Omoda 4: the small hybrid SUV booked for Britain in 2027

Omoda has confirmed a second SUV for Britain. The Omoda 4, a compact model that will sit below the Omoda 5 in the range, arrives in 2027, and it will make its European motor show debut at the Paris show that opens on 12 October. The version shown so far is a full hybrid, which is the part that matters most to a buyer who cannot charge at home.

The confirmation came from AM-online, which reports that the 4 will join the Omoda 5 in UK showrooms and is aimed at younger, technology-focused buyers. UK pricing and final specifications have not been announced. That is normal this early, and it means the numbers that decide whether the car makes sense for you do not exist yet.

What has actually been confirmed

The car was shown with a full hybrid powertrain at its global debut at Auto China earlier this year. It will appear in Paris alongside the Omoda 5, the Jaecoo 5 and the Jaecoo 7, and it is the first model in the range to carry the brand's Super AI Cockpit. Omoda says it will learn driver habits and tailor its responses. The cabin takes design cues from gaming, and the bodywork is angular with distinctive lighting.

It will be Omoda and Jaecoo's first appearance at the Paris show, which runs from 12 to 18 October. What follows from the stand is desk coverage: the car as shown, described by the people who are there. Nothing about the production UK car should be read into a show stand until Omoda publishes a price and a specification.

Why a hybrid makes sense here

Omoda and Jaecoo are no longer a curiosity in the UK market. The two brands registered 22,296 cars in September, up 106% year on year, for a 6.37% share of the market. The Jaecoo 7 was the country's best-selling new car again in September, with 10,814 registrations in the SMMT's final figures. The brands have also passed 100,000 UK registrations since launch.

Chinese brands took almost a quarter of the September market, as our read of the share figures set out, and much of that volume came from petrol and plug-in hybrid cars. The wider market explains the powertrain decision. Of 350,536 new cars registered in September, petrol took 131,864, or 37.6%, while battery electric cars took 99,201 and a 28.3% share. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), the type with no plug and a small battery, accounted for 45,839 cars and 13.1% of the market, a share that fell 4.3% year on year even as plug-in hybrids jumped 55.5%.

So the Omoda 4 is not chasing the fastest-growing part of the market. It is chasing the largest remaining pool of buyers who want a petrol car with better fuel economy and no charging cable. That is a commercial decision rather than an ideological one, and it is consistent with how Chery has built the UK range: the Jaecoo 7 comes as petrol or plug-in hybrid, the Jaecoo 5 as petrol or electric, and the Omoda 5 as petrol, full hybrid or electric.

Only battery electric cars count towards the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate's 33% target for 2026, a target the SMMT says the market is behind on at 26.2% for the year to date. A full hybrid does nothing for that number. It does something more useful for a young brand: it sells to people who are not shopping for an electric car at all.

What a full hybrid means for a buyer

A full hybrid cannot be plugged in, so every mile is paid for at the petrol pump. It recovers energy under braking and can move on electric power alone at low speed for short distances, which is where the fuel saving comes from in town. On a motorway run the engine does most of the work and the advantage shrinks.

Omoda's existing full hybrid, badged SHS-H in the Omoda 5, pairs a 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine with electric motors and a 1.8kWh battery. Omoda claims 44.5% thermal efficiency for the system and a 25% fuel saving against its petrol equivalent. The 4 may use a different system, and nothing has been confirmed, but it gives you an idea of the engineering the brand already has in UK showrooms.

A household without a driveway gets lower fuel bills than a petrol equivalent without needing a charger, and avoids the higher purchase price of a plug-in hybrid or an electric car. The trade-off is that it never runs on electricity alone for a commute, so its running cost sits above a home-charged electric car.

The dealer network is half the pitch

AM-online puts the combined Omoda and Jaecoo network at more than 145 dealerships. For a brand without decades of history, that number answers the question buyers actually ask: where does it go when something goes wrong?

Coverage of 145 sites is not the same as the coverage of an established volume brand, and it will not be evenly spread across the country. Before you order, find the nearest site and check whether it services hybrid models, whether it holds parts, and what it offers in the way of a courtesy car. Ask about the service interval in writing. Those questions cost nothing now and are awkward later.

What it will have to beat

The Omoda 5 gives the clearest guide to where the 4 lands. Omoda's UK price list puts the 5 at £24,040 in petrol form, £25,755 as a full hybrid and £33,065 for the electric E5. The 4 is the smaller car, so expect it to start below those figures, though Omoda has not said so.

The harder competition may be in the showroom next door, because the same network sells the Jaecoo 5 in petrol and electric form. A buyer who walks in for an Omoda 4 hybrid may leave with a Jaecoo 5, and the group will not mind which. Beyond that, the car meets the established small SUV class, where the monthly payment and the warranty tend to decide the sale long before a specification sheet does.

Omoda has published neither for the 4, which is why the Paris stand is worth watching for the shape of the thing rather than for a deal.

What to watch between now and 2027

The UK powertrain line-up. A full hybrid has been shown. Omoda has not confirmed that it is the only option for Britain, and the Omoda 5's mix of petrol, hybrid and electric shows the brand is willing to offer all three.

The price. The gap between the 4 and the 5 will tell you whether Omoda is pricing to take volume from established small SUVs or to protect the 5's sticker.

The Super AI Cockpit in production form. Show car interfaces get simplified before launch. Whether it keeps that in production is worth checking on a test drive.

The warranty and servicing terms. These are the parts of a Chinese brand's offer that have improved fastest, and the parts that matter most to a private buyer keeping a car for four years.

The read

The Omoda 4 is the least glamorous kind of new car announcement and one of the more commercially sensible. A full hybrid small SUV needs no charging infrastructure, fits the largest remaining slice of the market and slots into a network that is already past 145 sites. The caveats are real: no price, no UK specification, and a hybrid that does nothing for the brand's electric share.

Buyers who want a cheap-to-run family car with a long warranty and a dealer within reach should keep it on the list. Buyers who want to stop buying petrol should look at the E5 instead, or wait to see whether the 4 gains a plug.