Chinese car giant Chery has already made waves in the UK market, with its Omoda and Jaecoo brands selling over 25,000 cars in their first year of being on sale. Now it’s bringing its own brand models to the UK with a fourth Chery brand likely before the end of next year.
The Chery group produces a range of cars under various brands in China and abroad, including iCar, Exceed, Jetour and Karry. The iCar models, including a Land Rover Defender-style vehicle, have been hinted at for export to the UK in the past.
We’ve already seen the first details of the Chery branded Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 SUVs, which will arrive in one of Chery’s bespoke dealers in the coming weeks. Following them two other SUVS, badged Tiggo 4 and Tiggo 8, will go on sale, but that won’t be all.
Speaking at the Chery launch event at London’s O2, Chery UK CEO Gary Lan said, “the price range will be around £20,000 to more than £40,000 and from the product side its SUVs, sedans and pick-ups – they’re all under planning and all designed for families.”
The Chery name comes from the English word cheery, with the company launching its ‘find your happy’ tag line at its launch event. It will be selling its cars through its own network of dealers rather than sharing outlets with Omoda and Jaecoo. 25 dealers are already lined up and Chery expects to reach 100 in a year’s time.
Gary Lan is clear about which brand Chery has in its targets, and it’s the UK’s biggest seller. “We hope that we can be Volkswagen. Volkswagen has sedans, SUVs and a pickup, and then they have Skoda and all the different brands. So, Chery will be Volkswagen.”
Chery UK country director Farrell Hsu also revealed that Chery is “working towards a dedicated research and development centre in the UK” with it expected to open “in the near future”. According to Hsu “the UK market is too important not to have a home here.”
Could that include UK production, too? It’s a possibility, according to Lan. “We will start with UK specification vehicles, UK engineering, a UK home location and, if the volume and scale support it, we will consider UK production as well. It’ll be a long journey,” said Lan. Currently European development is done at the brand’s base in Frankfurt, Germany.
Chery will be focusing on new energy vehicles, with the new Tiggo 7 and 8 SUVs including plug-in hybrid models that share their tech with Omoda and Jaecoo cars. However, fully electric Cherys will be coming soon, while the company is also working on full-hybrid petrol cars.
