Jetour’s Shanhai line is the off-road side of the brand, and the Jetour Shanhai T1 sits at the friendly end of it — smaller than the T2, cheaper to live with, still square as a brick. Chery opened it for sale in China in October 2024 as a plug-in hybrid, then started sending it abroad under the simpler name Jetour T1, so the specs a dealer ends up stocking really do shift from market to market. What doesn’t shift is the shape: a boxy compact SUV that looks the part without pretending to be a ladder-frame truck.

Exterior

Upright glass, flat bonnet, barely any overhang — the proportions carry the whole thing. The “storm-eye” LED headlights sit either side of a wide grille with a horizon light bar running across, the arches are squared and the cladding is thick, and there are fixed side steps you can actually put your boot on climbing in. Round the back the tailgate is square, the spare rides low, and the roof rails are there for real, not just for show.

Dimensions, since everyone asks those first: 4,706 mm long, 1,967 wide, 1,845 tall on a 2,810 mm wheelbase. That’s about 4.7 metres nose to tail and just under two metres wide, which is where the presence comes from — small enough to park, big enough to read as a proper off-roader in a car park. Five colours run from Night Black through Glacier White, Sand Gold and Electroplated Green, and the body panels and mounting points are set up for racks and lights and the rest, which is the bit that keeps younger buyers interested.

Interior

Calmer in here than the shell outside would have you expect. That 15.6-inch touchscreen floats above the dash with a 10.25-inch digital cluster tucked behind the wheel, Snapdragon 8155 does the processing so nothing lags, wireless CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, and — the bit I’d actually point out to a customer — physical buttons survive down on the console for the drive modes and climate, so you’re not stabbing a screen with gloves on at a trailhead. Try that on a pure touch layout and you’ll see why it counts.

Space is the quiet win. The 2,810 mm wheelbase gives five proper seats and a boot that opens to around 1,455 litres once the rear bench folds, which is plenty for a weekend away or a boot full of gear. Higher trims bring ventilated front seats, faux leather where you’d touch it, a Sony system, and a 540-degree camera with a transparent-chassis view that genuinely helps when you can’t see the front wheels. Dual-zone climate and a flat-bottom wheel round it out.

Powertrain and Chassis

Plug-in hybrid, not a range-extender — the Jetour Shanhai T1 keeps its 1.5T engine and runs as a PHEV on Chery’s Kunpeng C-DM setup.

The engine is a 1.5TD hybrid-dedicated unit rated 115 kW and 220 Nm, paired with a 150 kW front motor making 310 Nm, and a 1DHT single-speed hybrid transmission shifts it along. Front-drive cars put roughly 265 kW combined through the front axle; step up to the XWD tri-motor version and a rear motor joins in for 440 kW and 840 Nm, which is a lot for something this size and honestly more than most buyers will use. Top speed sits at 180 km/h either way.

Battery first, since everyone asks. It’s an LFP pack, and you get three sizes — 18.3, 26.7 or 43.2 kWh — with CLTC electric range of 100, 150 or up to 226 km depending which you take. WLTP, the figure most export markets quote, pulls that down to somewhere near 117 km on the mid pack, and that’s the number to give a customer who’s comparing against a local test cycle. Fill the 70-litre tank as well and total range runs past 1,300 km, climbing toward 1,500 km on the long-range battery — range anxiety isn’t really the story here.

Charging comes in at 6.6 kW on AC, about four hours to full, and DC does 30 to 80% in roughly half an hour, so it’s better to plan a charge stop around lunch than fight it. There’s 3.3 kW of vehicle-to-load too, which campers actually use rather than just read about.

Underneath there are MacPherson struts up front and a multi-link rear, ventilated discs all round, and a wading depth of 600 mm with 200 mm of ground clearance. The approach angle is 28 degrees and the departure 29, towing is rated 1,600 kg, and the XWD car runs seven drive modes — Sand, Snow, Mud, Rock, Eco, Sport and an Auto “X” — so it’ll handle a gravel road or a dune approach without breaking a sweat. No low-range and no locker, so pitch it as a capable light-off-roader and stop short of calling it a rock crawler, because that conversation goes badly later.

FAQ

Is the Jetour Shanhai T1 a plug-in hybrid or a range-extender? Plug-in hybrid — a PHEV, so it keeps the 1.5T engine and drives on electric, hybrid or blended power. There’s no range-extender version of the T1, which is worth keeping straight because buyers mix it up with the REEV siblings in the wider Chery family. If a customer specifically wants an engine-free electric drive with a generator backup, that’s a different model, not this one.

How far does it go on electric, and how long to charge? CLTC gives 100, 150 or up to 226 km depending on the battery, but WLTP — the figure most export markets use — lands near 117 km on the mid pack, and that’s the honest number to quote. Charging is 6.6 kW on AC, about four hours, or 30 to 80% in roughly half an hour on DC, and the 70-litre tank then stretches total range past 1,300 km.

Why is it called Jetour T1 abroad but Shanhai T1 in China? Same vehicle, shorter badge. “Shanhai” is the off-road sub-brand name Chery uses at home, but overseas the car is sold simply as the Jetour T1 — often badged “i-DM” or “Lightning i-DM” on the PHEV. Body, specs and part numbers all carry over; only the nameplate and the local spec sheet change, which is good news for anyone ordering spares down the line.

Can the Jetour T1 be imported to my country? Where a market has no import certification rule, it goes straight in. Some regions do ask for type approval and the EU is the one that comes up most, so in those cases we have to confirm first whether the model can be supplied with the certification your country wants. Send the destination over and we’ll check it properly.

How do you supply the T1, and how do we start? We’re a China-based auto export company, so we source the T1 from the manufacturer and handle everything on the export side — paperwork, booking, sea freight, delivery into your port. Most people we deal with are overseas dealers and importers putting together a steady line out of China, though we also help individual buyers running their own import. Send over your market, drive side and rough volume, and we’ll come back with availability, shipping options and the document list your destination actually needs.

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