REVY at Doltone House at Sydney’s Jones Bay Wharf was the venue for the unveiling of the 2026 Chery Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid. To be offered in a single Ultimate AWD trim, it will be priced at around $65,000 drive away.
But first, to the venue. Yachts were rocking quietly against their moorings outside, while inside, the air carried the faint smell of coffee and the anticipation of the reveal of the car maker’s second seven seat SUV.
The backdrop was deliberate, and very calm – much like the car itself. With a slight nod to its Jaecoo J8 stablemate, which has a more adventurous look to it, the Tiggo 9 leans into the family friendly travel space, with 1,250km of range thanks to its hybrid powertrain.
“Selling the first car is easy,” Chery Australia boss Lucas Harris says of the company’s rise both globally and in Australia. “Earning the right to sell the second – that’s where the work begins.” It’s proof the brand hopes to earn the respect of the local market.
As for the new kid on the block, the Tiggo 9 measures 4.8m in length and 1.93m in width. It’s substantial but not bloated. The face carries Chery’s new signature diamond tiger eye grille, flanked by a triple segment LED daytime running light, framed in gloss black.
From the side, retracting door handles and 20-inch machined alloy wheels giving it a restrained, European look. The Aurora Green launch colour shimmered against the ambient room lighting, doing further justice to the design elements.
Externally, it holds its own. Stepping inside, the Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid feels mid-tier European. There’s acoustic glass, soft touch materials everywhere and tiger stripe pattern quilting across the seats (another nod to the Jaecoo J8).
The driver faces a 10.25-inch digital cluster and a 15.6-inch infotainment screen, mirrored with a head-up display. Paired with a 14-speaker sound system, including two in the headrest, we’re expecting the Sony setup to sound mint.
Front and rear seats are heated and ventilated, with the former being offered with massage capability. Something that is also rare in SUV’s nearly twice the price of the Tiggo 9 is tri-zone climate control, and you’ll also find pull-up sunshades in row two.
With all this luxury, practicality hasn’t been forgotten either, and the layout lends itself to up to 2,000-litres of cargo space with both the rear rows folded. There are USB ports throughout and a 50W wireless charger on hand too.
Underneath the bonnet is a 1.5-litre petrol engine, paired to three electric motors and a dedicated hybrid transmission (3DHT). Combined, the output is hefty 315kW and 580Nm, sent to all four wheels.
The 34kWh lithium-ion battery is one of the largest in any plug-in hybrid SUV, good for up to 170km of EV-only range (NEDC) and a claimed 1.4-litres/100km in the fuel consumption stakes. A 71kW DC fast charging capability means shorter top up times too.
In practice, the 3DHT system can run the Tiggo 9 as a series or parallel hybrid, as a generatior, or in a full EV mode. It even uses the batteries remaining 20 per cent as a performance buffer, ensuring you never get the limp-home feel some other PHEVs suffer.
Officially, Chery claims a 0-100km/h time around 5.4 seconds. Safety is high on the agenda too, with 10 airbags, a 360-degree camera, adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assist, driver monitoring, blind spot detection and emergency lane keeping.
Rear cross traffic braking and even automatic parking assist that can self park into parallel or perpendicular spaces features. It’s locally tuned with engineers in Australia running data gathering loops on Sydney and Melbourne roads to improve lane detection.
They’ve also focused on throttle smoothing over our coarse chipped roads. Even without turning the wheel, which we hope to do soon, the ambition is obvious. Chery is here to play the family SUV game with the Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid Ultimate.
If the numbers hold up in real traffic, it could sit comfortably among the most powerful hybrids south of $100k. With a 7-year warranty (plus one more year on the battery), it might just become the model that turns curiosity into confidence for Australian buyers.
You can find out more on the Chery Australia website, or by talking to your local dealership.
Interested to see Chery’s Hybrid model show what it’s capable of!
It’s interesting seeing Chery step into that $100k hybrid territory. The way you described the launch, the interior materials, and that 315kW hybrid setup actually made me appreciate how serious this car is.