You’ve possibly not yet heard of Chery Group, but it’s one of China’s biggest car makers, and it probably won’t be long before it’s here in Ireland.
Isn’t Chery already on sale nearby?
Yup. Chery’s products are on sale in the UK and some European markets under the Omoda and Jaecoo brands (check out our review pages for more…), and now Chery’s looking to the future with this, the Journeo.
Happily, Chery seems to be stepping (even if only slightly) away from making yet another big SUV and instead has given the Journeo a sleek but unmistakably one-box MOV design. Modern-day Brubaker Box, anyone?
Chery might be Chinese, but the Journeo was actually designed at the company’s European advanced design centre in Raunheim, which is not far from Frankfurt.
“With the New Journeo Concept, we are taking up the challenge of making mobility even smarter, more efficient and more environmentally friendly,” said Jochen Tueting, Managing Director of Chery’s European Development and Design Centre. “This vehicle is more than just a study - it is Travel 4.0, our vision for a sustainable and connected future.”
Hurrah! The big seven-seater returns!
Actually, the Journeo concept only has seats for four people, but presumably, any future production model that it might influence would have space for more. Chery says that the idea is that it has ‘reasonable’ off-road performance, allowing you to head ‘off the beaten track’ for outdoor pursuits or maybe even just for a picnic at the beach.
The interior is quite minimalist with a yoke steering wheel attached to a steer-by-wire setup, and there are carefully concealed air vents.
One very clever touch is that the dashboard and the tailgate can both move out of the way when the Journeo is parked up, stretching the cabin’s length by 150mm.
The seats and the centre ‘island’ console are on rails and can move around as needed, and you can even rotate the front seats so that they’re facing the rear bench in a lounge-style setup.
The rear windscreen is a full 1.3 square metres and offers a panoramic view out especially if you adjust the flexible rear bench seat, which folds down and out into kind of a chaise-longue, out of the way first.
Any other cool features?
There’s a modular ‘frunk’ in the nose, which doubles as outdoor seating, and even a mobile kitchen and barbecue. Comfort features also include removable door inserts that can be converted into cushions and placed throughout the cabin. “Working with the given package constraints, the design team realised the concept of ‘thinking inside the box’ to extend the user experience for unique shared memories ‘outside the box’,” explains Michael Duerr, Senior Manager of Interior Design.
Interestingly, the Journeo isn’t actually fully electric. Instead, it uses Chery’s existing plug-in hybrid system based around a 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine. There’s no claim for the battery capacity, but Chery claims a full tank-and-battery range of 2,500km(!). We assume that’s on the Chinese CLTC test rather than the more stringent WLTP.
How production-ready is the Journeo?
That engine setup might mean that the Journeo is closer to production in reality than we might think. Backing that up are details such as the fact that more than 55 per cent of the body is made of hot-rolled steel and aluminium alloy while the Journeo is also equipped with side airbags, rear airbags and extra-long curtain airbags. The chassis of the Journeo has height-adjustable air suspension.
The Journeo also uses Chery’s CPilot5.0 advanced driver assistance system, which “offers functions such as intelligent scanning of the surroundings to support navigation at high speeds and support the parking aid in urban areas. The plan is for the system to be able to scan unpaved roads in the future and then actively and automatically adjust the shock absorbers accordingly.”
“The New Journeo Concept is not just a design study, but a clear indicator of Chery's future direction. Some of the technologies and design features presented are expected to be integrated into the upcoming series models, including the dual brand Omoda & Jaecoo,” said Jochen Tueting.
As for any Irish sales, that remains to be seen, but if Chery wants to bring back the MPV and make it this cool, we’re on board.