Chery Malaysia’s Endless Horizon Challenge: How the Tiggo 7 PHEV conquered 1,200 KM on one Tank

KUALA LUMPUR: There are media drives, and then there are media drives that make you question your life choices. Usually, the former involves a morning flag off, a buffet lunch somewhere with decent WiFi, and a polite drive home before sundown.

The latter usually involves some form of collective suffering. The Chery Endless Horizon Challenge Malaysia falls neatly in-between. Slightly insane, but not dangerous enough to reject.

Also Read: Chery Tiggo 7 PHEV and Tiggo 8 PHEV launched in Malaysia: Up to 1,200 km range, priced from RM129,800

The mission sounded simple at first, but the moment you repeated it aloud, you could hear the madness. Chery Malaysia lined up a convoy of Tiggo 7 PHEVs and Tiggo 8 PHEVs, handed the media a set of keys each, and said: go complete at least 1,200 kilometers without refuelling and without charging.

No sneaky petrol top ups. No hotel wall plugs. No secret generators hiding behind petrol stations. Just one 60 litre tank, one fully charged battery, and whatever sorcery lives inside Chery’s CSH hybrid system.

The starting point was Bamboo Hills in Kuala Lumpur, a place that looks like a holiday resort built for people who do not have time to go on holiday. From there, the plan was ambitious. Day one, drive across the country to Terengganu.

Day two, cut diagonally across Peninsular Malaysia via the mighty Gerik Road and end up in Penang. Day three, return to Bamboo Hills, completing a full loop. A triangle on Google Maps, but a long voyage in real life.

The car at the center of this feat for us was the Tiggo 7 PHEV (some media did it in a Tiggo 8 PHEV). Under the bonnet sits a 1.5 litre turbocharged engine paired with an electric motor, combining for a very healthy 279 PS and 365 Nm (not that we managed to try this power out on this trip).

It uses an 18.3 kWh LFP battery with a claimed EV-only range of up to 90 kilometers, and a total hybrid range of up to 1,200 kilometers. On paper, believable. In the real world, paper does not deal with Malaysia’s hills, current wet weather, or drivers who brake for imaginary objects.

Still, the price gives it a very Malaysian appeal. From RM129,800, with a 7 year or 150,000 km vehicle warranty and an 8 year or 160,000 km warranty for the battery and drive unit. Not bad for something attempting to outrun distance anxiety.

Day One: Bamboo Hills to Terengganu

Flag off. engines humming (or the lack of it, because it starts with electric power - more on that down below), snacks secured. The convoy left Bamboo Hills and joined the morning pulse of Kuala Lumpur. In any normal petrol car, this would be the part where your fuel consumption graph plunges into the Mariana Trench. Not in the Tiggo. At low speeds and gentle throttle, it runs in pure electric mode. No petrol burned. No guilt. No angry petrol gauge.

Once the highway opened, the hybrid brain took over. It slipped into Tandem Mode, where the engine acts mainly as a generator and lets the electric motor do most of the driving. Silent, efficient, and surprisingly smooth.

Our first major checkpoint was Kemaman Kopitiam Original. By then we had covered 245 kilometers. In most ICE cars, that would be at least half a tank gone. But here is where the PHEV magic became real.

When we left KL, the car displayed 862 kilometers of remaining range. After 245 kilometers of actual driving, the fuel range only dropped to 837 kilometers. Meaning we had effectively used the equivalent of 25 kilometers worth of petrol while travelling nearly ten times farther.

This is the point you begin to suspect witchcraft.

The second leg into Terengganu was relaxed and scenic. These were the kind of coastal roads where fishermen, schoolkids, and the occasional cow seemed completely unbothered by a convoy of hybrids passing through. Yet through uneven surfaces and traffic pockets, one thing became very apparent: the Tiggo 7 PHEV felt far more composed than expected.

And this was not just a driver’s impression.

Because I also spent several hours in the rear seat, and this is where the Tiggo quietly impressed me. The seats were genuinely comfortable, and the backrests were not angled too upright like some budget SUVs.

There was plenty of headroom and legroom, and the completely flat floor allowed you to stretch your legs wider than you would expect in a car at this price point.

