Breaking tradition beautifully
First, there was the sport-utility vehicle (SUV).
It’s what you get when you take a crew-cab pick-up truck, then replace the bed with a roof and a third row of seats. The result is a vehicle with the toughness and rough-road ability of a pick-up, but with additional seating capacity (think Toyota Fortuner, Mitsubishi Montero Sport and Nissan Terra, to name a few).
Then, there was the crossover, which was created by adding altitude to the traditional hatchback or station wagon. What is lost in off-road prowess is more than gained in on-road drivability, comfort and refinement, while retaining adequate ground clearance for bad roads and floods.
And so, we arrive at the 2025 Jetour T1 Lightning i-DM – a large car that takes the best elements from the SUV and crossover worlds to create a five-seater like no other. Here’s how.
Unibody chassis
With its tough exterior and generous ground clearance, you would be forgiven for thinking that this big Jetour is like every other ladder-frame SUV in the market.
But if you peel off its stylish skin, you find that it has a unibody chassis – the advantages here include a lower floor and a more spacious cabin, making the T1 Lighting i-DM one of the most commodious five-seaters on sale. You also get none of the jiggling and harshness of a traditional SUV, thus providing superior comfort and refinement, especially over bad roads.
And because it’s also front-wheel drive, it is more rewarding to drive on tarmac than any Fortuner or Montero Sport could ever be. We found that the T1 Lightning i-DM had nicely weighted brakes, responsive steering and far less body roll than its old-school rivals.
Electrified powerplant
What really brings this big Jetour into the forefront of automotive technology is what lays under its muscular hood.
The T1 Lightning’s i-DM system mates a 1.5-liter, twin-cam, 16-valve inline-4 gasoline engine producing 154 horsepower and 220 Newton-meters of torque with a 150-kW electric motor and a 26.7-kWh battery pack, which the carmaker claims can be charged from 30 to 80 percent in just 30 minutes with a DC fast charger.
Fully charged, the battery is good for around 100 kilometers of quiet and punchy progress, all without consuming a single drop of fuel. And although turbodiesel SUVs are reasonably frugal, none will do 33 to 36 kilometers per liter in the city and 20 to 23 kilometers per liter on the expressway like the T1 Lightning i-DM can.
Spoiled for comforts
Although modern SUVs are more sophisticated than ever before, this big Jetour pushes the envelope even further.
It comes standard with eco-friendly leather upholstery with orange accents, along with soft-touch materials throughout the cabin that really elevate the riding experience. And then there are goodies like the electrically adjustable and air-conditioned front seats with driver’s side memory, panoramic moonroof and customizable ambient lighting that no SUV can match.
But perhaps the T1 Lightning i-DM’s centerpiece is its 15.4-inch touchscreen infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – with its Snapdragon Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 processor and 1080p resolution, you get a crisp and highly responsive unit that even projects a clear view of the 540-degree camera system.
All that tech is likewise apparent in the comprehensive active-safety suite, with standard life-saving systems like adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, active braking and rear-cross-traffic alert. Put another way, this big Jetour has redefined what a crossover and an SUV can be, thus placing it in a class of one.
It proves that a break from tradition isn’t always a bad thing.
