Lepas L8 driven: is this £35k PHEV more than a posh Jaecoo?

Yet another Chery brand arrives in the UK, this one with sub-£35k plug-in hybrid family SUV

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Chinese car giant Chery should give itself a pat on the back. Eighteen months ago most UK car buyers had never heard of it, but since the launch of its Jaecoo and Omoda brands, it has rocketed up the sales charts, most notably with the Jaecoo 7.

It's now confident enough to have a go at a slightly higher-priced premium brand. It's called Lepas – a portmanteau of 'leopard' and 'passion' – and its first car is the Lepas L8 plug-in hybrid SUV. 

Given the speed of Chery’s UK expansion, it’s getting hard to keep track, but in a nutshell, the L8 is a 4.6m-long family SUV designed to take aim at established rivals like the Volkswagen Tiguan and Toyota RAV4. 

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DESIGN & STYLING

Lepas L8 side

Glimpse at the L8 and it's clear that its European design house spent a lot of time studying and subsequently taking inspiration from SUVs from the continent, most notably Porsche. The rear end is very Cayenne-esque. 

Up front, the L8 has what Lepas calls 'leopard-eye' LED headlights, flanking a large diamond mesh grille. To my eyes, at least, it doesn’t look all that distinct from some of Chery’s other models. The fascia, in particular, bears a strong resemblance to the larger Chery Tiggo 9. 

That being said, it’s well-proportioned. At 4.68m long, 1.87m wide without the mirrors and 1.68m tall, the Lepas is slightly longer, wider and taller than the Tiguan. 

Like the rest of Chery’s model line-up, the Lepas uses the group's Super Hybrid System (SHS), which pairs a turbocharged 1.5-litre petrol four with an electric motor and an 18.4kWh battery.

The engine acts mainly as a generator but can also be used to drive the wheels at higher speeds. Electric-only range is up to 56 miles, which is quite a bit less than the Tiguan eHybrid (72 miles) and RAV4 PHEV (85 miles) but comparable with the Citroën C5 Aircross PHEV (53 miles).

Prices for the entry-level L8 Essence start from £34,700, but Lepas believes the £37,900 range-topping Elevate model will be the bigger seller in the UK.

INTERIOR

Lepas L8 interior wide

Inside the Lepas leans heavily into Chery’s minimalist approach, with a large, portrait-oriented touchscreen, a small digital driver’s display and barely any physical switchgear for the secondary controls. 

The 13.2in central touchscreen that swoops down into the centre console and bright speaker grilles all whiff of Mercedes-Benz, but it’s a nice enough place to sit, with faux-leather, soft-touch materials on the dashboard and plenty of storage – and the tan with black colour combination of our test car helps lift the atmosphere inside. 

I wished the seats had more shoulder support: on twisty B-roads, I was thrown around in my seat far more than I would have liked.
Sam Phillips
Senior Staff Writer

As we've seen previously from cars within Chery’s brand portfolio, the L8’s touchscreen is frustratingly unintuitive. Adjusting various functions requires a lot of menu hopping, which isn’t helped by the small icons.

Worse still, there's currently no shortcut button to deactivate the ADAS – although Lepas promises this will be added to the touchscreen’s swipe-down menu in a future over-the-air software update. 

The strip of physical buttons for the temperature and fan speed that sit below the touchscreen are a useful addition, mind you. 

Rear passenger space is clearly something which Lepas was unwilling to compromise on when developing the L8. Leg room is more than generous, if not class-leading, and I liked being able to place my feet underneath the seat in front. The panoramic sunroof doesn’t encroach on head room either, and overall rear accommodation is more than roomy enough for taller adults. 

Practicality remains high on the L8’s agenda, too. At 507 litres, the boot space outperforms PHEV rivals like the Tiguan (490 litres) and Toyota RAV4 (446 litres). Underfloor storage means it’s easy to hide the charging cable, too. 

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

The Lepas gets much the same 'SHS' PHEV powertrain as the Omoda 7 and Jaecooo 7, but here its 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and electric motor combine to make 275bhp and 269lb ft of torque. 

The 0-62mph sprint is achieved in 7.9sec, and while power delivery is smooth and refined, it’s not particularly fast. Brisk enough, certainly, but nothing that will worry the dog in the boot.

Because the electric motor does most of the heavy lifting, the L8 feels more like an EV most of the time. If you ask for full performance, you can just about hear the engine, but even then it's very muted.

Aggressive throttle inputs can overwhelm the front wheels, though, generating a noticeable tug of torque steer as the tyres search for traction. Even under rolling acceleration it's possible to generate the odd bit of tyre squeal from the front axle. 

RIDE & HANDLING

Lepas L8 tracking front

Lepas is keen to stress that the L8 has been developed with UK roads in mind, but the results remain mixed. 

The L8 suffers from a bit of floatiness at higher speeds, with plenty of vertical body movement over undulating roads. There's a noticeable fuss and fidget to the ride and it never quite seems to settle down on 50mph rural roads. The low-speed ride isn't much better, with more jostle and jounce over broken surfaces. It settles down nicely on the motorway, however.

Wind and road noise are also well isolated. 

Grip levels are adequate and body control respectable, with a reasonable amount of body roll through faster bends.

The steering is precise enough and it feels more consistently weighted than the Jaecoo 7's, although there's still a bit of dead weight off-centre.

Lane keeping assistance aside, the ADAS aren't too intrusive, particularly once the bongs have been turned off. There are about 12 different functions, mind, and at present they all have to be turned off individually via the touchscreen. 

VERDICT

Lepas L8 static

The L8 feels like one of the more complete products we’ve driven from Chery’s ever-growing portfolio. Its cabin is spacious, it comes with a good amount of standard kit and its EV-like PHEV powertrain is smooth and refined. At the same time, it still lacks the dynamic sophistication, usability and simplicity of the best European and Japanese options.

With 56 miles, it also can't match rivals from Volkswagen and Toyota for electric-only range, but then the L8 undercuts them by almost £10,000, starting from just under £35,000 – as does the similarly talented MG HS PHEV.

Sam Phillips

Sam Phillips
Title: Senior Staff Writer

Sam joined the Autocar team in summer 2024 and has been a contributor since 2021. He is tasked with writing used reviews and first drives as well as updating top 10s and evergreen content on the Autocar website. 

He previously led sister-title Move Electric, which covers the entire spectrum of electric vehicles, from cars to boats – and even trucks. He is an expert in new car news, used cars, electric cars, microbility, classic cars and motorsport. 

Sam graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2021 with a BA in Journalism. In his final year he produced an in-depth feature on the automotive industry’s transition to electric cars and interviewed a number of leading experts to assess our readiness for the impending ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars.