OVERVIEW

As the proliferation of Chinese brands in Australia explodes beyond a dozen, the latest entrant is the Omoda 9 – a large, coupe-shaped SUV with a plug-in hybrid powertrain, sold and marketed alongside Jaecoo through newly formed Omoda-Jaecoo dealerships.

Go Auto has covered the implementation and strategy of Omoda-Jaecoo as a slightly more premium brand separate from Chery with this new Omoda 9 SUV currently sitting at the top of the tree.

Already a semi-premium vehicle in China (called Exeed Yaoguang), the Omoda 9 priced from $61,990 excluding on road costs is positioned above the medium-sized Jaecoo J7 SUV and larger J8 SUV, though like both those vehicles it’s purely a five-seater.

Measuring 4775mm long, 1920mm wide and 1671mm tall, riding on a 2800mm wheelbase, the Omoda 9 is close to the Jaecoo J8 in size – the biggest difference being its 45mm reduction in length and 39mm reduction in height.

It’s more that the combustion-engined J8 is wagon shaped and has 738 litres of boot space to the roof, while the $7K dearer Omoda 9 (comparing AWD to AWD) has a sleeker body and styling, a plug-in hybrid powertrain and 660 litres of boot space to the roof.

Where the Omoda 9 best establishes its credentials as the technology-focused ‘new luxury’ alternative to the supposedly ‘adventure’ oriented Jaecoo range is by having three electric motors, along with a turbo-petrol engine. That provides an outstanding 145km of WLTP electric range – giving the Omoda 9 a clear USP compared to its handful of logical competitors.

The most obvious rival is the Mazda CX-60 in P50e plug-in hybrid form – though at a base price of $64,285 (before on-road costs) and offering only 76km of EV range, it is at a considerable on-paper disadvantage.

At the top end, the CX-60 P50e Azami starts at $80,060 before options or on-road costs and if you go Korean instead of Japanese, there’s the Kia Sorento GT-Line PHEV, but it’s way more expensive ($84,660 before on-road costs) and has less than half the Omoda 9’s EV range.

So does this high-spec’ Omoda 9 convey a genuine sense of luxury for essentially $20K less than its fully featured competitors?

And can this Chinese interpretation of a luxury SUV translate to Australian roads?

DRIVING IMPRESSIONS

Straight off the bat, the Omoda 9 makes a promising first impression. It’s a handsome SUV with svelte lines, stylish 20-inch alloys (wearing good-quality Michelin e-Primacy 245/50R20 tyres), and interesting lighting signatures – the front featuring sequential indicators.

The relatively sleek front-end styling and pop-out door handles add a degree of expense, though the rather excessive – and completely fake – four rear exhaust outlets seem a bit out of place in 2025.

The Omoda 9’s cabin isn’t quite as restrained as the sheetmetal. Taking a leaf out of Mercedes-Benz’s interior styling aesthetic, there’s clear inspiration in the 9’s round metal speaker grilles, near-identical seat controls on all doors, the ambient lighting and some of the switchgear and centre-console treatment. And like its Stuttgart spirit animal, it’s all a bit gaudy and overdone – one unfortunate aspect of technology-laden, deliberately feature-heavy contemporary design.

The impression of quality isn’t bad, and functionality is decent, but there are two clangers. The first is the door-mounted electric seat controls, which lack any height or tilt adjustment in the front (on both seats!) while the rear controls are just garnish – the base does nothing while the backrest moves slightly.

The driver also has an electric under-thigh extender but it’s borderline useless when you can’t adjust the seat angle, unless you’re a small person. Meaning the front buckets feel less supportive than they could.

At least there’s leather facings, heating all round (in the outer rear positions as well) and front seat ventilation. And the rear bench is actually quite comfortable if you’re only carrying two back there, with plenty of leg and toe room.

The second clanger is the 12.3-inch multimedia system. It often frustratingly ignores inputs, meaning you’re left pressing/tapping a button multiple times before it responds, and we failed to find the treble/bass/balance control for the 14-speaker Sony audio during much faffing about by two different passengers.

