Why do you have to choose between petrol and EV for your next car? Given the size of our vast, beautiful country, itโs incredible that plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles are not embraced by Aussie drivers as much as they should be.
With a PHEV, you can unlock the EV experience without the EV compromise. With an internal combustion engine for the serious distances, and an electric motor for the city runabout, you can drive electric when you can, and petrol when you need. And for those long (like, extra long) road trips? Not only do you have two power sources to draw from, but they work perfectly together to maximise your efficiency over serious distances.
Weโd argue 1,200 kilometres is a pretty serious distance. Itโs also the quoted range from Cheryโs new Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid. This seven-seat family-sized SUV embraces a plug-in hybrid Chery Super Hybrid (CSH) system โ essentially a 1.5L turbocharged petrol engine paired with an electric motor and smart battery. Theyโre managed by a Dedicated Hybrid Transmission to balance the beauty of both across this bonkers quoted range.
With a challenge to stress test this range figure in the real world, we pushed the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid to the limit across a 1000-kilometre alpine loop โ from Melbourne airport up to Hotham, via the long way around up the Great Alpine road, and back down to Tullamarine.
When it comes to cars, real-world range is โ by nature โ less than the quoted range tested in standardised conditions. So we set out to throw everything at the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid (seriously, everything) to see just how far it could go.
On the road: Melbourne to Bairnsdale
The first leg of the drive was nothing to write home about, in comparison to the upcoming beauty later on the route. Once we made our swift exit from Melbourne, it was three hours of country highway driving until we reached Bairnsdale, right in the heart of the Gippsland region.
When we first took to the wheel of the Chery Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid, we forgot for a brief moment it was a hybrid. The electric motor is a treat for city driving, unlocking quiet (and quick) acceleration around the city streets. Perfect for navigating traffic with purpose.
Our battery was fully charged and ready for us when we picked up the car. After a brief fuel stop, we had a duo of full tanks and we were ready for our opening highway cruise from Melbourne to Bairnsdale, exactly 300kms.
The hill climb: Great Alpine Road
Pro-tip: Jarrodโs bakery in Bairnsdale is one of Victoriaโs best for a classic country feed. From Bairnsdale it was time to take the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid north, uphill towards the Great Alpine Road. Given itโs not the most efficient route to reach the Victorian High Country, this glorious stretch of windy, rolling road was entirely new to us, with incredible vistas to be found around every turn as we followed the Tambo River higher and higher.
There are three driving modes in the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid โ eco, normal, and sport โ allowing you to configure the Super Hybrid system to adapt to your driving style and the road ahead. Even if you donโt take command of this feature, the Super Hybrid system will seamlessly blend the petrol engine and electric motor autonomously, switching between electric and hybrid petrol electric without any driver input for optimal efficiency.
Up until now, weโd experienced nothing but cruising speeds, so when we started to chew through elevation, the extra torque was a welcome support for the long hill climb ahead. Despite being a front-wheel-drive, the seven-seater Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid still delivered enough poke to make quick work of the incline.
Cold start: Real world range testing doesnโt get more real than this
Location: Dinner Plain, Victorian High Country.
Time: 6:15am
Temperature: -7 degrees (felt like -1,000,000)
We arrived at our accommodation in Dinner Plain the night prior just after dark, enjoying a hard-earned beer and meal by the raging fire, followed by an early nightโs sleep. Snowbanks lined the roads after a dumping a few days earlier.
We did not expect it to be so cold the next morning for our second day on the road. It was a bluebird day but absolutely freezing, easily the coldest any of us had ever been in Australia. After scraping ice off the windshield and fixing chains to the Tiggo 8 Super Hybridโs two front tyres (the Super Hybrid is a front-wheel drive vehicle, whereas the Tiggo 8 Pro Max Ultimate is all-wheel drive), we made our way up to the top of Victoriaโs high country.
The heater was on full blast as we cautiously navigated through the alpine village of Hotham on snow-covered roads. Wind-shear ripped snow off the bluffs, battering the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid as we traversed the ridgeline. With such tough conditions outside, and a sauna inside the car, we assumed the remaining range would fall off a cliff, and fast. The battery and the motors had to work overtime to keep us warm, safe, and on our way. Real-world conditions like these are above and beyond the conditions used to determine the quoted range, but naturally, these cars are built to tackle them with ease.
And when we made our way down the mountain, we got to see the beauty of the Super Hybrid System work its magic.
Downhill: Hotham to Bright
On the other side of Hotham, on the road down to Bright, thereโs about 54km of winding downhill roads, with sharp corners that require serious concentration and serious braking. While also being a hybrid, the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid actually features three levels of regenerative braking โ what youโd expect to experience in a fully EV car. Capturing the carโs kinetic energy and storing it for later use.
Essentially, your battery never runs from full to zero linearly. It sort of jumps up and down depending on your driving conditions. Regenerative braking works by harvesting kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost as heat when slowing down, and storing it in the battery for later use. Even when the battery is close to fully exhausting its range, it can top it up again on its own without the driver having to detour and find charging infrastructure.
We watched the battery range go from 17km at our frosty pre-dawn start back up to 33km by the time we reached the foot of the valley and stopped for a well-deserved warm-up coffee at Dollyโs coffee van. Little did we know that without that regenerated range, we might not have made it all the way back to Tullamarine a few hours laterโฆ
The Final Dash: Milawa to Tullamarine
After a brief stop at the Milawa Cheese Company, with some cracking deli sandwiches for lunch, we punched in Tullamarine into the massive 15.6-inch screenโs navigation and set our sights for the finish line.
The Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid claims a fuel consumption as low as 1.3L/100km, so we had high hopes that the advanced transmission would squeeze every little bit out of the tank as possible as we detoured through Bonnie Doon to push it right to the edge for a few extra kilometres.
As we neared the limit of the Tiggo 8 Super Hybridโs fuel tank on Tullamarine Drive (we noticed a few warning lights that we were low on fuel about 100km from our destination), the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid automatically transitioned to EV mode. It was so effortless that we hardly noticed. Thereโs no gear change shock or transition shift at all.
It made the final dash to Terminal 3 far less anxiety-inducing as we had expected. Without it, we very well could have found ourselves in a pickle on the traffic-packed highway.
Total kilometres travelled: 994
Total time behind the wheel: 13 hour 15 minutes
Remaining range on the clock: 12km (electric)
Real-world range testing requires a rollercoaster of conditions, and itโs expected that this range to fall slightly lower than quoted figures. To say we held nothing back from the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid would be an understatement. If it clocked 1,000km in sub-par conditions, with everything except the kitchen sink thrown at it, imagine what it can do in optimum conditions.
Watch our journey below, and learn more about Cheryโs Super Hybrid tech at the link below.
This article is presented in partnership with Chery. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Boss Hunting.