Touch points mattered too. The middle portion of the door cards used soft touch materials exactly where your hands naturally rest, which prevented fatigue over long stretches. The top portion was hard plastic, yes, but the overall rear cabin still felt spacious, cushioned, and pleasant . For a trip this long, that made a real difference.

By the time we reached our Terengganu hotel, we had covered 423 kilometers since Bamboo Hills. The fuel range displayed 737 kilometers left. Average fuel consumption hovered at a ridiculous 3.5 litres per 100 km.

The Tiggo was barely trying.

Day Two: The Gerik gauntlet, regen magic, and a proper scare

Day two began with cautious optimism. The worst was ahead. Gerik Road. A driver’s road. A beautiful road. A punishing road for any thirsty vehicle let alone hybrids. Steep climbs, endless corners, sudden drops, thick forests, inconsistent tarmac. Normally, this is where fuel consumption is the worst and the car will ask for a petrol station soon after.

But something interesting happened. The local R&D tuning showed its worth.

Chery Malaysia revealed earlier that the Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 PHEV are the first Chery models to receive full Malaysian ride and handling tuning. Their new R&D centre, opened in May 2025, allowed Chinese engineers and Malaysian engineers to collaborate locally. They tuned the damping, steering, and chassis specifically for our imperfect roads.

It shows. The car felt miles ahead of its ICE sibling, the Tiggo 7 Pro. Better stability. Better impact control. Less float. More predictability. Over a long distance, this made the Tiggo feel genuinely premium.

But Gerik was still Gerik. As we climbed higher, the fuel range began dropping faster. Uphill work stresses even the cleverest hybrid systems. When we reached the highest R&R in Peninsular Malaysia, R&R Titiwangsa, the fuel range had fallen to just 470 kilometers left.

This was the first time in the challenge that the numbers stopped us in our tracks.

Then, as we began the long descent, the Tiggo showed its trump card.

Regen.

The long, sweeping downhill allowed the battery to recover significant charge without burning a single drop of petrol. You could watch the battery percentage climb in real time. Every corner and every braking point fed power back into the pack.

By the time we reached Penang, the fuel range displayed 368 kilometers left, which was just enough to cover the roughly 350 kilometers back to Bamboo Hills. The margin was small, but it was there.

You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief of all the passengers in our car.

Day Three: The final 350 KM home stretch

The final leg was simple but tense. From Penang down the North South Expressway and straight into Kuala Lumpur. Long highway cruising meant the Tiggo mostly operated in Direct Engine Mode, where the engine locks to the wheels and runs at its most efficient RPM range. Smooth. Calm. Predictable.

Despite the earlier scare at Gerik, the Tiggo settled into its rhythm. The range dropped steadily but nowhere near alarmingly. The battery assisted during overtakes, regen helped during braking, and the hybrid system kept selecting the most efficient mode available.

And then, finally, Bamboo Hills appeared.

We rolled in with 99 kilometers of fuel range remaining, and 11 kilometers of battery power left.

Three days. 1,200 kilometers. Zero refuelling. Zero charging.
Challenge completed, and then some.

What this proves

The Endless Horizon Challenge was not a gimmick. It demonstrated several key conclusions.

One, a well engineered PHEV is more than a compromise. It is a solution. Hybrids may save fuel, and EVs may save petrol entirely, but a PHEV blends both worlds in a way neither can replicate over long distances.

Two, local R&D matters. The Tiggo PHEV rides and handles far better than its ICE counterpart because it was tuned here, for our roads, by people who drive them daily.

Three, Chery Malaysia is investing heavily in the region. The establishment of a full R&D centre is a long-term commitment, not a checkbox.

Four, 1,200 kilometers on one tank is not a brochure fantasy. We lived it. On real roads. In real wet weather. With real traffic.

After three days of kopitiams, mountain passes, coastal roads, Gerik’s twists, Penang’s congestion, winding highways, and many hours in both front and rear seats, the conclusion is simple.

This was not just a road trip.
It was proof of concept.
And if this is only the beginning of Chery’s engineering journey in Malaysia, the next chapters are going to be very interesting indeed.

Also Read: Chery’s TIGGO Hybrid SUVs complete worldwide endurance tour