Just over 18 months ago, an unknown brand to the UK market, at least entered the fray to take on the single most competitive segment there is, the medium crossover and medium SUV. When it launched in January 2025, the Jaecoo 7 was picking fights with the likes of the Kia Sportage, Nissan Qashqai and the Volkswagen Tiguan.
Jaecoo isn't some unknown small startup though, as it's part of the wider Chery group, which encompasses the likes of Omoda, which itself arrived in the UK in August 2024. Now we have the main Chery brand itself, then coming later this year will be Lepas too.
When the Jaecoo 7 started climbing up the charts, it would be quite easy to dismiss this success as a one hit wonder. Jaecoo was totally unknown to UK buying public around 18 months ago, but here we are in July 2026 and so far this year, the Jaecoo 7 is the fourth best selling car. However this success it seems, was no fluke - as the smaller Jaecoo 5 seems to be doing quite well too in the UK.
As seen in the July SMMT data, two Jaecoo models were in the top ten, the J7 at number four and the J5 at number 7.
For the first time, the SMMT is not only listing the overall car sales for the month, but also breaking them down into EV sales too. For July 2026, the very popular Renault 5 was the best selling EV, closely followed by the Kia EV3 and then by the Jaecoo E5. For context, the Jaecoo E5 started being delivered to customers in late October and early November 2025, so it really hasn't been on sale that long.
When speaking to the interface, Head of Product Oliver Lowe from OMODA&JAECOO said:
“July was a big month for OMODA&JAECOO. We hit 5.7% market share, and the JAECOO E5 became the UK’s third best-selling EV. That is a really positive result for a model that is still new to the market. What matters to us is that customers are clearly seeing the value in the product, not just in terms of price, but in the technology, practicality and overall specification. It gives us a lot of confidence in the [JAECOO] E5 and in the direction of the wider range - either EV, Super Hybrid System-equipped or efficient petrol engines.”
Off the back of this success with the Jaecoo E5, it will be interesting to see if Omoda and Jaecoo decide to launch more EVs in the UK, as to date both brands have just the one EV model each. Sister brand Lepas is due to launch the Lepas L6 EV in the UK at some stage in 2026 and in terms of size, it is very similar to the Jaecoo 7, so an EV Jaecoo 7 could be on the horizon.
