Chery isn’t just coming to the UK.
They’re trying to own it. Or at least get close. China’s largest car exporter wants to be the third largest car group in British sales. Gary Lan, their UK boss, says the goal isn’t just volume. It’s respect. He’s talking about building R&D right here, planting flags in local engineering soil.
Look at the numbers. One year. That’s all it took for them to jump from two percent to nearly seven percent of the market share. Jaecoo and Omodda did the heavy lifting initially. Chery itself launched last autumn. The data? It shows momentum. The Jaecoo 7 is already the UK’s third-best-selling new car in 206.
Why is this ambitious? Because the UK is a hard nut to crack. Lan told the Financial Times ’ Future of the Car conference this launch was a twenty-year dream. The market is mature. Sophisticated. Entering as a top three contender? For a newcomer? Proud. Maybe naive. Probably both. But the focus remains on customer satisfaction and retailer profit.
“What really matters is we grow our share… with good customer satisfaction, good residual values.”
Here’s where they sit right now. Chery-Omoda-Jaeco is the fifth biggest group year-to-date with over 46k registrations. Behind BMW-Mini. Behind Hyundai-Kia. Far behind VW and Stellantis. To get on the podium they need to overtake them.
The next move isn’t sales. It’s software. Specifically, making their cars understand Britain. Lane keep assist is currently… rough. It doesn’t read UK lanes well. Driver monitoring needs work. Ride handling? Needs tweaking for these bumpy roads.
Then there’s the unspoken rules. Flashing lights. In China that means one thing. Here? It might mean “you can pull out now” or it might mean “you idiot move over.” Chery needs to get this. Automated cars must read human signals.
To do that, they need bodies. Chery’s UK team grew from forty to 150 this year. More are coming. They’re eyeing university partnerships like Warwick to build local talent. Making the vehicles “more British” isn’t a slogan. It’s an engineering mandate.
Production? That’s Step Four. But let’s not jump ahead. Nissan is watching. Nissan’s Sunderland plant is crying for volume. The Leaf, Qashqai, Juke moved to one line. A whole assembly line sits empty. Cost competitive. Efficient. Underutilized.
Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa doesn’t mince words. They need partners. They are talking to Chery. They are talking to Dongfeng, Nissan’s Chinese joint venture partner. The NX8 electric SUV might come here. Dongfeng EVs might ship out of China elsewhere. But the logic for filling that Sunderland line? It’s there. Waiting.
Chery might bring the shot in the arm the industry needs.
Whether they stick the landing remains to be seen. 🏁
