Lepas L8 Review & Prices

Lepas is the latest car brand from Chery International - the parent firm of Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo - and the L8 is its first car. It’s a large SUV available exclusively with a plug-in hybrid engine, and its key focus is giving you a surprising amount of space, equipment and luxury for your money.

In the Chery family - Chery is the sensible sibling with two kids, a dog and a four-bed semi-detached house. Omoda is the stylish one who lives exclusively in designer clothes. Jaecoo’s the one who goes around in a dryrobe and fancies themselves as outdoorsy, and Lepas? It’s the cool uncle who lives in a minimalist penthouse and wears turtlenecks. Kinda chill, kinda classy.

The L8 is a good-value alternative to cars like the Kia Sportage, Volkswagen Tiguan or Nissan Qashqai, though it could also be an aspirational upgrade for someone who’s considering the slightly cheaper MG HS, Geely Starray or Jaecoo 7. At nearly £38,000 for the range-topping model, it’s not cheap by the standards of Chinese SUVs - but it’s still less than you’ll spend on the most basic Tiguan.

The Lepas L8 isn’t a bad-looking car, cribbing many of its styling cues from other SUVs. The front has a lot of Audi about it in the upside-down headlight arrangement and bold grille, while the rear has a full-width lightbar which looks a lot like a Porsche Cayenne’s. Around the side you get flush door handles and 18- or 19-inch alloy wheels, though they’re a bit inset from the body so it looks a bit like the car’s wearing shoes that are too small.

On the inside, it’s a similar combination of posh-but-anonymous. The centre console swoops up into a large, portrait-oriented touchscreen, with a slim driver’s display next to it. There are a few well-chosen physical controls - you can adjust the temperature and the fan from the centre, for example - though what looks like a volume dial actually switches drive modes.

The touchscreen is big and clear but the interface isn’t the greatest - there are a lot of menus to scroll through. Lepas has promised an upcoming update will add a shortcut key to quickly switch off the more annoying safety features, though.

Space is definitely not lacking. Passengers in the rear of the L8 can genuinely stretch out like they’re in a Range Rover, plus they also get a great view out and loads of headroom. It’s almost too spacious, actually - the 507-litre boot is about the same size as a Nissan Qashqai’s, but we would have sacrificed a little rear legroom for even more luggage space.

Under the bonnet the Lepas L8 has a plug-in hybrid engine - closely related to the one you get in the Jaecoo 7 and Omoda 7. It’s slightly more powerful than those cars but retains the 56-mile electric range figure and rock bottom CO2 emissions that make it such a cost-effective company car. It’s a good engine - smooth, quiet, and even quite economical once the battery is discharged.

It’s a shame that the rest of the driving experience doesn’t live up to the engine, though. The L8 is uncomfortable over bumps in town and feels loose and disconnected on a twisting road, though it does settle down nice and quietly on the motorway. A few oddities with the way the brakes behave mean it’s difficult to drive smoothly, and the steering feels like you’re turning the car via remote control.

Verdict

The Lepas L8 feels like a meaningful upgrade over the Chery Tiggo 7, Omoda 7 and Jaecoo 7 thanks to the extra refinement, luxury equipment and pleasant interior. It also looks like cracking value next to a Volkswagen Tiguan or Kia Sportage, but that impression soon dissipates once you get onto anything but the smoothest of roads.

If you’re interested in this upmarket SUV, check out our best Lepas L8 deals here. You can see how much you could save with a Lepas L8 lease deal, or search the reams of excellent used cars for sale on Carwow. Remember that when the time comes for car-changing you can even sell your old car through Carwow too.

The Lepas L8 has a simple range with just one engine and two trim levels. Starting with ‘Essence’ at just under £35,000, you get 19-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic sunroof, climate control, a 13.2-inch centre touchscreen and 10.3-inch driver display, wireless phone charging and part-cloth, part-artificial leather upholstery.

Most people will pay £3,000 extra for the ‘Elevate’ model, though, because it adds 20-inch alloy wheels, an electric tailgate, heated, vented and massaging front seats, full artificial leather upholstery, a premium Sony sound system, automatic parking and a 360-degree camera.

