I took delivery of a MY 2026 J7 PHEV on 10th September and so far I am very impressed. It takes some time to get used to the interface with the system and there are many features to discover and try out. Many folks on this forum ask good questions but are often get told to “read the manual”. So I decided to not ask questions but to read. This is not always helpful, partly because the translation to English from Chinese is so poor but also because the detail is very much dependent on the software level in any given vehicle. For example in my car the Star button on the steering wheel is no longer customisable; it now brings up the Settings screen which is actually quite useful. Many things in the manual (printed or online) are either wrong, outdated or incomprehensible. What follows will therefore only be definitive guidance for relatively new J7 PHEV owners who have a car with the roof mounted “sharks fin” antenna, the new door cards with mirror controls and software level 1.0.20_20260109-1. I understand that these numbers mean that this is factory installed software (prefix 1.), version 0, subversion 20, built on the 9th January 2026. I also understand that dealer installed/upgraded software versions start with prefix 2. If you have any other version, by all means read on out of interest but don’t necessarily expect your vehicle to behave the same way.
My first observations are:-
The DAB radio works perfectly
The Phone (connection to iPhone) also works perfectly
There is no radio volume control for the passenger but the bottom row of icons can be edited to, for example, put a volume control icon bottom left. Just press and hold an icon on the bottom row to enter edit mode
The Custom Settings for Driving Assistance allow me to set my preferences - including setting the battery charging to Forced (or Smart or whatever you prefer) - and recall them with a single touch on the “swipe down RH side” settings menu. I haven’t tested every combination but may amend this in future
The HUD disengages from time to time after starting a new journey but it is easy to restart especially with the Star button directly enabling the Settings screen.
Bluetooth connectivity to my iPhone sometimes doesn’t start automatically but again not a big deal.
The Adaptive Cruise Control, Intelligent Cruise Assist and Speed Limiter controls on the LH side of the steering wheel are very confusing and certainly not intuitive. The section of the manual (in my car) is useless and wrong. I started to write this guide to clarify this aspect of this brilliant car. It is said “if you don’t understand something write a book about it”. Wise words indeed - here goes.
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