Lepas is marketed by Chery Group as its luxury vehicles brand, although we were under the impression that title was held by Omoda. And maybe, just maybe, the Lepas L8 carries itself with a little more elegance than the Omodas and Jaecoos we’ve already driven. That’s why when we say the Lepas L8 is fine, we mean it in multiple ways. It’s a good-looking car, especially in the purple paint colour our test model sported, so it’s ‘you are looking fine’ fine. The drive quality is unexciting but reliable, so it’s ‘my very minor operation went fine’ fine too. And it provides enough space, tech and features inside to be ‘the drive from Cardiff to London with my partner and two children was fine’ fine. The L8 becomes more convincing when you dash down the stats on paper. Its plug-in hybrid powertrain CLAIMS impressive efficiency figures of up to 403 mpg (we don’t think it will do that in real life), and the total range provided by the petrol engine and battery pack apparently peaks at a whopping 745 miles… and all that for a chunk under £40K. But that’s what Chery Group vehicles aim for, they want to be affordable cars that look posher than they are. Therefore, the Lepas L8 joins a sea of new SUVs offering similar tech and spec, hoping you drive them first and make a decision to buy before you drive anything else.
The Chery Group's responses to our sustainability questions left us wanting more. For example, we were told that Chery’s vehicles benefit from high recyclability and reusability rates, and over 76 per cent of its packaging is made from renewable or recycled materials. But we weren't told if any recycled materials were used in the actual cars. The Lepas L8 boasts some impressive efficiency figures and encourages the use of electric power over petrol, but it still produces tailpipe emissions.
Running costs for a Lepas L8
“Keeping the battery charged is the best way to make the most of the car’s hybrid system”
56 miles of full electric range is good for a hybrid that teams a 1.5-litre petrol engine with an electric motor outputting 275 horsepower. The claim is that this system will return a whopping 403 mpg, but that won’t happen in the real world. That said, we did see efficiency figures in the high 40s for miles per gallon on our test route of country roads, town roads and the M40… which is pretty convincing. Keeping the battery charged is the best way to make the most of the car’s hybrid system as its 56 miles of pure electric driving is probably enough for most people for a couple of days. If you only do local round trips of less than 60 miles a day and have access to a home charger then you could go weeks without having to fill up the petrol tank! And you can make things even easier by dealing with the competitive purchase price on finance or a lease deal.
Expert rating: 4/5
Reliability of a Lepas L8
“Long-term reliability is hard to peg at this early stage in the Lepas L8’s life, but a network of dealerships across the UK are ready to help”
A seven-year / 100,000-mile warranty with the full term covered by RAC Roadside Assistance is hard to sniff at. It shows a tonne of confidence from the manufacturer, which in turn should make drivers confident. Admittedly, long-term reliability is hard to peg at this early stage in the Lepas L8’s life, but the network of Chery Group dealerships across the UK are ready to help if needed. We’ll keep you up to date with any reliability news once the car hits the roads in greater numbers. Before we end this section, it’s worth mentioning that in our review of the Jaecoo 8 SHS-P we reminded people to check the small-print of the warranty. The Jaecoo’s cover featured some surprising limitations and we wouldn’t want anyone to get caught out by anything lacking in the Lepas warranty.
Expert rating: 3/5
Safety for a Lepas L8
“We reactivated some of the safety alert chimes and found them to be far less obnoxious than we feared”
The Lepas L8 boasts a range of safety systems available from the entry-level Essence trim – the chime alerts for which we were shown how to deactivate ahead of our test drive… make of that what you will. We reactivated some of the chimes and found them to be far less obnoxious than we feared, although the indicator click could be louder as we struggled to hear it and that made us worry we hadn’t pushed the indicator stalk hard enough. Systems of note include Autonomous Emergency Braking, Emergency Lane-Keeping Assist (which works a little too well), Adaptive Cruise Control, Intelligent Speed Limiting, and the 540-degree parking camera. As you’d expect, the chassis is strong and surrounded with airbags, and the battery pack is well protected on the base of the car. Chery Group is good at making cars with all the safety features modern drivers need, the Lepas L8 is no different.
Expert rating: 4/5
How comfortable is the Lepas L8
“The ambient lights set the mood, the fragrances set the smells, and all you need to do is choose the playlist”
Yeah, it’s pretty comfortable and your first glances will probably make you marvel at the space. For both front and rear passengers there is loads of leg and head room. The materials are very nice, with our model sporting tan not-leather panels, silver details on the doors and consoles, and big infotainment screens. There’s even a nice fold-out tray on the back of the passenger seat (although not one on the back of the driver’s seat). It all comes together nicely with good use of space, loads of storage and a cosy ambience to it. The air conditioning system is excellent and helped to keep us incredibly cool in the 35-degree heat we seem unable to escape these days. The addition of a panoramic sunroof (of course it has one), ambient lighting and the clever internal fragrance system connected to the aircon system are welcome nice-to-have features. We have some notes though. We did find that while the seats were spacious and roomy they were harder than we expected and slightly too short for people with longer legs. Also, the fragrance system and its attractive storage capsules housed under the centre console are an interesting gadget, but two of the three smells are background whiffs while the other was too strong. What you have, therefore, is a spacious cabin with seats that will work for most people and enough tech to make it feel modern. The ambient lights set the mood, the fragrances set the smells, and all you need to do is choose the playlist.
Expert rating: 3/5
Features of the Lepas L8
“Two trim levels keep things simple with a small walk-up in price between them”
Two trim levels – entry-level Essence and top-spec Elevate – keep it relatively simple with a small walk-up in price between them. At Essence level you get the 10.25 driver display and 13.2-inch infotainment screen, alloy wheels, the sunroof and wireless phone charging (although it didn’t work to charge our phone while countless other cars did). Step up to Elevate and you get bigger alloys, ambient lighting (of course), the fragrance system with its attractive cartridge loading system beneath the centre console, a 540-degree camera system and remote parking assist. All good on paper. If we have to be a bit down on it, the infotainment system possesses a clear and crisp screen but is clunky to operate and packed with menus. The wireless charger only works for some phones we tried, especially annoying because these same phones could charge on charging pads in other cars.
Expert rating: 3/5
Power for a Lepas L8
“There are several drive modes to choose from, but there doesn’t really feel to be any noticeable differences between them”
The L8 definitely drives better than other Chery Group we’ve experienced to-date. Acceleration is acceptable, the brakes are fine and it’s perfectly capable of weaving through tight country roads and motorway lanes. It’s just not exciting to drive, and sometimes it feels like it’s bumping about over even the smallest of road imperfections. We also experienced an odd moment where lifting our foot off the accelerator didn’t stop it accelerating and we had to jab the brakes to get it to slow down. There are a wide range of drive modes – from Eco to Sport – that definitely do their job, it’s just that there doesn’t really feel to be any sharply noticeable differences between some of them. Comfort felt very similar to Eco, for example, and we couldn’t really feel much in the way of changes to acceleration or regenerative braking. But that’s not going to matter if you need a big SUV with bags of room, and good comfort and tech levels – this car ticks all those boxes and throws a whiff of glamour in there too.