Even so, staging and sound production was impressively clear and strong, and there’s even a pair of Sony speakers in the driver’s headrest.    

The rest of the Omoda 9’s equipment is useful, but nothing mind blowing – perhaps apart from the three-fragrance system that scents the interior nicely.

There’s electric steering-column adjustment, auto park, a 360-degree camera, a head-up display, 12.3-inch driver’s screen (that’s pretty basic in what it displays), a 50W wireless charger, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, a built-in dashcam, puddle lighting, a panoramic sunroof with electric blind, an electric tailgate (opening to a spacious, nicely trimmed boot), and an optional matte paint finish (Shadow Grey).

Powering the Omoda 9 is a complex system of three electric motors, a 105kW/215Nm 1.5-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine, and a 34kWh battery. The two front electric motors produce 75kW/170Nm and 90kW/220Nm, while the rear-axle electric motor is good for 175kW/310Nm.

Omoda claims that the total system output is a healthy 395kW while torque is 620Nm – good enough to shift the 2203kg Omoda 9 from 0-100km/h in a claimed 4.9 seconds – and there’s a sophisticated three-speed Dedicated Hybrid Transmission (DHT) that quite seamlessly shifts between engaging various electric motors, the combustion engine, or all of the above.

During our fairly limited time in the car at launch – around 100km of driving – with the drive mode in HEV, not just EV, we only heard the engine chime in once, during a foot-flat acceleration sprint to over 100km/h. Even then, it let the electric motors do most of the work, and when it did join in, it did so smoothly and quietly.

So with an excellent 145km of WLTP range, you can very much treat the Omoda 9 as an electric vehicle, with the petrol engine essentially being a range extender, though with a maximum DC charge rate of only 70kW, it does take 25mins for the 34kWh battery to go from 30-80 per cent.

There’s also three levels of regenerative braking (though even the strongest is fairly modest in its retardation), and adaptively damped suspension (struts front, multi-link rear) which is surprisingly good at ironing out road imperfections, even with 20-inch wheels. It’s here that the Omoda 9 feels at its most premium, in combination with its impressively rapid and refined drivetrain.

Handling doesn’t seem quite so praiseworthy, though our ability to test this out during a fairly brief launch drive was limited. Exiting one tight, downhill corner, the Omoda 9’s foot-flat punch and poise was terrific, but in more complex corners, it didn’t feel as fluent or as dynamic as we expected.

Perhaps it’s the steering that’s polluting the dynamic flavour because it’s lifeless in feel and thus lacking in placement precision – despite there being a Sport drive mode. First job at update time should definitely be an EPS retune, though even without it, the Omoda 9 is a respectable wafter.

One benefit of this fresh Omoda-Jaecoo branding is a shared warranty with Jaecoo – eight years/unlimited kilometres, plus eight years’ roadside assistance and eight years’ capped-price servicing. Recommended intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km, with the five-year cost being $1895.

The Omoda 9 gets the usual arsenal of active-safety electronics, as well as eight airbags, adaptive cruise, front/side/rear parking sensors and rear cross-traffic AEB. Nothing seemed too objectionable during our launch drive, though that isn’t to say it may not be in real-life scenarios. At least there’s a swipe-down shortcut screen for the multimedia where the chief offenders could be saved to.

So does the Omoda 9 achieve what it sets out to do – provide a new-luxury alternative to mainstream-brand plug-in-hybrid SUVs, as well as a clear step up in sophistication and plush factor from something like a $53K BYD Sealion 6 Premium?

For a large part, certainly. The enviable EV-only range and comfortable ride of this handsome, roomy and rapid PHEV SUV is good reason enough, and it’s $62K sticker seems like respectable value, though we wish it was driveaway.

That said, even a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV makes the Omoda 9 look like smart buying – the base ES PHEV is $57K before on-roads while a GSR PHEV is almost $74K, and both offer less than half the Omoda’s EV range – so there’s definitely some appeal in the value this new Chinese SUV offers.