Chery – the biggest brand you’ve never heard of

It seems a new Chinese car brand lands every week at the moment, but Chery sees itself differently and considers arrival in the UK a big deal. We went along to a glitzy brand launch event in London to find out why…
While this may be the first you’ve heard of Chery brands within its stable like Jaecoo and Omoda have got off to a flying start here in the UK, their respective ranges of electric, hybrid and petrol SUVs selling well for their stonking value for money, long warranties and generous equipment levels. But these were just the warm-up acts – new brands created by Chery from scratch at ‘China speed’ to introduce British buyers to its way of doing things. Now the mothership itself is landing!

Only formed in the late 90s, by Chinese standards Chery is an old player and quickly went from building its own engines to complete cars for both the domestic market and wider export. In that time it’s built over 15m cars and now has factories across China and beyond employing more than 80,000 people.
The plan to enter the UK market has been 20 years in the making, and will be led by the curiously named Tiggo 7 and 8 SUVs with their signature Super Hybrid Systems. Also available with regular petrol engines, all Tiggo variants will cost less than £40,000 while entry models will be less than £30,000. Which is to say supermini money for a full-size SUV, packed with all the latest tech.

Much as Volkswagen is the parent brand for the likes of Skoda, Cupra, Audi with which it then shares engines, tech and more so Chery is to the names like Jaecoo and Omoda we already know. Chatting with Chery’s UK management team in product terms it seems happy to be considered ‘the VW’ of the group as well, its products aimed squarely at family buyers under the cringey tagline ‘Find your happy’ while Jaecoo goes a tad more premium and Omoda is – don’t shoot the messenger – aimed at a younger, more fashion-conscious crowd.

Chery is launching into the UK with two versions of its Tiggo mid-size SUV driven by petrol or plug-in ‘Super Hybrid’ power depending on how much electrification you want. The Tiggo 7 is your conventional mid-size SUV while the larger Tiggo 8 has an additional row of seats if family taxi duties are your thing. A Tiggo 4 and Tiggo 9 will follow soon. Full electric options are, meanwhile, available in the Jaecoo and Omoda line-ups.
The Super Hybrid is interesting for its combination of EV-like performance and usability with petrol-powered convenience ideal for those looking to go electric but feeling excluded by cost or lack of home charging. With enough range to do daily driving on the battery but the convenience of fuelling conventionally without necessarily having to plug in these versions promise to – literally – go further than existing plug-in hybrids while costing less than anything rivals have to offer. We’ve tried a version of the system on the Omoda 9 and, if not perfect, the combined range on the battery and fuel tank were incredible.

Well, you’re more likely to choose a Chery for its price than the way it looks, the somewhat formulaic SUV styling hardly standing out from the crowd. Safe to say, within the family Jaecoo has done a better job on that front. Value for money and no-nonsense family practicality are more Chery’s selling points, though the execs were keen to emphasise their wish the cars should sell on their quality as much as they do their cost. A seven-year warranty helps back that up, and helps reassure customers otherwise concerned about taking a punt on a brand with no established reputation here. We’ll be driving them very soon to find out if that claim holds up.
In terms of where you can buy one the brand has already created a network of 25 dealers, and promises to have 100 in place before too long. We were told these will be separate entities from the shared Jaecoo/Omoda retailers already in place to avoid the confusion of turning up at a dealership selling not one but three brands you may never have heard of before.