Jaecoo is set to rectify its local status as the sole Chinese car brand lacking an electric enhanced drivetrain.

WAS it something we said or simply a sweet timing?

Either way just a week has passed by since our test of the Jaecoo J7 crossover pondered why it only delivering to New Zealand in orthodox internal combustion form, when a really interesting alternate hybrid drivetrain feeding dual electric motors availed elsewhere.

Surely this was a missed opportunity.

Seems it was. But soon won’t be.

New Zealand’s distributor for the Chery sub-brand has confirmed the J7 plug-in hybrid will be added next year, around April.

What’s the potential? As much as the PHEV sector is pretty desultory at the moment, almost as battered as buy-in for pure electric cars, the J7 PHEV will at least arrive with a battery-assisted petrol engine arrangement that is particularly interesting.

The car employs what the brand calls a super hybrid system that can run in pure-electric, series, parallel and energy-recovery modes. The terminology and technology is apparently similar to that used by BYD in its Sealion 6 sports utility wagon and Shark 6 utility.

The PHEV has a 18.3kWh battery that gives a WLTP electric range of 90km. It can be recharged on public DC stations as well as home AC. It also features vehicle-to-load capability, meaning external devices can be powered by the car.

The J7 PHEV matches the pure petrol in having a 1.5-litre engine, but it’s not the same one. It also runs dedicated, constantly variable hybrid transmission, whereas the full petrol one has a dual clutch kind.

Total outputs of 255kW/525Nm are a massive step up from the standard J7 petrol's 137kW/275Nm and, of course, optimal economy is also much lower, at 5.2 litres per 100km in hybrid mode, on the WLTP scale.

Prices and specification have yet to be announced. the petrol model sells for $37,990 in front-drive and $43,990 in all wheel drive.