China’s ‘new’ Jetour Traveler 7 the first hint of facelift Jetour T2?
· Citizen
With three years having passed since its world debut, first images have emerged of what is believed to be the facelift Jetour T2 ahead of its world debut at the Chengdu Motor Show next week.
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Refreshed T2?
One of six models parent company Chery will show at the event, which starts on 21 August, the images show a vehicle that will be called the Traveler 7 in China as a step down from the Traveler 8 that bowed in Beijing in April.
As a reminder, the combustion engine T2 is marketed as the Traveler in its home market, while the plug-in hybrid carries the Shanhai T2 nomenclature.
T8 and Prado-inspired
Based on the images first published by autohome.com.cn, the “facelift” T2 incorporates visual elements from the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado First Edition and Traveler 8, known elsewhere as the T8, namely new rounded headlights, squared off bumpers and an illuminated strip running across the equally new grille.
The latter means the Jetour script moves to the bonnet as on the T8, while the lower air intake has been redesigned with a new rectangular appearance.
Incremental changes have taken place at the rear. Picture: paultan.orgNew is the colour coded finish for the grab handles on the bonnet and the satin silver imitation skidplate below the front bumper.
At the rear, the changes are minimal and consist of a Jetour script on the spare wheel cover, a colour coded bumper and rectangular instead of vertical recovery points.
Up front
While no interior images were provided, patent documents submitted to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and obtained by Autohome, confirm the Traveler 7 as being powered by the T2/Traveler’s plug-in hybrid powertrain.
This means a 115 kW 1.5 T-GDI, a 18.4-kWh battery pack and three electric motors producing a combined 265kW/610Nm.
Despite the tri-motor setup, drive is routed to the front wheels through a three-speed Dedicated Hybrid Transmission (DHT).
Still to be confirmed is whether the Traveler 7 will carry over the conventional combustion engines from the Traveler, namely the 1.5 T-GDI rated at 125kW/290Nm and the 2.0 T-GDI that pumps out 180kW/375Nm.
More soon
Should it become the facelift T2 as claimed by Malaysia’s paultan.org, chances are it will come to South Africa, but more than likely only next year, as sales of the current T2 only started last year and those of the plug-in hybrid i-DM in April.