That’s quite the equipment list. A Citroen C5 Aircross MAX is a similar price in plug-in hybrid form but misses out on the ventilated seats, posh sound system and panoramic roof. You’ll pay far more for an equivalent Volkswagen Tiguan or Kia Sportage PHEV with anything approaching that level of standard kit, too. The top-spec Omoda 7 or Jaecoo 7 do come close for slightly less money, though.

The Lepas L8’s engine is fantastic - it’s just a shame the uncomfortable suspension lets the side down

In town

There’s no ignition key or start button in the Lepas L8 - you just get in, put your foot on the brake and go. The plug-in hybrid system has up to 56 miles of electric range, and it feels great tootling about on silent electric power alone - though the default pedestrian warning sound is rather embarrassing.

Visibility is pretty good, especially in top-spec Elevate cars where you have the 360-degree camera to make parking a doddle. The Elevate also gets a rather sophisticated automated parking system that can even chivvy the car into a space while you’re stood outside it.

The suspension doesn’t deal well with lumps and bumps around town, though. It feels firm yet uncontrolled, with a lot of wobbling around after you hit a sharp imperfection in the road. A Citroen C5 Aircross is much more comfortable.

On the motorway

The Lepas L8 is extremely quiet on the motorway thanks to laminated front and side glass and active noise cancellation - combined with an engine that’s not very loud to begin with. The suspension settles down a lot too, though you still notice expansion joints and rough patches more than you would in a Volkswagen Tiguan.

On a twisty road

You won’t really enjoy driving the Lepas L8 down a twisty road. The steering is extremely light and feels very remote - like there’s no link to the front wheels whatsoever. The suspension is quite firm, so you feel the bumps, but the body still leans a lot in the bends. The most annoying thing is that the brake pedal feels very inconsistent, as if the car is not sure whether to use the regenerative braking of the hybrid system or the traditional friction braking.

There’s plenty of power and if you throw it into a corner it does grip well, but you’ll probably want to take twisting roads at a more relaxed speed if you don’t want your passengers getting car sick.

Tons of room for passengers and decent storage for small items - but the boot is only average

It’s easy to get comfy in the front of the Lepas L8. The seats have a good amount of adjustability - though we wish you could change the angle of the seat base - and so does the steering wheel. Drivers of all shapes should be accommodated.

Storage for smaller items is decent too. The door bins will take a big bottle of water, as will the glovebox, and though the cubby under the armrest isn’t huge it’s air-conditioned to keep drinks a bit cooler. There’s also a spot under the centre console which houses the 12V socket, USB ports and vials for the built-in cabin fragrance system.

The wireless phone charging pad sits next to the cupholders, which is convenient, but does put it right in the sun - even with the active cooling your phone can get quite hot. We like the little storage tray behind the infotainment screen - it’s perfect for a packet of mints or tissues, something you’d like at hand but out of the way.

Space in the back seats

Step into the rear of the Lepas L8 and you’ll be shocked by how much room there is. Legroom is truly palatial, the equal of many much larger, posher SUVs, and headroom is good too even with the panoramic sunroof. The cabin isn’t the widest so it’ll be a bit of a squish for three people, but there’s a totally flat floor so at least everyone has somewhere to put their feet.

Rear passengers get one USB-A and one USB-C port, cupholders in the centre armrest, and their own air vents. They also get a good view out courtesy of big rear windows, though they don’t quite roll all the way down.

Elevate trim adds a folding tray table to the back of the front passenger seat. It’s sturdy with a nice action, though your kids might fight over who gets it since there isn’t one on the other side. Speaking of kids, you get ISOFIX points on the outer rear passenger seats as well as in the front, and there’s acres of room for even the biggest child seats.

Boot space

The Lepas L8’s 507-litre boot compares well with the 505-litre Nissan Qashqai and the 490-litres you get in the plug-in hybrid Volkswagen Tiguan. The Kia Sportage, Skoda Kodiaq, Citroen C5 Aircross and Hyundai Tucson all have much more room in their plug-in hybrid forms though, and get even bigger if you go for a petrol or self-charging hybrid variant.

