Chinese automaker, Chery will launch SUV models from three car brands in Europe over the next two years and could decide on an assembly plant in Europe as soon as 2024, its top regional executive said recently.
This is as the franchise holder in Nigeria, Kaduna based PAN Nigeria Limited, has been struggling for years, with little success, to make the brand visible in Nigeria.
Chery, China’s No. 8 automaker by sales volume in 2022, joins a growing number of Chinese automakers – from market-leader BYD to smaller rivals Xpeng and Nio – with European expansion plans as competition intensifies at home and domestic growth eases.
Chery Europe’s managing director Jochen Tueting told Reuters the automaker was gearing up to launch its Omoda and Jaecoo brands in all major European markets including Germany, Britain, Spain, Italy, and France.
By the end of 2025, the company will launch three SUV models for each brand, with a mixture of full-electric, fossil-fuel and plug-in hybrid cars to serve different parts of Europe.
Electric vehicle sales are higher, for instance, in western European countries than in southern markets, Tueting said.
“We are heavily focusing with these two brands on the growing SUV segment… in order to ensure that we can develop significant sales relatively fast,” he said.
The automaker’s all-electric Exlantix – the third brand on its launch list – will debut with only full-electric models by early 2025, Tueting said.
Earlier this year, China’s Huawei announced a partnership with Chery and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group to develop EVs.
Chery also expects to double the 450,000 cars it exported in 2022, bringing total unit sales for 2023 close to 2 million cars, Tueting said.
However, in Nigeria, aside the less than 100 units of the brand brought in by PAN Nigeria Limited, little or nothing is being heard about the brand.
Unlike other Chinese brands like Changan, GAC JAC etc making waves on the local market, the Chery has been a hard sale in Nigeria.
