Chery’s Rs1.29m Tiggo 8 Saving Returns SUV To Its January Price

LAHORE: Chery Master Pakistan has cut the price of its Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid to Rs10,999,000 and is advertising the move as a saving of Rs1.29 million. The figure is accurate against the company’s current list price. It is also exactly what the seven-seat plug-in hybrid cost when bookings opened in January.

Under what the company calls a Limited Stock Price Lock Offer, announced in Karachi on Friday, buyers pay Rs10.999 million against an “original price” of Rs12,289,000 and receive a 7 kW home charger said to be worth Rs100,000. Chery Master says the sales tax applicable to plug-in hybrids has nearly doubled, and presents the offer as shielding customers from that increase.

The price has travelled in a circle. The Tiggo 8 was unveiled at the Pakistan Auto Show in November 2025 and went on sale in mid-January at an introductory Rs10,999,000, with a Rs5 million booking deposit. From February 1 it rose to Rs11,299,000. Deliveries began in April.

In July, after the budget raised sales tax on hybrids, the company moved it to a temporary Rs11,499,000 and said it would then cost Rs12,999,000. The “original price” now quoted is lower than that announced figure. Buyers who booked at the February or July prices paid more than a buyer will today.

Chery Master has not said how many vehicles the offer covers or when it ends. Those are the first questions a buyer should ask, since the phrase limited stock suggests units already built or cleared before the higher tax took effect.

The marketing rests less on the sticker than on the pump. With petrol approaching Rs400 a litre, the company says, a comparable petrol SUV returning eight kilometres a litre burns about Rs100,000 a month over 2,000 kilometres. The sum is right: 250 litres at Rs400.

The electric side of the ledger can be worked out too. The Pakistani model carries an 18.3 kWh battery, paired with a 1.5-litre turbocharged engine and two electric motors. A 7 kW charger should fill it in roughly three hours. Even at Rs60 a unit, a full charge costs about Rs1,100, or around Rs12 a kilometre if the car achieves its claimed 90 kilometres.

It may not. Reviewers in Britain, where the Tiggo 8 has a battery of the same size and an official electric range of 56 miles, say real-world range is closer to 40 miles, or about 64 kilometres. That lifts the cost to roughly Rs17 a kilometre, still about a third of the petrol figure.

Sixty-four kilometres is also uncomfortably close to the company’s own example. Two thousand kilometres a month is 67 kilometres a day. A driver covering that distance would need a full charge every night and would still call on the engine.

Which brings the slogan, Drive Fuel-Free, up against the grid. Residents of Lahore have reported six to eight hours of forced outages a day this week, mostly after dark, the hours when a car is parked at home. Rooftop solar, which the company promotes as the answer, helps only if the vehicle is in the driveway while the sun is up.

On performance the claims are consistent across sources that 496 horsepower, 735 Nm of torque and 0 to 100 km/h in 6.8 seconds, with all-wheel drive and three rows of seats. The specification sold here is more powerful than the front-wheel-drive version reviewed in Britain.

The safety claim needs a footnote. The Tiggo 8 was awarded five stars by Euro NCAP in 2025, and the petrol model earned five from Australia’s ANCAP in 2023. Australian reviewers noted at launch that the Super Hybrid itself had not been separately tested there. Equipment also differs by market; the Pakistani car is listed with ten airbags, the Australian with nine.

Foreign verdicts have been favourable on value. Britain’s Electrifying.com called it “a lot of car for the money”, and The Independent’s reviewer, after a long European drive, praised its build quality and equipment. The same reviews mark it down for a smaller boot than rivals once the third row is folded.

Pakistani owners have had the car for six months at most. The handful of reviews posted on PakWheels are positive. One owner, writing in July, liked being able to switch off each driver-assistance feature individually. Another described the hybrid system as smooth and strong and the car as well suited to families. Such reviews are few and self-selected, and say nothing yet about resale value or long-term reliability.

After-sales reach is the other unknown for a brand in its first year. Chery Master says it has 14 full-service dealerships and plans 20 by 2027. The vehicle is assembled locally by Master Auto Engineering, part of the Master Group, and competes with the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe hybrids and the Haval H6 plug-in.

The wider case for cars like this is national as much as personal. Petrol is close to Rs395 a litre, electricity bills are rising, and energy experts have urged a shift away from imported fuel. A tax increase on plug-in hybrids sits awkwardly beside that goal.

For a buyer the arithmetic is simple. The saving on fuel is real if the car is charged daily. The saving on price is real against September, and nil against January.