The boot doesn’t do anything too clever - it’s a little shallow, so bulky items will be visible in the back window, and the parcel shelf is a little flimsy. But it’s flat with no load lip, the tailgate opening is wide, and there’s a little bit of underfloor storage ideal for keeping your charging cable.

Impressive levels of standard kit and a generally well-built interior, though updates to improve the infotainment can’t come soon enough

The Lepas L8 has a familiarly minimalist interior, similar to the Jaecoo 7 and Omoda 7. There’s a big 13.2-inch touchscreen, a 10.3-inch driver display and just a few physical controls.

What switches there are have been pretty well-chosen, though. You get physical mirror controls, unlike the Jaecoo 7, and buttons for temperature and fan speed under the central screen. The large dial in the middle changes drive modes, rather than stereo volume, which is a bit counterintuitive as you’ll definitely use one function more than the other.

Quality is quite good, with plush materials everywhere you touch. In some areas it’s obvious that it’s more of a thin veneer over a cheap base, but that’s the case with any SUV at this price so it’d be unfair to single the L8 out over it.

The infotainment screen is big, bright and responsive, but the interface could definitely use some work. There are too many menus to scroll through, and it’ll take you a while to figure out where every function is. Lepas has promised that a software update will introduce a one-click function to turn off the safety aids all at once, which is great - at the moment you have to do them all individually at the start of every drive.

The controls and switchgear all feel nicely damped and though the basic black upholstery makes the car feel quite monochromatic and dull, the two-tone tan and black option is rather stylish. It’s a nice place to spend time, especially with the massaging seat switched on. Don'r forget the built-in fragrance diffuser, either - there are three scents to choose from and they blow through the air-con. They're subtle, but not unpleasant.

The Lepas L8 uses a plug-in hybrid engine, similar to the one in the Jaecoo 7 and Omoda 7 but a bit more powerful. It has 279hp, a 56-mile electric range, and can fast-charge at up to 40kW from a public charger.

Official fuel economy is over 400mpg. In reality your figure will depend on how often you charge - do short journeys and keep the battery topped up, and you’ll hardly use any petrol at all. That being said, this hybrid system is pretty efficient on a longer run too, as it preserves a portion of the battery capacity in Smart mode - meaning you can stay on electric power for the most part, with the engine acting as an efficient generator rather than driving the wheels directly.

Driven in this way, you should be able to achieve about 45-50mpg on a long journey, and a range on a full tank + full battery of well over 600 miles.

The EV range isn’t class-leading, though. A Geely Starray can do up to 84 miles in its ‘Ultra’ guise, the MG HS can do 75 miles, the Volkswagen Tiguan up to 77 miles and the BYD Seal U a whopping 78 miles.

Company car tax will be reasonable thanks to the low CO2 emissions, and first-year road tax isn’t bad either. Plus, the Lepas L8 stays well below the £40,000 threshold to pay the expensive car supplement, which is a fate you do suffer going for the posher Chery Tiggo 9 or Jaecoo 8.

Euro NCAP hasn’t tested the Lepas L8 yet, but the brand is hoping for a full five-star rating. That’s something that’s been achieved with all Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo products bar the very cheap Chery Tiggo 4, so it seems likely that the Lepas will perform well. The usual raft of safety aids and crash protection is in place, though things like the lane-keeping are more trouble than they’re worth to keep switched on because they’re so annoyingly interfering.

The Lepas warranty is the same seven years and 100,000 miles of cover as other Chery/Omoda/Jaecoo products, though it’s worth noting that some fairly major components such as the infotainment screen get exemptions from this and are only covered for three years. There are no such restrictions with the Kia or Geely policies.

Lepas is too new a brand to make claims about its reliability, and neither it nor sister brands Chery, Omoda or Jaecoo have yet featured in the Driver Power owner satisfaction survey. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some buyers have faced long waits for parts or repair, though.