Chery Europe boss: Electric storage will be one of the leading technologies

Chery, China’s largest carmaker, is expanding into Europe. The person responsible for the domestic market, Jochen Tüting, said in an interview with Mercury He talked about plans.

The company plans to launch Jaecoo and Omoda brands in Germany. The first model, the crossover SUV Omoda 5, is already on sale in Spain. An electric version will be added to the combustion engine in two months. The first sister model should follow in June at the latest, the Jaecoo 7 SUV in two combustion engine variants, with a plug-in hybrid variant expected in August.

They aim to launch the market in Germany “around August” and want the four products planned for Spain to be available there – with a range from batteries to plug-in hybrids to combustion engine variants. “We plan to have a total of three models per brand on the market by the end of 2025, i.e. a portfolio of at least six cars,” says Tüting.

Combustion engines will also be part of the lineup in the future

In order to survive in international markets, combustion engines are also part of Chery’s future strategy. However, the European boss believes that electric driving will be one of the leading technologies given the pace of the world. “If we go a little beyond the passenger car sector, hydrogen technology has very good future prospects in trucks and heavy-duty transport. And I believe that the topic of electronic fuel can be even more important.

In Germany there are many discussions with various business groups. Some of them are “very, very special”. When it comes to technology in cars, one can say that Chery works with almost all international suppliers – including big, famous companies like Bosch, Continental and Hella.

The EU accuses China of illegal subsidies from its carmakers, who want to pressure European suppliers with cheap electric cars. That is why the punitive tax is currently being discussed. Tüting says: “If you look at Chery worldwide, we have more than ten international plants where we either have final assembly plants or actual production plants. This means that most potential points of attack about punitive taxes or whatever are out of date.

Basically, Chery supports open markets, said the European boss. The company expects transparency and fair market conditions, like its competitors. Unlike in the past when Japanese or South Korean brands entered the market, he found “greater brand transparency among end customers in fact we are more conservative in Germany.” Here, brand loyalty to established European manufacturers is greater than in markets without their own manufacturing industry.