Jaecoo J5, Omoda C9 PHEV teased for Malaysia – public preview at Desa Park City on August 21 to 24

It looks like Omoda & Jaecoo Malaysia still has some big new launches planned, despite already debuting the Jaecoo J7 PHEV and J8 over the past eight months. The company is holding the Omoda & Jaecoo Carnival at Desa Park City from August 21 to 24, and a seemingly innocuous promo image reveals some surprising new models.

We have, of course, seen both of these overseas before. The most important of these is the J5, revealed last year as a smaller (and thus, cheaper) sibling to the popular J7. With its rectilinear Range Rover Evoque-lite design, it should sell like the proverbial hot cakes.

The car made its ASEAN debut in Indonesia in February as an EV (before appearing in Thailand), but it will likely be offered in petrol guise at first. That version was showcased at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last month with deliveries set to start in the UK later this year. The company did previously promise a Malaysian launch in the fourth quarter of the year, and it appears that for once it will introduce a car on time.

Power comes from Chery’s ubiquitous 1.6 litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine. No output figures have been released so far, but expect them to mirror the J7’s – 197 PS and 290 Nm of torque, likely sent to the front wheels through that car’s seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

The other surprise is the Omoda C9 PHEV, which as the name suggests is the plug-in hybrid version of the five-seater D-segment SUV. We actually drove the car to victory in an eco challenge in South Africa in February, covering 939 km from Cape Town to Addo on a single tank and battery charge.

Looking practically identical to its combustion-engined sibling, the PHEV utilises an upgraded version of the J7 PHEV’s Super Hybrid System (SHS), centred around the same 143 PS/215 Nm 1.5 litre turbo engine. Unlike its smaller sibling, the C9 gains triple electric motors for all-wheel drive – a 102 PS/170 Nm and 122 PS/220 Nm pair of front motors and a 238 PS/310 Nm rear motor. There’s also a three-speed dedicated hybrid transmission (DHT) in place of the J7’s single-speeder.

Altogether, the C9 PHEV produces 537 PS (Australian-market figure, other markets claim 598 PS and 915 Nm of torque), getting it from zero to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds. Meanwhile, a 34.46 kWh nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery delivers an electric range of 150 km on the WLTP cycle, and when paired with a 70 litre fuel tank the total range is 1,100 km.

In terms of charging, the C9 PHEV supports up to 70 kW of DC fast charging, topping up the battery from 30 to 80% in 25 minutes. It will also accept AC charging up to 6.6 kW, taking five and a half hours to charge from 30 to 100%. With the regular C9 topping out at RM188,800 for the AWD model, expect the plug-in version to slot in just under the RM200,000 mark.

GALLERY: Jaecoo J5 EV at BIMS 2025

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