According to a Reuters report on September 12, Chery Automobile is ready to invest billions of euros to make its new brands Omoda and Jaecoo popular with European consumers within three years.
Chery Automobile will launch new brands Omoda and Jaecoo in Europe this year, with the brand's initial focus on fuel models. According to the plan, after starting sales in Spain, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom, the two brands will be sold in more European countries in the coming months. At the same time, the new brand will also launch hybrid and pure electric models in Europe in the future.
Kevin Cheng, the Italian CEO of Omoda and Jaecoo, said in an interview that they are following the development of Kia, Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen. He said that it took South Korea's Kia nearly 20 years to become a trusted brand in Europe, but Omoda and Jaecoo aim to achieve this goal within three years.
Kevin Cheng said that the investment plan for the new brand's marketing and brand development in Europe is confidential. However, he still said: "This is a huge amount of money, billions of euros."
It is worth noting that the European Union is planning to impose import tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, including a 20.7% tariff on Chery Automobile.
"It's a challenge, and we hope to establish a good relationship with the EU. In addition, producing cars locally in Europe will help us avoid tariffs," said Kevin Cheng.
In April this year, Chery Automobile officially finalized its European factory plan. According to reports at the time, Chery Automobile established a joint venture with Ebro-EV Motors, a local Spanish company, to produce cars locally. The factory is expected to produce 50,000 vehicles per year by 2027 and increase to 150,000 vehicles in 2029, and Chery will become the first Chinese automaker to produce cars in Europe.
Zhang Guibing, deputy general manager of Chery Automobile and general manager of international companies, once emphasized the importance of the production base to Chery's European strategy. He said that this joint venture and its factory, especially in the field of electric vehicles, will become one of Chery's "major automobile export bases" worldwide, and hopes to use the Barcelona factory to export cars to other parts of Europe.
In addition to the Spanish factory, there are reports that Chery is also looking for the possibility of establishing production bases in other European countries such as the UK and Italy. Reuters reported that the Italian government has been working to attract manufacturing investment and has negotiated with several Chinese automakers, including Chery, in recent months.
In July this year, Chery officially started selling the crossover SUV model Omoda 5 in Italy, with a starting price of 27,900 euros. The relevant person in charge of Chery said that starting from Italy, the new brand plans to enter more than 60 new markets around the world in the next three years.
In Italy, Omoda 5 will launch an EV version in September. By the end of this year, Chery will also launch the larger Jaecoo 7 in Italy, which will have two options: fuel version and plug-in hybrid version.
According to the plan, by the end of 2025, Chery plans to launch three SUV models for Omoda and Jaecoo brands respectively, and provide multi-power routes including fuel, hybrid and pure electric for consumers to choose.
In 2023, Chery Automobile's total sales volume was 1.8813 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 52.6%, of which 937,000 vehicles were exported, a year-on-year increase of 101.1%.
From the data, the export business accounts for half of the total sales, and Chery Automobile also ranks first in the export volume ranking of Chinese automakers. From a global perspective, Chery's current 10 production bases are mainly distributed in South America, the Middle East and Russia, while exports are mainly concentrated in Central Asia, South America and the Middle East.
From this point of view, the European strategy will become the next "expansion point" for Chery's overseas business.
