The 5-day JETOUR Media Tour 2026 has wrapped up, and its message was consistent from the first morning to the last: JETOUR no longer wants to be judged as a maker of sharply priced boxy SUVs. It wants to be judged as a travel brand.
The tour, staged from October 19 to 24 as part of the annual 2026 JETOUR Global Technology Experience Day organised by the JETOUR Media Alliance, was built around that idea. Rather than a single launch event, guests followed a route, moving from Wuhu in Anhui Province to Moganshan in Zhejiang, on to the wetlands of Xiazhu Lake and back again.
"The meaning of travel has never been about simply reaching a destination," wrote Ke Chuandeng, President of JETOUR International, in his welcome to the media. "It is about collecting stories along the way." The goal, he said, was to carry JETOUR's "Travel+" philosophy "from Wuhu to every corner of the globe."
October 20: inside Chery's innovation hub
The programme opened in earnest on October 20 at the Chery R&D Center Park in Wuhu, home of JETOUR's parent group, with the Chery Global Innovation Day. A technical workshop followed in the afternoon, and the day closed with a welcome dinner on Dalongwan Beach.
The group's exhibits showed how far Chery is reaching beyond the car itself. The headline was a robotaxi that Chery describes as the industry's first to be natively built and factory-installed for global markets, backed by a six-layer safety concept and a target of 100,000 units on the road by 2030. The Middle East features clearly on that roadmap, with Chery planning to supply the vehicle platform first and move into operations in phases.
Alongside it stood the Energy Cube, an all-in-one home system that combines solar generation, battery storage and car charging, with a claimed system efficiency above 94 per cent and a 10-minute installation time. The AiMOGA robotics division completed the picture with humanoid, companion, traffic-policing and medical-guidance robots, built on hardware that draws on more than 70 per cent of Chery's automotive supply chain.
October 21: the off-road test in Moganshan
October 21 was the day most guests had come for. After a morning transfer to the Luoxingu Resort on Mogan Mountain, JETOUR opened its Travel+ Experience Day: an interactive zone with challenges inspired by the surprises real travellers face, a static display of the F700, an F700 Modified Edition, the T1 Cyber Edition, the T2 i-DM and the S08 DM, and two marked driving courses.
The "Light Off-Road" route and the tougher "Hardcore Off-Road" route each took in a gravel track, a wading path and bridge, a hill climb and cross-axle ruts, with an "Off-Road Treasure Hunt" of three checkpoints along the way. Five vehicles were available to drive: the G700, F700, T2 Ultra, T2 i-DM and S08 DM.
G700. The flagship of the premium G Series sits on JETOUR's GAIA architecture, which pairs a 2.0-litre turbo engine with a two-speed electric motor for a combined 665 kW and 1,135 Nm, figures JETOUR compares to a V12. It reaches 100 km/h in 4.6 seconds, wades through up to 970 mm of water and carries three locking differentials as standard, plus what JETOUR calls the industry's only automatic cross-axle mode. Air suspension, with ground clearance adjustable from 230 mm to 320 mm, handled the gravel.
F700. The new hybrid pickup shares the G700's 665 kW powertrain and three locking differentials, sits on a hydroformed one-piece ladder frame and wades through 900 mm of water, drying its own brake discs afterwards. It adds a 1,300-litre cargo bed, a towing capacity of up to 3,500 kg and a 6.6 kW vehicle-to-load output for camping gear and outdoor kitchens.
T2 and T2 i-DM. The brand's global best-seller, with cumulative sales above 600,000, relies on the XWD intelligent four-wheel-drive system. It checks wheel slip 100 times a second, and its "7+X" modes recognise the terrain, switching into wading mode automatically, while a 540° camera view helps the driver pick a line through the water. The petrol T2 uses a 2.0-litre turbo with 187 kW and 390 Nm; the T2 i-DM swaps in a 1.5-litre turbo hybrid with an electric four-wheel-drive system and adds 3.3 kW external power output.
T2 Ultra. The newest T2 takes aim at what JETOUR itself calls the car's infotainment pain points. The chip moves from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 to the 8255, and the car gains an app ecosystem, 4G/5G connectivity, whole-vehicle over-the-air updates, remote control from a phone and automated parking assist. CDC adaptive damping, acoustic glass, front massage seats, a 23-speaker sound system and nine airbags complete the upgrade, while the tri-motor four-wheel drive stays.
The day ended with the Starlight Forum, an evening discussion on the mountain.
October 22: a slower pace
October 22 swapped the trails for Xiazhu Lake, where guests took a boat tour and spent the morning on ibis conservation activities in the wetland park before returning to Wuhu. It was a reminder that, for JETOUR, travel is about the places a car reaches as much as the car itself.
October 23: meeting the users
The final day, October 23, turned to the people who buy the cars, with a User Ecosystem Conference at the Chery R&D Center Park in the morning and a User Carnival in the evening.
The technology behind the tour
Three technologies run through the whole JETOUR range. C-DM is the efficiency piece: a hybrid system built around a fifth-generation hybrid engine with thermal efficiency of up to 45.95 per cent and a 3DHT transmission. XWD is the confidence piece, which JETOUR says responds 20 per cent faster than conventional on-demand four-wheel drive and needs 80 per cent fewer steps to operate than a part-time system. GAIA is the premium piece, adding an 800V battery, a chassis with 10,000 Nm per degree of torsional rigidity, rear-wheel steering and a smart cockpit with up to 35.4 inches of panoramic display.
Behind them sits a growing industrial footprint: more than 2,100 authorised patents by the end of 2025, a network of local R&D institutes that includes the Middle East, and 12 overseas manufacturing bases today, with 19 planned by 2030 and annual overseas capacity above 600,000 units.
What it means for the Middle East
The numbers explain why the region matters to JETOUR. Global sales reached 2,567,644 units by the end of September 2026, and the brand is present in 100 countries and regions with more than 2,000 sales and service outlets. As of the second quarter of 2026, JETOUR was a top-five brand in 10 markets, including Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and the number one Chinese SUV brand in 11, again including those three.
For Gulf buyers, the tour's lesson was that the next JETOUR is likely to be a hybrid, will probably do more off-road than most owners will ask of it, and will come with a cabin and a software package built to compete with established premium brands. The brand's slogan is "Drive Your Future." After five days on the road with JETOUR, that future looks closer than the slogan suggests.
