Jaecoo J6 review: A box of surprises
The chunky Jaecoo J6 looks like an off-roader for the post-combustion era, but it’s baffling in some ways
BYD may be the Toyota of the electric vehicle (EV) world, but while its cars are a safe choice, they aren’t exactly the stuff of fever dreams (which is a bit ironic if you know what BYD stands for). For something with a bit more character, cast your eyes at the Jaecoo J6, an electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) that looks like it’s ready to ford a river or scale the China side of Everest.
The Jaecoo J6 is basically a Chinese interpretation of a Jeep Wrangler or Land Rover Defender for the post-combustion era. It’s chunky and rugged, and it looks ready to tackle anything. Whether it actually can is another matter entirely.
At home, it’s the Chery iCar 03, which explains the “i” motifs plastered everywhere – from the lamps and steering wheel badge to the quirky utility box hanging off its fridge-style boot door. It’s a bit bigger than, say, Volvo’s EX30, another Chinese EV, but while most compact EVs are slick urbanites, the J6 wants you to think of it as an expedition machine.
But, can the Jaecoo really get muddy? It’s hard for me to say, because I didn’t take the J6 into anything more challenging than a puddle. It does have nine drive modes, but apart from Eco dulling the throttle response, the differences are subtle. It doesn’t come with air suspension or off-road tyres, so though it looks like it’s ready for a Patagonia advertisement shoot, it might well be happier posing alongside a hiking trail than actually blazing one.
Still, it gets plenty of attention, and that counts for something. The boxy, beefy styling turns heads everywhere, and I caught my neighbours peering inside it with the sort of curiosity normally reserved for alien spacecraft.
It’s a charmer, too. It greets you like an excitable Labrador, chirping out a merry tune when you approach, and humming a wistful farewell when you leave. And, it’s hard not to love a car that has a nap mode, which reclines the driver’s seat, closes the overhead sunshade and plays nature sounds, so you can catch 40 winks to ocean waves lapping at the shore.
What I really didn’t expect was that the J6 would be a sprinter in hiking boots. The twin-motor set-up delivers 279 hp and 385 Nm, enough to give the J6 seriously punchy acceleration. It’s not a Porsche-killer, but it’ll happily hassle a Volkswagen Golf GTI.
While it picks up speed like a hot hatch, the J6 handles more like a 4x4. It bounces around on its firm suspension and the steering lacks precision, like a map that’s been in a washing machine. At highway speeds, there’s a fair bit of wind noise, too. Even though the motors are silent, the J6 definitely leans more towards ruggedness than refinement.
On the other hand, the interior is surprisingly posh. The ambient lighting pulses soothingly in breathing mode or dances to the beat of your music, and the cabin quality is no worse than a BMW’s, which says as much about BMW as it does about Jaecoo.
That boxy shape creates plenty of headroom inside, and you can fill the place with light by rolling back the panoramic glass roof’s sunshade.
On the practicality side, the 450-litre boot expands to 1,238 litres with the seats folded, which is a respectable amount of cargo space, though the fridge-style tailgate means you’ll need a bit of room behind the car to swing it open. The rear seats don’t adjust and the boot lacks a luggage cover, though it does have four useful hooks for plastic bags.
The J6’s biggest weakness is probably its user interface (UI) system, which is built around a massive touchscreen, but either buries everything in menus or requires you to figure out what the unlabelled buttons and scroll wheels on the steering wheel actually do.
The lack of permanent on-screen buttons for basics like air-conditioning controls can be frustrating, and some of the virtual buttons are baffling. There’s one marked “Frups Des”, for example. It’s almost as if the UI was designed by people whose first language isn’t English.
Jaecoo claims 342 km of range for the J6, and real-world driving suggests that’s about right. I covered 152 km and used 46 per cent of the battery. Most owners would probably charge it every three to four days for peace of mind, but with a lithium iron phosphate battery onboard, at least you can safely juice it to 100 per cent with less worry about degradation.
Ultimately, it’s not hard to find the Jaecoo J6’s flaws. The handling is vague, the UI is fiddly and at highway speeds, the wind noise forces you to turn up the sound system. But, it’s not hard to see its charms, either. It turns heads, it scampers along like a GTI and it sings when you arrive like it’s happy to see you.
Above all, if you have an image of yourself as Bear Grylls’ Singaporean cousin, the J6 will help you look the part. You don’t have to build that dream if you can just indulge it now and then.
Jaecoo J6
Motor power/torque 279 hp/385 Nm Battery type/net capacity Lithium iron phosphate/69.77 kWh Charging time/type 10.5 hours (AC 6.6 kW), 30 minutes 30 to 80 per cent (DC 80 kW) Range 342 km (WLTP) 0-100 kmh 6.5 seconds Top speed 150 kmh Efficiency 23.7 kWh/100 km Agent Vertex Automobile Price S$192,888 with COE Available Now
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