browse used Jaecoo cars through our network of trusted dealers, and when the time comes to sell your current car, Carwow can help with that, too.

Prices for the Jaecoo E5 start at just over £27,000 for the entry-level Pure trim and over £30,000 for the higher-spec Luxury model. That makes it temptingly cheap – on par with the smaller Renault 4 and a bit cheaper than the MG S5 EV.

However, at the time of writing the government’s electric car grant makes alternatives a bit more tempting, The main beneficiary of the grant is the Ford Puma Gen-E, because it gets the full £3,750 discount, making it even cheaper than the Jaecoo. The Renault, too, gets a smaller discount to drop prices below the E5.

Still, the Jaecoo E5 is good value for money. Standard equipment on Pure models includes the digital instrument display and 13.2-inch infotainment screen with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, as well as all the basic driver assistance features.

Luxury is the one to go for if your budget allows as you get much more assistance kit, including adaptive cruise control and parking cameras. Inside there’s synthetic leather seat upholstery, a Sony sound system, ventilated and heated seats and a panoramic sunroof.

The Jaecoo E5 is perfectly comfortable most of the time, but it’s really disappointing on a twisty road

In town

Busy city streets are where the Jaecoo E5 feels most at home. Because it’s relatively small and has good visibility, it’s really easy to place on the road so you’re not getting nervous in tight spaces. The smooth electric motors naturally work well here, too.

That said, the suspension never really settles on rough roads so the car can feel like it’s always fidgeting about in a way you don’t get with the more comfortable Smart #1.

City-friendly assistance kit is much more generous on the pricier Luxury trim, as you get all-round cameras to help with parking and narrow spaces, as well as a rear-view camera, though you do at least get parking sensors front and rear as standard.

On the motorway

The Jaecoo E5 is competent enough on the motorway, where the suspension settles down a bit making it a comfortable and relatively quiet place to spend time. Again though, if you want the best assistance kit you need to step up from the base model to get adaptive cruise control. If you do a lot of motorway miles you should try to stretch your budget to the Skoda Elroq, which feels a bit bigger and more composed at higher speeds.

On a twisty road

Twisty roads prove the Jaecoo E5’s undoing, so if you’re looking for something that encourages you to take the scenic route home from the school run then you’ll want the Ford Puma Gen-E. It’s fine if you’re taking things steady, with the suspension dealing fairly well with large undulations in the road, but as soon as you start to pick up the pace the body leans too much and the vague steering makes it tricky to place accurately and confidently in your lane.

Loads of storage and a good-sized boot, but rear seat space isn’t amazing

Those in the front of the Jaecoo E5 have the most space, and there’s decent enough adjustability in the steering wheel and seat to get comfortable. However, the seat is quite high even in its lowest setting. That’s good for visibility, but taller drivers might find this feels awkward – at six feet tall I felt like I was sitting on top of the car rather than in it.

Cabin storage is excellent, with about 35 individual places to store things across the car. In the front that means you get big door bins, two cup holders, a useful area under the centre console and even a tricky-to-access hidden area behind the screen. The glovebox isn’t particularly big though, and has an annoying damped action that makes it open really slowly.

Space in the back seats

Rear seat space is adequate but not as roomy as the MG S5 EV, and the floor is a bit high so you don’t get great under-thigh support. You shouldn’t get too many complaints from those in the back though, unless you try to squeeze three across the rear bench. The person in the middle also gets a hard, raised seat that’s not going to be particularly comfortable for longer journeys.

There’s enough space for a bulky child seat inside but accessing the rear isn’t the easiest thanks to the narrow door opening. If you regularly swap a seat between cars that could get annoying.

The door bins are big enough for small bottles, and you get pockets in the seats ahead of you. A single old school USB-A slot is a bit stingy, though.

Boot space

With 480 litres of boot space, the Jaecoo E5 has more luggage capacity than most alternatives. That’s more room than you get in the MG S5 EV (453 litres) and Renault 4 (420 litres), and way more than the Smart #1 (273 litres) and Jeep Avenger Electric (355 litres). If you need maximum space though, the Ford Puma Gen-E makes them all look tiny with 556 litres of space in the boot.

The bumper is a bit high but it’s not too bad for lifting heavy items in, because the floor lines up with the bumper. If you want a bit more space you can lower the boot floor, which is a neat feature. There is a lot of space beneath the boot but there’s no lining, so you’re just placing items on metal and they’ll roll around when you’re driving.

Folding the rear seats is easy enough via a latch by the headrest, and doing so creates a flat floor that makes it easy to push large items in.

Cheap in places but the cabin feels quality overall, and the infotainment is quick

The interior has a simple, inoffensive design, with a slim upright dashboard section for the vents and no unnecessary swoops and swishes – it’s all very much function over form.

There are cheap materials to be found, such as lower on the centre console and the door bins, but everything you touch regularly is more than good enough for the price. There are soft fabrics on the arm rests, colour-contrasted stitching and big comfy seats.

The main attraction is the portrait-oriented infotainment touchscreen. At 13.2 inches it’s big without being too intrusive and sits nicely nestled in your peripheral vision. It’s actually a refreshing change from the widescreen TVs plonked atop the dashboard in most modern cars.

It’s impressively quick and responsive to your inputs, and the software is fairly intuitive to navigate. There are useful shortcuts that you access by swiping down from the top of the screen, and you can change them to functions you use regularly to save time. The graphics feel a bit like an off-the-shelf Android tablet, though.

Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are fitted as standard and work seamlessly. However, it would be nice to have permanent shortcuts to get in and out of the phone mirroring as you get with most modern systems. It’s currently a bit of a faff if you need to get back to the Jaecoo menus to adjust something.

Similarly the lack of physical climate controls is annoying, because you have to swipe up on the screen to display the temperature and make adjustments.

Pet owners might be enticed by the scratch- and wear-resistant upholstery and the multiple pet accessories you can get from Jaecoo dealers. There’s also a pet mode that keeps the car interior cool. Another neat feature is the ‘camping mode’, which lets you play music outside the car.

Whichever trim you go for, the Jaecoo E5 comes with a 61.1kWh battery providing an official range of up to 248 miles. During our testing in the Kent countryside we saw efficiency of 3.7 miles per kWh, which would give you about 225 miles of range. That’s about 90% of the claimed figure, which is better than most cars, which typically manage 80%.

Although this puts the E5 in the ballpark of alternatives, none of them will go further on a charge without you paying more than you would for the Jaecoo. The closest is the MG S5 EV, which can go up to 298 miles for just over £31k, so it’s worth a look if you’re shopping for a Luxury-spec E5 and can stretch your budget a little further.

More disappointing is the fast charging speed, which isn’t very fast at all. At just 80kW it lags well behind most modern electric cars, which means it’s not ideal if you do a lot of miles and will need to use public chargers often.

Being an electric car means you’ll pay the lowest first year road tax rate and it is in the lowest Benefit-in-Kind rate for company car drivers, too.

The Jaecoo E5 has not been put through Euro NCAP safety testing yet, though the larger Jaecoo 7 scored the full five stars.

All the basic assistance kit comes as standard, such as collision warning and avoidance tech, as well as lane-departure warning and emergency braking. Luxury models get all the good stuff like adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection and surround-view cameras.

Jaecoo is so new to the UK that it’s impossible to get a good idea of how reliable its models are. Reassuring, though, is the excellent warranty – at seven years/100,000 miles it’s up there with the best in the business.