Chery: First serve with Omoda 5

BYD, MG and Nio are well-known Chinese brands. In Chery, this is not once in Europe. But it is likely to change.

It is more than obvious that Chinese car brands see Europe as a promising sales market, especially for electric vehicles. Some manufacturers are already appearing on the top 50 chart for new subscriptions. They include BYD, MG Roewe and Nio. In the future, another may be at the forefront: Chery.

Chery had already announced its European plan in 2017 at the IAA in Frankfurt and wanted to launch the Compact Exceed SUV in 2020. Nothing happened. Meanwhile, China’s biggest carmaker has done its homework, even has a development and design department in Raunheim and is making a bold new attempt.

Three signs should be placed

Three brands of Omoda, Jaecoo and Exlantix will be installed. The name Omoda was created from O (oxygen) and Moda (modern) and is considered a design-oriented brand, comparable to Kia. Jaecoo is a combination of hunter and cool, it is more rustic and sensible and is meant to compete against Hyundai, Toyota and VW. Both Chinese brands operate in the short and medium segment. Finally, Exlantix should win customers in the upper echelon of cars.

Eight models are planned for the next two years alone. “We want to be a big and important player in Europe,” Charlie Zang, Executive Vice President of Chery Automobile, recently told the media.

A brand established in China

Chery is not a young brand starting like Nio. The company was founded in 1997 and sells cars in almost 80 countries around the world. More than eleven million units have now rolled off Chery’s production lines. They are not entirely dependent on electric drives, but also want to offer conventional gasoline engines and plug-in hybrids on the same platform. The latter, however, initially applies only to Jaecoo. An electric range of around 100 km is promised.

Chery will enter the market in the spring of 2024 with the Omoda 5 as a gasoline engine. This is a 4.40 meter fast crossover model based on the so called T1X platform. Under the hood is a 1.6 turbo four-cylinder with a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. Power 200 HP. Drive is on the front wheels only. The Omoda 5 will follow the same year as a fully electric version. With the larger battery (64 kWh), a range of up to 440 km should be possible, with DC charging up to 110 kW. The price is around 30,000 euros for the combustion engine version and 40,000 euros for the electric version.

The second and third models of the Omoda brand are the SUV/crossover Omoda 7 and Omoda 9 (market launch in autumn 2024), which will only be available as a combustion engine. Plug-in hybrids are also being discussed, although a final decision on this is still pending.

Jaecoo 7 will follow in 2024

The Jaecoo 7 will arrive alongside the Omoda 5 in the second quarter of 2024. The compact SUV has a petrol or plug-in hybrid engine. The slightly increased ground clearance and all-wheel drive also allow travel in demanding off-road areas. Among other things, the head-up display is planned for Jaecoo 7.

With the Jaecoo 5, a city SUV, and the Jaecoo 9 (a mid-range SUV), Chery will complete its multi-energy lineup in 2025. A year before, however, the pure electric brand Exlantix was installed. A short window of just one year may seem questionable to some, but both the nearly five-meter-long Exlantix 03 sedan and Exlantix 0Y SUV, which are roughly the same size, are both available as Exceed models in China. So both cars could be sold out very quickly.

You continue with the 800 volt architecture

And both share an 800-volt architecture, the flagship of which is an all-new battery developed from CATL. It can be recharged for 400 “new” kilometers in just ten minutes. It will be a record among electricians.

Chery’s strategy for Europe can work, both technically and visually. Except that customers will go along with it and don’t mind the fact that Chery does big business with Russia and fills the gaps left by Western brands due to the war against Ukraine. (SP-X)